On Second Thought, He Swung at First Pitch

Mike Hargrove, the Cleveland Indians’ manager, was a thinking-man’s player long before he had managerial ambitions.

“One of the most satisfying times of my career came when I was in Cleveland and Gaylord Perry was in Seattle,” Hargrove told Tracy Ringolsby of the Dallas Morning News. “Gaylord was a perfectionist. He was always watching hitters, looking for an edge.

“I never swung at a first pitch, and Gaylord knew it, so he threw a first-pitch fastball and I hit it for a home run. He screamed at me as I rounded the bases. I had to fight back a smile. I was thinking, ‘I had outsmarted the master.’ ”

Time difference: Ivan Calderon, who has played in both, explained the difference between the American League and the National League to Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun: “You play games in 2:15 here (in the NL), and over there (in the AL) it takes three or four hours. They’re still playing and we’re in the clubhouse eating.”

A check of last Sunday’s games found the Montreal outfielder to be close to the mark. Six NL games averaged 2:37, while the same number in the AL averaged 3:16.

Trivia time: Who is the only player to be the captain of California junior college championship teams in both basketball and baseball?

Just asking: John Archibald of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wonders if the prison where Pete Rose was incarcerated will retire his number.

Good reason: When asked why he withdrew from the Greater Hartford Open after shooting a 79 in the first round, Mac O’Grady replied: “That round of golf was like a blind date. She didn’t care for me and I didn’t like her. I tried to kiss her, but she slapped me. I was afraid to come back for a second date.”

Time to think: Rick Mast took a wild ride last week during the DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. After being bumped from behind, his car became airborne, flipped upside down, hit the wall, then skidded on its top to the infield grass. He was shaken up but uninjured.

“The first thing you think,” Mast said, “is, ‘Please stop,’ and then you think, ‘Please don’t nobody hit me while I’m sitting here.’ Then you think, ‘Please don’t catch fire while I’m trying to get out of here.’ I’ll tell you, my heart was beating about 300 times a minute.”

Prize winner: When Mike Opalewski won a used car in a contest at a Jacksonville Suns’ game, he wasn’t too pleased that his prize turned out to be a 1976 Ford LTD. That was bad enough--but the car had no ignition switch, two bald tires and one flat.

When Opalewski went to sign for the car, an official handed him a screwdriver. “That’s to start it with,” he was told.

“The screwdriver was the only worthwhile thing I got out of the deal,” said Opalewski, who threatened to sue the car dealers involved in the promotion. Two days later, he was given a 1978 Buick LeSabre. It started when he turned the key.

Trivia answer: Darrell Evans of major league baseball fame, at Pasadena City College in 1967, while playing for Jerry Tarkanian in basketball and Ron Robinson in baseball.

Adjective problem: When the Lakers first came to Los Angeles, Dan Hafner, then an Examiner sportswriter, refered to 6-foot-11 Ray Felix, who died last Sunday at 60, as “a gangling center.”

Some teammates told Felix that was something bad, so he called Hafner and angrily told him he didn’t like it. “I told him what gangling meant,” Hafner said, “and he thought about it a minute, then said, ‘That’s not so bad.’ ”

Quotebook: Cleveland Brown owner Art Modell, on players’ agents: “I don’t deal with agents any more. I’ve had two heart conditions and I don’t want a third.”