Griffith Joyner’s Retirement Leaves Her Longing for More

Florence Griffith Joyner, the world record-holder and 1988 Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, is planning to come out of retirement to run, of all things, the marathon.

“I’m getting back into shape after having a baby and I’m working as hard now as when I was training for the Olympics,” she said. “I retired from track and field because there wasn’t time to compete and train on an international level. I won’t do the marathon unless I can do it properly, but I think I can.”

Her husband, hurdler-long jumper Al Joyner, says she can make the switch from sprinter to long-distance runner. “She’s made a believer out of me,” he said. “I think she can do anything she wants to.”

Trivia time: Shotputters Randy Barnes and Michael Carter are now teammates with the San Francisco 49ers. What else do they have in common?

Not that big: It was a big night in Bakersfield Wednesday when Orel Hershiser pitched five scoreless innings for the Class-A Bakersfield Dodgers against the Reno Silver Sox in front of a turnaway crowd of 4,048 at Sam Lynn Park.

In fact, Rick Smith, general manager of the minor league team, said it was the biggest thing ever to happen athletically in Bakersfield.

Wait a minute. Was it bigger than Jim Ryun setting a world mile record of 3:51.1 in Bakersfield in 1967, a mark that lasted eight years?

Or how about Bakersfield College’s victory over Fullerton College to win the national junior college football championship in 1988 before a crowd of more than 18,000?

Calling Ghostbusters: Eddie DeBartolo, owner of the San Francisco 49ers, told the Boston Globe that running back Roger Craig, now with the Raiders, is still distressed by his fumble that led to the New York Giants’ winning field goal in last year’s NFC championship game.

“It’s like he is haunted by that fumble,” DeBartolo said. “We talked for three hours, and he kept on coming back to the fumble. I told him to forget it, that he can’t keep carrying around a ghost.

“He was so upset that it cost us the game and that people might still hold something against him because of it. I really feel that fumble had a lot to do with him going to the Raiders.”

So did DeBartolo, who left Craig unprotected as a Plan B free agent.

What, no lunch?: Babe Ruth’s eating habits are legendary, and “The Book of Baseball Superstitions, Rituals and Oddities” provides the details. A sampling:

--The Babe’s breakfast: One 16-ounce porterhouse steak, six fried eggs, a full platter of fried potatoes, a pot of coffee and a quart of rye whiskey mixed with ginger ale.

--For dinner: A three-pound steak, with a bottle of chili sauce, an entire capon, mounds of potatoes, spinach, corn, peas, bread and butter, a whole pie, a quart of ice cream and a small pitcher of coffee.

Pass the Alka-Seltzer.

Trivia answer: They were silver medalists in the Olympic Games, Carter in 1984, Barnes in 1988.

Quotebook: Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson, after his Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-0, Thursday with home runs: “Nobody will out-thunder us in this league or any other league.”