History Shows Dodgers Made Right Decision

“Games We Used to Play,” a recently released book by Roger Kahn, includes a segment detailing the day Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda’s dream to pitch for the Brooklyn Dodgers finally ended. In Lasorda’s only start for Brooklyn, May 5, 1955, against the St. Louis Cardinals, he was spiked at home plate by Wally Moon, eventually was removed from the game and later told he was headed back to the minors.

Lasorda: “Before I leave, I go in to appeal to Buzzie Bavasi, the general manager, and he says: ‘Put yourself in my chair; who would you send out?’ I tell him there’s another left-hander on this team, and he can’t throw a damn strike. Bavasi says: ‘Maybe, but the other left-hander’s been paid a bonus to sign, and the rule is that a bonus guy has to stick with the big club for two years or else you lose him.’ ” Lasorda: “Want the name of the bonus guy who couldn’t throw a strike? Sandy Koufax.”

Trivia question: For what other major league team did Lasorda pitch?

Add Lasorda: “It hurt 10 times worse than the spiking, being shipped out. But I say now that it took the greatest left-hander in history to get me off the Dodger squad.”

Add trivia question: When did Sandy Koufax retire from the Dodgers?

Last add Lasorda: Lasorda got the start because Manager Walter Alston suspended Don Newcombe for refusing to throw batting practice.

Time out: Danish Olympic team leader Christian Holmstroep explaining that Danes, unlike other Scandinavians, have a weak tradition in winter sports: “Our 1964 team (consisted of) a speedskater and a cross-country skier. The skier finished last. Then we had three cross-country skiers in 1968, and they all finished last. That was enough. We took a break of 20 years.”

Bad season: Prairie View College in Texas, playing a Division I schedule in the Southwestern Athletic Conference without scholarships, is 0-26, one game away from tying the record for most losses in a season, which it could do tonight in its season finale against Texas Southern.

But scholarships or not, Athletic Director Barbara Jacket doesn’t accept much complaining: “Sometimes if you had 30 scholarships and 30 donkeys, it wouldn’t be any difference,” she said.

Ice streaker: French hockey players stripped teammate Fabrice Lhenry, tied him to a chair and pushed him across the ice rink this week. A few volunteer Olympic workers witnessed the scene and one of them preserved the moment on film.

“Such things happen fairly often, but usually there’s nobody to see it,” a rink spokesperson said.

Good timing: Petra Kronberger of Austria, describing her chances after winning the women’s slalom: “I think this run I have only every hundred years, but it was in the Olympic Games and that’s very good for me.”

Trivia answer: In 45 1/3 innings for the Kansas City Athletics in 1956, Lasorda’s record was 0-4 with one save, a 6.15 earned-run-average, 28 strikeouts and 45 walks.

Add trivia answer: Koufax pitched 12 years for the Dodgers, retiring after the 1966 season.

Quotebook: Evgueni Redkine, the Unified Team rookie, on his upset victory in the men’s 20-kilometer biathlon: “I still don’t know how it happened. I just said to myself: ‘Run, run, run.’ ”