Umpire Didn’t Go to School, but He Knew the Ground Rules

Randy Harvey went from mowing the outfield grass at a high school baseball field in Sanford, Fla., to umpiring a major league game.

Harvey, a groundskeeper at Lake Mary High, served as a substitute umpire on opening day for the Detroit Tigers-New York Yankees game.

“If nothing else, I can say I was in The Show,” he said. “I can truly say I did do one.”

Harvey, who umpires high school and college games, wasn’t nervous.

“I really didn’t have the butterflies even though there were 47,000 people watching to see if we’d blow one,” he said. “Not only was I the only replacement guy who never went to ump school, I’m the only black,” Harvey said.

Role model: Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls said it is scary to be idolized by America’s youth.

“Right now I’m on a pedestal to a certain extent, and it’s an uncomfortable situation because a mistake could certainly knock and deteriorate the positive things that I speak for,” he said.

“I’m not the most perfect person in America. I make mistakes like every normal person. I realize it. I just hope that people who put me on that pedestal can understand that.”

Trivia time: Who is buried next to Joe Louis at Arlington National Cemetery?

King’s ransom: Don King, who negotiated Benoit Benjamin’s $20-million contract with the Seattle SuperSonics, plans to motivate the underachieving, enigmatic center.

“He can be the Mike Tyson of the NBA,” King told Lacy J. Banks of the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s all up to him, and I’m going to do everything I can to help him as long as he wants to work hard. If he wants to be a loser, it won’t be with me.

“All those critics were saying that Benjamin is lazy and hopeless. Well, I’m happy to take him off their hands.”

Model mother: Chris Evert, who is expecting a baby this fall, says she won’t pressure her child into following in her foot faults.

“I won’t push my kids into playing tennis,” she wrote in World Tennis magazine. “If they want to learn how to play, I’ll make it fun. No pressure involved. I’d like to take them out on the courts when they’re 5 or 6 and see what happens.”

For what it’s worth: The Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers have baseball’s only Hall of Fame announcing crews.

Jim Palmer and Brooks Robinson broadcast Oriole games, and Al Kaline and George Kell broadcast Tiger games.

Two of the three Dodger broadcasters are in the Hall of Fame, Vin Scully and Don Drysdale. Ross Porter isn’t.

Locked out: When Ebbets Field opened in 1913, someone forgot the key to the outfield bleacher gates, and hundreds of fans were stranded outside.

Who was responsible?

Maybe the same guy who forgot the American flag.

Trivia answer: Lee Marvin.

Quotebook: Rookie pitcher Doug Simons of the New York Mets, after his first major league victory: “I’m ecstatic. I’m throwing a party in my mind right now.”