At Least Bouton Didn’t Lose His Head Over This Record

Baseball, that zany, nutty game, has engendered perhaps more books than any single sport. Poetry, essays and works of fiction have all been devoted to America’s pastime.

However, the best baseball books seem to be those that focus on the sport’s lighter side.

Such a book is the just-published gem, “The Baseball Hall of Shame’s Warped Record Book.”

Here are records we forgot to keep, such as: Most times a pitcher’s cap fell off in a World Series game.

That record is held by Jim Bouton of the New York Yankees. In Game 3 of the 1964 World Series, his hat flew off his head 37 times.

He lost his cap but not the game.

Add shame: The only fan ever to lose out by being first in line for tickets? Robert Hunt, St. Louis, 1964.

Cardinal superfan Hunt was so delighted after his team won the pennant that he camped in front of the ticket office several days in advance so he would be assured of World Series tickets.

Hunt gained his tickets but lost his job. Because Hunt was first in line, his photograph was played prominently in local newspapers. His boss saw that Hunt had missed work and fired him.

A bill collector, who had been searching for Hunt, bagged him.

And finally, because of the publicity, Hunt was arrested for nonsupport of his family.

Trivia time: In 1946, Notre Dame and Army played to scoreless tie. In that game were four Heisman Trophy winners. Name them.

Road warriors: The Clippers not only lost Saturday, they also got lost.

En route to Peoria, Ill., from Chicago for an NBA exhibition game against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Clipper team bus was almost to the Quad Cities on the western edge of Illinois before the driver acknowledged that he had missed a turn.

The bus ended up going 118 miles out of the way on Interstate 80, and the team finally arrived at the Peoria Civic Center at 2:30 p.m., CDT, for a scheduled 3:05 tipoff.

“How come everybody else makes this trip in 2 hours 40 minutes,” Coach Mike Schuler asked the Peoria Journal Star, “and it takes us four hours?”

Are you given to fantasies?Bill Belichick, rookie coach of the Cleveland Browns, may be as intense about football as Joe Gibbs of the Redskins, but neither is always aware of what’s going on in the outside world.

When Belichick was asked if he was aware of the delay in the vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas last week, he said: “I was aware he was nominated. No, I didn’t know how it came out.”

Gibbs, who works in Washington, was aware there was a problem, but not much more.

“I knew there was something that jumped out at the last second,” Gibbs said. “I thought they were voting Tuesday. Did they?”

Trivia answer: Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard of Army, and Johnny Lujack and Leon Hart of Notre Dame.

Quotebook: Cincinnati Red rookie Steve Foster, when asked by a Canadian customs agent if he had anything to declare: “Sure--I’m proud to be an American.”