They Wouldn’t Let Vincent Leave Signature on the Game

Something will be missing from the baseballs used in next month’s World Series: they will not bear the commissioner’s signature.

Fay Vincent’s resignation left Rawlings, which makes the balls, figuratively stranded between bases.

“Major League baseball has requested that any World Series balls we stamp from now on have no signature,” a Rawlings spokesman said.

That decision should be good news for collectors. Rawlings began shipping commemorative 1992 World Series balls with Vincent’s signature to sporting goods stores in August.

Trivia time: What is the Pacific 10 Conference record for fewest rushing yards allowed in a season?

Radar runner: A high school running back in Victoria, Tex., scored a touchdown last Friday night while wearing a court-ordered tracking device wrapped in tape and gauze.

Raydon Alexander must wear the device because he was arrested on assault charges last month while on probation. He was granted a one-night curfew exemption that allowed him to play.

Regenerated: Raymond Floyd on turning 50: “I went to bed (Sept. 4) and I was old and washed up. I woke up a rookie. What could be better?”

Floyd, who became eligible for the PGA Senior tour on that day, his 50th tournament, won his first tournament on the tour Sunday.

Biting commentary: Cincinnati Reds’ owner Marge Schott, who has made her Saint Bernard dogs the team mascots, missed Sunday’s 6-1 victory over the San Diego Padres because of a dogbite.

Schott was at her home Saturday night when a stray dog started fighting with Siegie, one of Schott’s Saint Bernards, which was tied up in Schott’s yard.

Schott said she tried to separate the dogs and was bitten, but she doesn’t know which dog bit her. She had the bite treated at a hospital, where she received stitches, but spent the night at home.

Scoop time: Immediately after USC’s 20-10 victory over Oklahoma Saturday at Norman, Okla., a sideline television announcer for ABC asked Coach Larry Smith if his team would be ready for Washington.

Smith, answering the inane question, said his team will be ready. He could have added that USC has two weeks to prepare for the game.

Look-alikes: Ken Stabler, a left-handed former Oakland Raiders’ quarterback and now an NFL studio host for TNT, on current Raider quarterback Todd Marinovich:

“He looks familiar as hell. He throws with the wrong hand, his hair coming out from his helmet and looks like he just walked out of the halfway house.”

Field of dreams: Vince Coleman of the New York Mets blames his injuries on the Shea Stadium field.

“The field is awful,” he said. “The infield is soft, like a beach. You’re spinning your wheels and you’re second-guessing yourself. You’re worried about straining a muscle. It’s keeping me out of the Hall of Fame.”

Trivia answer: 659 yards by UCLA in 1954.

Quotebook: NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, on ongoing, unsettled negotiations with the players: “It’s like Vietnam where they spent two years (negotiating) on the shape of the table.”