Stolen Car Isn’t Enough to Stop Him

Dick Coury has always had a reputation of being one of the most cheerful and optimistic coaches in football, from Santa Ana Mater Dei High to USC to the Rams. Now with the New England Patriots as offensive coordinator, he needs an optimistic attitude, but the way things are starting this season, he may be overdoing it.

As if designing plays for the NFL’s third-worst offense isn’t trying enough, Coury had his car stolen from the parking lot at Foxboro Stadium. It was used as a getaway car for a bank robbery in Woonsocket, R.I., where thieves collected more than $30,000 before abandoning the car in Boston--without its wheel covers.

Coury’s reaction: “Maybe we’re getting all the bad karma over with early, huh?”

New terminology: Dan Gurney was proud as a new papa when his newest generation of Toyota Eagle GTP cars was driven to victory at Portland, Ore., last Sunday by Juan Manuel Fangio II.

“We used to say we started (building a race car) with a clean sheet of paper,” Gurney said in discussing the new car. “Now we say we started with an empty computer.”

Trivia time: What baseball manager has won the most All-Star games?

The real reason: Pee Wee Reese told Newsday columnist Stan Isaacs that part of the reason he is in the Hall of Fame is because of his welcoming Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers in the face of opposition and perceived opposition from opponents and some teammates. It says on his Hall of Fame plaque that he was “instrumental in easing acceptance of Jackie Robinson as baseball’s first black performer.”

Reese told Isaacs: “I used to tell Jackie sometimes when they were throwing at him, ‘Jackie, they aren’t throwing at you because you are black. They are throwing at you because they don’t like you.’ ”

Calendar checking: Columnist Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a word of warning for fellow Georgians: Only 260 Tuesdays remain before the 1996 Olympics will be upon them.

He’s different: Many of the crazy things surrounding the life of Jose Canesco have been well documented, but did you know this one? He owns 12 exotic African tortoises. One, named April, cost $5,000.

No role model: Charles Barkley says youngsters and their parents should not view professional athletes as role models.

“I don’t think because I can dunk a basketball they should want me to be a role model,” he said at a summer basketball clinic. “I know drug dealers who can dunk the basketball. I think we should be less of a role model because they have no shot at being like I am. They have a better shot at being like their parents than being like me. I would love for every kid here to make the NBA, but that’s not realistic.”

What’s a slump? During one stretch in the 1983 baseball season, Joe Morgan went 0 for 35. When reporters asked him about his slump, Morgan said: “But I’m not in a slump. I’m just not getting hits. There’s a difference. A slump is when you’re not hitting the ball and striking out. I’ve been hitting the ball. They’re just making great catches.”

Slow play: LPGA pro Lori Garbacz was so upset by the slow pace of play in the U.S. Women’s Open at the Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth that she sent her caddie to a pay phone and had him order a large pizza from Domino’s, to be delivered on the 17th tee.

When they got there, the delivery person was waiting for them. Garbacz paid for the pizza, then gave slices to her playing partners, as well as the group ahead of her who was still waiting on the tee.

“I was just trying to make a statement,” she said. The round took 5 hours 20 minutes.

The Great Ones: If you can’t get enough of Wayne Gretzky during the NHL season, you can catch him Saturday mornings this fall on NBC-TV. The Great One will be part of a cartoon series, “ProStars,” which also includes Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan. The dynamic trio will solve problems and right wrongs.

Trivia answer: Walter Alston of the Dodgers won seven of eight times he managed the National League.

Quotebook: Agent Dick Moss, after negotiating a new contract for 44-year-old Nolan Ryan: “He told me he thinks this is the last contract I have to do for him. He’s told me that six times before.”