Players Deserve Every Cent They Can Squeeze, Mays Says

Willie Mays, the Giants’ Hall of Fame outfielder, doesn’t think today’s baseball players are overpaid.

“The most money I ever made was $180,000,” Mays said. “I think I made that in 1972 and 1973. Back then you could buy a nice car for $6,000 and a big house for $75,000 or $80,000. These days, guys want to buy $3-million homes and cars that cost $100,000.

“So you see, I don’t think these guys have it that much better. I could do a lot more with my money than they can with theirs. People like to criticize players for the money they make. I say get all you can. If the owners are going to give it to you, you’ve got to take it. It’s great for the players.”

Six-finger splitter: Antonio Alfonseca, a minor league pitcher in the Montreal Expos’ farm system, has a sixth finger on his pitching hand.

“They call me ‘Octopus’ and ‘The Thing,’ ” Alfonseca said. “But it doesn’t bother me. I can deal with it.”

Alfonseca said the sixth finger, which is much smaller than his little finger, doesn’t provide an advantage.

“I’ve tried to figure out what to do with it, but I haven’t be able to put it to any use,” he said.

Weiss guy: Coach Bob Weiss of the Atlanta Hawks was discussing the Hawks’ defensive woes with a caller on a radio talk show when the man tried to cheer up Weiss.

“I didn’t mean to get your dandruff up,” the caller said.

Replied Weiss, who is bald: “With my hairline I don’t need to worry about dandruff.”

Trivia time: What’s the NFL single-game record for most points by both teams in a regular-season game?

Bad start: Phil Niekro’s debut as manager of the Richmond Braves bogged down when a bus carrying the team to an exhibition game got stuck in a sand bog and had to be pulled out by a tow truck--before it got out of the parking lot.

Columnist Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal reported that just 18 fans showed up to watch Niekro’s first game, “excluding three ‘Cocoon’ types who mounted their bicycles and peddled away in the third inning.”

Budding politician: Columnist Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun thinks Duke’s basketball players have been hyped by TV.

Wrote Jackman after the Blue Devils defeated Kansas for their first NCAA title: “Sudden thought occasioned by television’s coverage of the Duke basketball team. Now that the lads from Durham have won their first NCAA title, will Christian Laettner report directly to the U.S. Senate or will he return for his senior year?”

Trivia answer: The regular-season scoring record for both teams in an NFL game is 113 points, set in 1966 when the Redskins beat the Giants, 72-41.

Concerned father: Even pro basketball coaches aren’t immune from meddlesome parents.

Ralph Breuer, whose son Randy plays center for the Minnesota Timberwolves, wrote a letter to a Twin Cities newspaper criticizing Coach Bill Musselman for not giving his son enough playing time.

Breuer plans to have the letter framed and will present it to his father.

Quotebook: Pittsburgh outfielder Andy Van Slyke on how he spent the off-season: “I watched CBS, since they lost so much money televising baseball.”