Striking Out the Babe Wasn’t as Big by Then

Si Johnson will be remembered as an answer to a trivia question: Who was the last pitcher to strike out Babe Ruth?

Johnson, pitching for the Reds, said he did it three times on May 29, 1935 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati when Ruth was playing for the Boston Braves. However, Johnson, now 86, isn’t necessarily proud of his place in baseball history.

“I got him on fastballs right down the middle of the plate,” Johnson told Jerome Holtzman of the Chicago Tribune. “Nothing to brag about. The Babe was pretty well washed up. He was just playing out the string.”

Holtzman wrote that Ruth played his last game the next day in Philadelphia. He grounded out in the first inning and left the game in the bottom of the inning after he hurt his knee chasing a fly ball.

Add Ruth: Four days earlier, May 25, 1935, Ruth hit three home runs, Nos. 712, 713, 714, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, the last of his career.

Trivia time: May 25, 1935, was also a historic day in another sport. Can you identify the accomplishment?

Tight leash: The irreverence of golf commentator Gary McCord has earned him raves from critics but scolding from CBS television producer Frank Chirkinian, who recently chastised McCord for comments such as: “That putt is quicker than a Jamaican pickpocket.”

McCord was more subdued at the recent Masters, saying: “Frank has a 400-yard leash on me and he keeps tugging on it every time I open my mouth.”

A Bull Market: The Chicago Bulls, with 67 victories, became the eighth NBA team to record 65 or more wins in a regular season.

Of the previous seven, only one, the 1972-73 Boston Celtics, failed to win the NBA title that year. That was mainly because of an injury to John Havlicek.

Not only did the other six win, they did so in convincing fashion. Five of the teams, including the 1972 Lakers (69-13), lost three or fewer games in the playoffs.

Shot down: John Godina, a UCLA redshirt freshman, placed fourth in the invitational shotput Saturday at the Mazda Mt. San Antonio College Relays with a mark of 63 feet 8 1/4 inches to set a freshman school record.

Alas, gone from the record book is one of UCLA’s most colorful athletes. Jim Neidhart was the previous record-holder at 63-3 3/4 in 1974.

He is better known as Jim (the Anvil) Neidhart, a former World Wrestling Federation tag team champion.

His partner? Bret (the Hitman) Hart. The pair are brothers-in-law.

Reunion: Guy Benjamin, a former Stanford quarterback who played with the San Francisco 49ers, is one of five former 49er players on Bill Walsh’s coaching staff at Stanford.

Benjamin recalled that he was bitter when Walsh, as the 49er coach, cut him.

“I didn’t talk to him for a year after he cut my (rear end),” Benjamin told Mark Soltau of the San Francisco Examiner. “You spent your whole life doing something and now it’s over. It’s a business, but at the time you want to kill him.”

Trivia answer: Jesse Owens, competing for Ohio State, set three world records and tied another at Ann Arbor Mich.--100 yards, 9.4 seconds; 220, 20.3 seconds; broad jump--26 feet 8 1/4 inches, and 220-yard low hurdles, 22.6 seconds.

Quotebook: Duke basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski: “The more Final Fours you go to, the more cousins you find out you have who need tickets.”