Mantle Gets Quick Doses of Reality

Mickey Mantle has become a cottage industry, but the former Yankee slugger says it has its down side, too. He does autograph shows, shakes hands, poses for pictures. For a Saturday and Sunday of that, he makes more money than he did in his first four years with the New York Yankees.

“Men come up with their kids, shake hands and say to their kids, ‘This is Mickey Mantle. He’s the greatest ballplayer alive,’ ” Mantle says. “It’s a great ego-builder. It gives me goosebumps.

“Then the kids say, ‘Dad, that’s an old man.’ ”

Different strokes: In the course of a year, Ivan Stewart drives 30,000 miles in his stock Toyota 4X4 from his home in Alpine, Calif., to racing courses in Nevada, California and Mexico. In 10 stadium races, he drives his Toyota V6 truck 150 miles.

Yet, the stadium truck needs by far the most attention. It uses 490 quarts of oil and 40 oil filters in a year to only 20 quarts and four filters for the 4X4; it takes 200 wheels and tires to four for the stock truck.

The one place the crew saves on the race truck is in windshield wipers. It doesn’t have any.

Trivia time: Who was the first player in the NBA to score 2,000 points in a season?

Turnabout: Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the time Uwe Seyler, a 6-foot-9 German, was attending an International Tall Club meeting in the Bay Area. When a short person asked Seyler if he played basketball, he replied, “No, do you play miniature golf?”

One more: A “Trivia time” item recently listed eight ways for a batter to reach first base safely. Reader Dave Kuelpman of Westminster correctly points out that there are nine. The missing one: Runner interference, where the runner is hit by a batted ball and declared out. With fewer than two outs, the batter is awarded first base.

A big comedown: Former Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer is trying to assemble a group to buy an Arena Football League team in Oklahoma City.

Same name: Mary Ann Mobley, the actress and Miss America of 1959, is a regular at the Finger Lakes race course in Canadaigua, N.Y. So is Mary Ann Mobley, the race horse bred by Liz Tippett and named after her friend.

“People used to tease me and ask how I’m going to feel when I’m at a race and (the track announcer) says, ‘And bringing up the rear is Mary Ann Mobley,’ ” the actress said. “I told them, ‘I don’t care if she doesn’t come in for a week. I have a horse named for me.’ ”

Nice compliment: Rick Mears and his wife, Chris, were invited to the White House after his victory in the Indianapolis 500. As is custom, they were split up as dinner partners. Chris found herself sitting next to George Bush.

During dessert, the President wrote a note on the back of his place card and told Chris to give it to her husband. It said, “Rick, I had the best seat in the house. George Bush.”

Praise Allah: That’s what auctioneers were saying at the Keeneland yearling sale when a plane bearing the red emblem of the United Arab Emirates set down in Lexington, Ky., with the Maktoum brothers aboard.

The four brothers spent $27.63 million for 56 horses and accounted for 37.5% of the Keeneland total. Understated Rogers Beasley, director of sales: “The Arabs were a tremendous influence.”

Trivia answer: George Yardley of the Detroit Pistons led the NBA with 2,001 points in 1957-58.

Quotebook: Johnny Miller, after learning that Poppy Hills would replace Cypress Point in the three-course rotation for the AT&T; Pebble Beach golf tournament: “It’s like replacing Bo Derek with Roseanne Barr.”