Let’s Wait and See How This Kid Ryan Pitches in 15 Years

Nolan Ryan is a baseball marvel at 44, but his longevity as a pitcher serves only to make even more amazing the legend of Satchel Paige.

Because most of his career was spent playing in the Negro Leagues--baseball was segregated until after World War II--Paige did not reach the major leagues until he was 42, when he helped Cleveland win the World Series. He was 59 when he pitched his final game for Kansas City.

Paige had his own ideas about living the long life, ideas he called the “master’s maxims.” They were:

1. Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood.

2. If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.

3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.

4. Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social rumble ain’t restful.

5. Avoid running at all times.

6. Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.

One man’s opinion: Lee Trevino isn’t always cracking one-liners. Sometimes he talks seriously, especially about the sport he plays.

“You can talk about baseball, apple pie and fried chicken, but man, don’t leave out golf,” he said recently. “This is America’s sport, in my opinion.

“Baseball players retire, football players retire, hockey players retire, basketball players retire, (then) they play golf, don’t they?

“I’ve never seen a golf pro retire to take up hockey, baseball or football. This is it. This is the game.”

Trivia time: How many cities on the Pacific Coast are in the 10-team Pacific Coast League? And how many countries are represented in the International League?

Lights up: Jim Kelly’s pass completion average for the Buffalo Bills, already pretty good, may get even better.

The Erie County legislature has approved a $90,000 authorization to beef up the lighting at Rich Stadium, home of the Bills. There have been complaints from TV officials, fans and players about the poor lighting ever since the Bills began play there in 1973.

“We were at the L.A. game last October, taking light readings, when one of the players came over and asked when we were going to turn on the rest of the lights,” said John Loffredo, county public works commissioner. “The networks complained the loudest, but we had fans tell us it was difficult to follow the ball on long passes.”

Not quite full: February’s Daytona 500 was sold out months in advance and newspaper stories said there wasn’t an empty seat in the stands.

But there was. Seat 11, Row 19, Section S in the Joe Weatherly box section was unoccupied. For 14 years, Jimmy Spencer had that seat, next to a bunch of pals from North Carolina. When Spencer qualified to drive in the race, his friends decided to leave the seat vacant.

“Every year I sat in that seat, while I was racing modifieds around home, I would dream of someday racing in the Daytona 500,” Spencer said. “Now that I’m in it, my friends want to keep the seat open as a sort of celebration. I think it’s great.”

Good reason: Morning Briefing recently noted that the Montreal Gazette did not have its hockey writer at the Pittsburgh-Minnesota Stanley Cup finals, presumably because it involved no Canadian team. Not so, says the sports editor. Writer Red Fisher was there, but left after getting an ear infection.

Ups and downs: When was the last time you tried to spin a yo-yo? In junior high school 30 years ago, when you twirled a rhinestone-studded Duncan Imperial? Or was it just last week that you “walked the dog” across the office floor?

Barbara H. Smith of the Baltimore Sun reports that the yo-yo--that on-again, off-again craze from the early ‘40s to mid-’60s--is back.

She spotted adults at the Preakness spinning blue yo-yos in their terrace box seats between bets, and kids “rocking the cradle” while waiting for the bus to take them to school. Duncan, the giant of American yo-yo makers, reported sales in the millions last year.

How about yo-yoing as a new Olympic sport?

Trivia answer: Three (Portland, Ore.; Tacoma, Wash., and Vancouver, Canada) in the PCL and one (the United States) in the International League. Other PCL teams are Tucson, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Colorado Springs, Edmonton and Calgary, which makes it more international than the International League.

Quotebook: Senior PGA Tour pro Jim Ferree, on the frustrations of tournament golf: “Golf can be a very depressing game if you’re not careful, because the best player doesn’t win every time.”