All He Said Was Nothing Had Happened

The late Red Barber is remembered as the ultimate professional, one who even defied baseball superstition as a radio announcer.

Barber worked a 1947 World Series game between the Yankees and Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, where New York pitcher Bill Bevens was working on a no-hitter.

When Barber took over for his radio partner, Mel Allen, the voice of the Yankees, in the middle innings, he calmly told his audience the Dodger totals: one run, two errors, no hits.

Allen gasped, according to the book, “Voices of the Game.” Then, when Bevens was within an out of the first no-hitter in World Series history, Cookie Lavagetto hit a pinch-double and the Dodgers won, 3-2, tying the series at 2-2.

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Add Barber: A day later, confronting Bevens, Barber confessed his heresy.

“You didn’t jinx anybody,” Bevens replied. “It wasn’t anything you said. It was those bases on balls that killed me.”

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Trivia time: What, among other things, did Barber say after Lavagetto’s winning hit?

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More on Barber: After Barber had left baseball and the microphone, he returned to Ebbets Field once, although not exactly. Apartment houses had replaced the ballpark.

Barber decided later that it had been a mistake to go back.

“You keep going on,” he said.

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Out of ideas: Marty Schottenheimer, coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, marvels at the comeback ability of Denver Bronco quarterback John Elway.

“Over the years, we have tried just about everything on defense to stop John in those situations,” Schottenheimer told Will McDonough of the Boston Globe. “We’ve rushed three men. We’ve rushed four men. We’ve blitzed him. We’ve kept him in the pocket. We’ve chased him out of the pocket, and almost every time, he had the answers.”

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Risky venture: Mark Langill of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, speculating on the possibility of the Dodgers’ re-signing Eric Davis for $3.6 million a year even though Davis had negligible statistics in an injury-marred season:

“The money would be better invested with Charles Keating.”

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Small world: In a Junior Olympic tournament at Albany, N.Y., in 1985, the U.S. team of teen-agers defeated an older and heavily favored Cuban team. The winning pitcher was 17-year-old John Smoltz. His batterymate? Ed Sprague.

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He can afford it: With Magic Johnson playing only in selected games, Peter Vecsey of USA Today asked New York Knick Coach Pat Riley how he would handle the situation if he were still with the Lakers.

“I’d fine him $2,500 for every game he missed and for all the aggravation he causes the coach,” Riley said.

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Carrying on: Clarence (Butch) Williams, a tight end for Washington State, is the son of the late Clancy Williams, a former All-American running back-defensive back at the school.

Clancy Williams went on to play cornerback for the Rams from 1965 through 1972.

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Trivia answer: “I’ll be a suck-egg mule.”

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Quotebook: Riddick Bowe, on his faith in the newest member of his camp, nutrition adviser Dick Gregory: “If he gave me maggot juice, I’d drink it.”