Sometimes, They Not Only Write the Games, They Run the Teams

Before venting your spleen on a hapless sportswriter in your next letter to the editor, at least consider what some scribes have meant to Los Angeles.

Fred Claire, the Dodger executive vice president who put together the 1988 World Series championship team, worked as a sportswriter for the Whittier News, Pomona Progress Bulletin and Long Beach Press Telegram before joining the Dodgers.

And a recent article on veteran sports columnist Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis suggests he was responsible for creating the Lakers.

“In the late 1940s, while a cub reporter, Sid traveled to Detroit with $16,000 of other people’s money to buy the NBA’s Detroit Gems,” Adam Platt writes in the Twin Cities Reader. “Sid moved them to Minneapolis and they became the Lakers.”

Hartman says he did more than arrange the purchase of the Lakers, who later moved to Los Angeles and won six NBA titles.

“Max Winter was the general manager, but he spent the entire season in Hawaii,” Hartman says. “I ran the team, I drafted the players.”

Hard day’s night: Writer Tom Yantz of the Hartford Courant sat through all 19 innings of Boston’s 7-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night and had 6 1/2 hours--the time it took the game to be played--to complete a long-form income tax return and jot down some observations.

Yantz writes: “When the game began at 1:43 p.m. EDT, the temperature was 73 and the crowd was 65,813--the largest in the majors since 71,188 saw the Detroit Tigers-Indians game in Cleveland June 10, 1988.

“When the game ended at 8:13, the temperature was about 50 and about 15,000 fans remained. In addition, hundreds of paper airplanes, made from scorecards and launched from the upper decks, had to be picked up from the field by maintenance personnel after each inning.”

The Red Sox used eight pitchers.

Add long game: Tony Pena caught all 19 innings for the Red Sox.

“When you play that long, you’ve got to win,” he said afterward.

Long hours are nothing new for Pena, the king of squat, who caught more innings last season, 1,156 2/3, than any other American League catcher.

Trivia time: Who is the greatest contact hitter in baseball history?

Lucky 13: Monday was the 29th anniversary of Pete Rose’s first hit in the major leagues, a triple against Pittsburgh pitcher Bob Friend.

Twenty-one years later to the day, April 13, 1984, Rose got his 4,000th hit, a double against Philadelphia pitcher Jerry Koosman.

Sonic boom or bust? Last week in Seattle before a game between the SuperSonics and Lakers, a Los Angeles reporter sought a medical update on Seattle center Benoit Benjamin, who is on the injured list because of a broken right hand. The reporter peeked inside the Seattle locker room 45 minutes before the game, thinking the former Clipper might have arrived early to sort his fan mail.

Benjamin’s teammates could hardly contain their laughter.

Benjamin arrive early?

Fat chance.

Add Benoit: The SuperSonics are 10-3 since Benjamin was injured. The good, or bad, news is that the center is expected to return for the playoffs. Note: The San Antonio Spurs are 3-7 since their center, David Robinson, was injured.

Tough to swallow: Former NFL offensive lineman Brian Holloway, whose eight-year career with the New England Patriots and Raiders was cut short in 1988 because of a shoulder injury, is making a comeback with the New York-New Jersey Knights of the World League.

It seems the 6-foot-7, 307-pound tackle is having trouble adjusting to the run-and-shoot offense of Coach Mouse Davis.

“I’m a top-gun fighter who is now put in the controls of a plane, and they changed all the instrument panels,” Holloway explains. “The run-and-shoot is very sophisticated. It’s a very temperamental, explosive offense, and I’m a carnivore.

“I’m a red-meat eater and I eat it raw. The run-and-shoot is a little bit like pate.”

Trivia answer: Joe Sewell. The Hall of Fame shortstop with the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians from 1920-33 struck out 114 times in 7,132 times at bat, a ratio of one strikeout every 62.5 plate appearances.

By contrast, slugger Reggie Jackson struck out once every 3.7 times at bat.

Quotebook: Ohio Glory quarterback Babe Laufenberg of the World League, after meeting German figure skater Katarina Witt at the Winter Olympics: “When I saw her, I wished I was drafted by Frankfurt.”