Torborg Went From a Bully to the Bullish

It wasn’t easy being a coach on Billy Martin’s staff with the New York Yankees, but Chicago White Sox Manager Jeff Torborg admits he is probably a better leader because of it. Torborg, who spent 10 years in New York, most of them under Martin, told George Vecsey of the New York Times that he didn’t always see eye to eye with the volatile Yankee skipper.

One time, Torborg said, Martin told him and pitching coach Sammy Ellis that they “couldn’t get a job in Egypt.”

Once that quote hit the newspapers, Yankee players were their usual sympathetic selves. Quickly they began a grass-roots campaign to promote Torborg as the top candidate for manager of the Cairo Pharaohs.

In Chicago, Torborg and Don Zimmer, his managerial counterpart with the Cubs, must deal with big-city team pressure, but Torborg explained that it’s not so bad.

“Michael Jordan’s there, too, so nobody cares about us,” Torborg said.

Sole man: What will be on the bottom of the shoes worn by Evander Holyfield and George Foreman when they fight tonight? Why, Rick Dees’ name, of course.

Dees, who has shows on KIIS-FM and ABC-TV, paid a reported $100,000 to have his name painted on the bottom of the shoes, but it will be visible only if one of the fighters is knocked out.

As for dividing the $100,000 sponsorship fee, 51% goes to Holyfield, 49% to Foreman. Foreman held out briefly for a higher percentage because he said his feet are bigger.

Trivia time: Who are Charlie Polite, Boone Kirkman, Terry Daniels, Jerry Judge and Alonzo Johnson?

Numbers game: When he got to the Chicago White Sox, pitcher Jack McDowell couldn’t wear No. 9 as he had at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High because it was retired after Minnie Minoso’s career. McDowell also couldn’t wear No. 19 as he had at Stanford because it once belonged to White Sox left-hander Billy Pierce and also was retired.

So McDowell, who pitched the last game in the old Comiskey Park and Thursday’s opener in the new Comiskey Park, skipped No. 9 and No. 19 to chose No. 29. Why? “I figured it was the next step up,” McDowell said.

FYI: According to ESPN’s “Major League Baseball Magazine,” 71 major leaguers are making more money this season than Henry Aaron did in his career. Home run champion Aaron earned a total of $2.4 million between 1954 and 1976.

Bank shot: Does this make any sense? Adrian Dantley waived a guaranteed $1.3-million contract with the Dallas Mavericks so he could be a free agent, only to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks for $150,000.

Motor sports: Traveling down the same road as Boston Red Sox teammate Jack Clark, left fielder Mike Greenwell is a race car owner. Greenwell recently bought a Chevrolet Lumina with a 355-horsepower engine for $18,500. Behind his home on Cape Cod, Greenwell built a 60-by-32-foot garage that can house six cars.

“You don’t do this for money,” said Greenwell, who is in the first season of a four-year, $12.3-million contract.

Icing: In their 21 years in the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks have had two winning seasons.

Trivia answer: All fought George Foreman in a one-night exhibition in Toronto on April 26, 1975.

Quotebook: White Sox pitcher Greg Hibbard, on the crouch of catcher Carlton Fisk, who had surgery on both knees in the off-season: “It sounds like a bowl of Rice Krispies when he gets down the first time each day.”