What if Jack Says He Would Take a Nap?

U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart doesn’t think U.S. Senior Open winner Jack Nicklaus should be picked to play on the U.S. Ryder Cup golf team despite his recent impressive performance in the senior championship. Stewart’s reason is intriguing.

“Intimidation is the major reason why you’d pick Jack Nicklaus. But he’d only be good for one match a day,” Stewart said. “What if they needed him to play 36 holes? The man is 51 years old. I wouldn’t pick Jack Nicklaus. I don’t know if he’s capable of playing 36 holes, and that is sometimes necessary in the Ryder Cup.”

Add Nicklaus: When Nicklaus was at Ohio State, he was so busy playing non-collegiate tournaments that he earned only two letters, in 1960 and ‘61, the year he won the NCAA title.

His son, Gary, who graduated this year, outdid Dad. He lettered four consecutive years as a Buckeye--but never was the NCAA champion. Last week, however, he won the Porter Cup, a prestigious amateur tournament.

Trivia time: Reader Charles Kokaska notes that Earl Campbell was the fifth Heisman Trophy winner to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. Who were the other four?

Another first: Much has been written about Tiger Woods being the first black golfer to win the U.S. Junior Championship, but the 15-year-old player from Cypress is also the first Asian-American. His mother, Kultida, is a native of Thailand.

Cuba safer?: Diver Mary Ellen Clark was asked if the U.S. Olympic Committee has advised American athletes to refrain from wearing their USA clothing while walking the streets in Cuba or otherwise identifying themselves as Americans.

Clark, who was at the Olympic Festival two weeks ago, laughed and said: “Nope, in Cuba there are no restrictions. But in L.A. they told us not to wear our USA sweats or wear red or blue, because they are gang colors. There’s no problem like that in Cuba.”

Under the big top: Frenchy Bordagaray, who played for the 1941 New York Yankees, was believed to be the first modern-day major leaguer to wear facial hair to spring training camp, while with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1936. Casey Stengel promptly made him shave off his mustache. Stengel said: “If there’s going to be a clown around here, it’s going to be me.”

One for Ripley: Ten foursomes teed off in a recent 40-player handicap tournament at North Ft. Myers, Fla. The golfers’ handicaps ranged from four to 36. When they finished, all 10 teams posted net scores of 62.

Officials declared them all co-champions and distributed a winner’s share of $8 to all 40 players.

Not much help: Former Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson once got help stealing signs from teammate Bob Turley, a former Yankee pitcher. “Turley was excellent at stealing signs,” Richardson said.

Did it help?

“When I knew what pitch was coming, I usually made an out,” he said.

One big family: Stock car drivers Ted Musgrave and Bobby Hamilton are locked in a tight battle for Winston Cup’s rookie-of-the-year honors. On a recent race day, when Hamilton arrived at the track, he and his crew discovered that someone had managed to reach inside a fence and walk off with a tire. The problem was that the wheel was still attached to it, leaving Hamilton one wheel short.

Musgrave and his team loaned their closest rival a wheel, and the two went racing, with Hamilton finishing 11th and Musgrave 13th.

An off day: It can happen to the best of them. Sam Molen recalls the day in 1923 when Red Grange faced the University of Chicago. Illinois won, 13-0, no thanks to Grange. He carried the ball 16 times for a net 12 yards, was thrown for losses totaling 20 yards and fumbled four times.

Trivia answer: Doak Walker, Paul Hornung, Roger Staubach and O. J. Simpson.

Quotebook: Oakland Athletic outfielder Dave Henderson, after Detroit’s Cecil Fielder hit a 450-foot shot into a center-field restaurant at Toronto’s SkyDome before last month’s All-Star game: “Ever hear the saying, ‘There’s a fly in my soup’? Well, there was a fly ball in that guy’s soup.”