Less Fat Means Dangerous Bat in His Hands

They are still talking about the home run Baltimore’s Sam Horn hit the other day at Sarasota, Fla., a tape-measure shot to right field into a 20-m.p.h. wind. Baltimore Sun Columnist Mike Littwin called it the “mother of all home runs” and noted that the new-look Horn had dropped 16 pounds in the off-season by cutting down on saturated fats (anything that tastes good.)

Obviously, a hungry hitter here. Horn tore into the pitch as if it were an approaching cheese ball.

“If you’d put the Discovery on top of it, the ball would have carried it into orbit,” Manager Frank Robinson said of the home run.

Teammate Randy Milligan wanted an autopsy performed.

“I’d like to see that ball,” he said. “I know it’s flat on one side. It’s a good thing there are no stands out there in right field, or we would have had to call in the paramedics.”

If the Orioles can keep Horn away from the fryer, they contend the left-handed batter could be an ideal designated hitter against right-handed pitchers. Slimmed to 234 pounds, Horn says there are few things he enjoys more than eating, but hitting happens to be one of them.

“I would like to be the DH against right-handed pitching and not worry about fielding or do anything but hit,” he said.

Add Horn: Littwin also cautions that this is the same Horn who hit two homers on opening day last season and then disappeared into a sea of fudge bars and French fries.

“Horn is also a player guaranteed to break your heart,” Littwin writes. “Maybe this time it’s different.”

Trivia time: When were USC and UCLA last in the NCAA basketball tournament in the same year? (Clue: The Trojans and Bruins were eliminated by the same school.)

No comment: Pete Rose took a break from probation in Cincinnati last weekend to spend three hours signing his name, at $20 a shot, during an autograph show in New York.

Most fans in attendance were supportive of baseball’s controversial all-time hits leader, although Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post reports one person carrying a tape recorder and microphone was escorted from the scene before reaching Rose. The man is known in New York as Stuttering John, a sidekick of shock radio personality Howard Stern.

“He told me he wanted to ask Pete if they had a Las Vegas night for him in prison,” said Steve Hisler, co-promoter of the show. “I asked him to leave.”

Back to action: Iraq has announced plans to resume its country’s soccer championship after a two-month suspension because of the war. Training for the Iraqi First Division’s 14 clubs resumed last week. No word on whether Saddam Hussein’s face might be painted on every ball.

Worst is to come: Basketball writer Peter May writes that the father of Louisiana State basketball star Shaquille O’Neal says the rough-house treatment his son has received on the court this season may force Shaquille to leave school early and join the NBA.

To which May responds, “What does he think the NBA is, a love-in?”

For the record: A reference in Morning Briefing to Dodger broadcaster Ross Porter in Friday’s editions was incorrect. Porter was not on the air to make the statement attributed to him.

Trivia answer: 1978-79. In Coach Bob Boyd’s last season, USC finished 20-9 and advanced to the second round before losing to DePaul, 89-78. UCLA, under Coach Gary Cunningham, finished 25-5 after losing to DePaul in the NCAA West Regional final, 95-91.

Quotebook: Film maker Woody Allen, on the Philadelphia 76ers’ 7-foot-7 center, Manute Bol: “He’s so thin the 76ers don’t bother to take him on the road, they just fax him from town to town.”