For Perfectionist Hogan, Smaller Was Always Better

Former major league pitcher Tommy John likes to tell the story of the day he played a round of golf with Ben Hogan in Ft. Worth.

“He asked me some of the most incisive questions about baseball I’ve ever heard,” John told Golf World. “He wanted to know, ‘When you’re really pitching well, does the ball feel smaller in your hand?’ I told him it did and he nodded. He said, ‘I always played my best golf when the grip felt smaller.’ ”

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Proof enough: Billy Herman, the Hall of Fame second baseman who died last week at 83, once called Freddie Fitzsimmons the best brush-back pitcher in the game.

“He once hit me in the on-deck circle,” Herman said.

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for the fastest speed achieved on a bicycle?

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Eager to play: When the Mets’ Ryan Thompson was called up from the minor leagues, he flew into Philadelphia just in time to put on his uniform. When Manager Jeff Torborg asked if he was limber enough to start after the flight, Thompson said, “I can get loose on the way out to center field.”

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Too eager to play: When Cincinnati called up relief pitcher Stephen Foster from triple-A Nashville, he couldn’t play on his first night. He pulled a muscle throwing his suitcase into the back of his pickup truck before driving to the airport.

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Corporate college: Penn State recently made Pepsi its official beverage, receiving $14 million for allowing no other soft drink to be sold on campus for 10 years.

That prompted Peter Leo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to note: “You can see what’s ahead at Penn State. ‘This ethics lecture brought to you by the folks at Exxon.’ Or ‘This landscaping course sponsored by Weed Whacker.’ And what alum could fail to be stirred when the familiar red, white and blue of the Penn State Domino’s Pizza Nittany Lions take the field with their guarantee to score in 30 minutes or less.”

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Hold the mustard: Who is the biggest hotdog in the NFL? San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tom FitzGerald nominates Phoenix Cardinal receiver Randal Hill. He wrote:

“He held the ball out to a beaten defender as he scored on a 77-yard pass play, then ran through the end zone and sat down in the driver’s seat of a golf cart and nonchalantly crossed his legs. . . . Asked for an explanation of his golf-cart stunt, Hill said, ‘I guess they left a seat for me.’ ”

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Money-saving tip: When the Canadian team completed the Trials des Nations in Watkins Glen, N.Y., the riders disassembled their motorcycles and packed them into small boxes.

“We checked our bikes on as luggage,” explained one rider. “We can fit each bike into two small boxes. It was too expensive to ship them whole.”

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What’s Lasorda got?: Cincinnati Manager Lou Piniella, after the Reds’ had lost their third consecutive game Thursday night at Atlanta: “I’m not conceding anything. I’m realistic, but I’m not conceding. I really don’t know what to say. I really don’t. I’ve got a headache.”

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Looking back: On May 6, 1948, Babe Ruth presented a manuscript to the Yale University Library in New Haven, Conn. John Rendell wrote in the New York Times:

“The black-bound manuscript that the Bambino handed George (Poppy) Bush of Greenwich, captain of the Yale nine, was ‘The Babe Ruth Story,’ saga of the vicissitudes of an American hero.”

Poppy went 2 for 4 that day as his Eli walloped Princeton, 14-2, with the Babe watching.

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Trivia answer: John Howard, who pedaled 152.284 m.p.h. behind a lead vehicle’s windshield July 20, 1985 on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

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Quotebook: Lawrence Taylor, on Lawrence Taylor: “Everybody says, ‘He’s not the same man he was five years ago.’ Hell, no, I’m not. Who is?”