Good Ol’ Days Look Better and Better--and Farther Away

How big was Saturday’s old-timers’ day at Yankee Stadium? All the poor Yankees had to commemorate was the 50th anniversary of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, the 35th anniversary of Don Larsen’s perfect game in the World Series and the 30th anniversary of Roger Maris’ 61-home run season.

It was probably in the interests of saving time that the Yankees decided against commemorating the 10th anniversary of their last appearance in a World Series.

You look marvelous: Only a page apart in People magazine’s summer issue choosing the 50 most beautiful people in the world, Page 43 may soon be in close contact with Page 42. Gabriela Sabatini (P. 43) has invited actor Richard Gere (P. 42)--and other Los Angeles-based beautiful people on the list--to watch her play in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles tennis tournament, which begins Aug. 12.

Trivia time: What current coach has the longest tenure in the NFL?

Bank shot: The Boston Celtics expect the payroll for next season’s team to be near $21 million. In 1965, Jack Kent Cooke bought the Laker franchise for $5.275 million.

Or E=KM HR: Here is how New York Met pitcher David Cone explained the pitch that Kevin Mitchell of the San Francisco Giants hit for a home run: “I threw a four-seam fastball that you have to keep down. But when I overthrow that pitch, my elbow has a tendency to drop and the pitch flattens out. That pitch is designed to strike out a power hitter, but if it flattens out, it’s particularly conducive to home runs.”

Should he be a Packer?: Defensive lineman Jeff Lageman of the New York Jets is a man with too many positions. He was an inside linebacker in college, an outside linebacker as a Jet rookie, a right end last season and is being tried at left end in training camp.

All of this has led Rich Cimini of Newsday to brand Lageman “the U-Haul of the defense; he always seems to be moving.”

Tired tread: Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun told a story provided by Donnie Allison that dealt with the days when drivers didn’t have tire contracts. Allison said the drivers used to go to Sears for a set of tires on a Friday, race them over the weekend and show up Monday complaining about lousy tire wear.

“It went on for years, and they never caught on,” Allison said.

Add Jackman: The card at a boxing show at the Convention Center in Washington one night last week featured fighters with the nicknames, “Scarface,” “Too Sweet,” “Too Sharp,” “Special K,” “Mean Machine,” and of course, “Mad Dog.”

Trivia answer: Don Shula, 28 years, followed by Chuck Noll, 22 years, and Chuck Knox, 18 years.

Good-guy award: Washington Redskin cornerback Martin Mayhew, who visited Senegal in the off-season under the auspices of Africare, is trying to raise $15,000 from his teammates to build a well for irrigation and a dormitory for orphans.

“It was a big shock for me,” he told Vito Stellino of the Baltimore Sun, referring to what he saw on the visit. “We have a lot of things we take for granted.”

Mr. Warm Milk: You could get the idea that Ivan Lendl is not the favorite tennis player of Bud Collins of the Boston Globe: “As a tennis player, he is Dr. Lendl’s Insomniac Clinic, guaranteed to put you out faster than cabinet meetings did Coach Reagan.”

Quotebook: Wally Whitehurst, pitcher for the New York Mets, after being struck by a line drive hit by Kevin Mitchell and leaving the game Thursday in San Francisco: “It got back a lot quicker than I threw it.”