New Contacts Don’t Improve His Hindsight

Wade Boggs blamed poor vision for last season’s slump that caused the then-career .345 hitter to bat a personal low of .259 in his final year with the Boston Red Sox.

“With the eye thing, I wasn’t picking up forkballs or sliders,” the newest New York Yankee said. “I wasn’t seeing the ball properly. I used to recognize those pitches when they left the pitcher’s hand.”

Boggs got contact lenses after the All-Star game in July.

“Then, everything became corrected,” he said. “Everything fell back into place. I was recognizing those pitches.”

The figures might not support Boggs’ contention. He hit .263 before the All-Star break and only .254 in the second half of the season.

Barkley bits: Things you might never have known about Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns, gleaned from the Arizona Republic:

He wears a size-15 1/2 shoe, his middle name is Wade, his wife’s name is Maureen, they have a daughter, Christiana Michelle, and his sports idols were former Philadelphia 76er teammate Moses Malone, tennis star John McEnroe and Raider defensive back Ronnie Lott.

Trivia time: What was the first PGA golf tournament to be nationally televised?

Add Barkley: On why he admires McEnroe: “I like his temperament. I’m never going to get mad at a guy who gets mad for losing. Obviously, he’s done some things wrong. That makes him human. But once you accept losing, you can’t compete.”

Strong boy: John Daly is far and away the longest hitter in golf, but pound for pound, Jeff Sluman is the longest. Sluman, who weighs 140 pounds, averages 259.4 yards off the tee. That is 1.85 yards per pound.

Daly, who claims to be 175 pounds, averages 283.4 yards, which is only 1.62 yards per pound.

Getting to know you: ESPN announcer Paul Page, after watching Indy car driver Paul Tracy go off course once in practice and twice during the same race: “This guy has been in the grass so often, the chipmunks know him by name.”

The whole story: A recent Morning Briefing item noted that Chris Webber, Michigan’s sophomore forward, confused San Diego State running back Marshall Faulk with David Falk.

Vince Ewing, a Pasadena lawyer, points out that the real David Falk is the agent for NBA players such as Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning, so “maybe Chris Webber is only thinking ahead.”

Rewarding work: When Mike Singletary, the Chicago Bears’ retiring linebacker, sees a newsboy selling papers on a corner, he will sometimes buy every copy.

“I’ll tell him he can go home now and study,” Singletary told the Sporting News’ Paul Attner. “Just the fact that he is working for a living instead of selling drugs gives me joy. So I want to reward him.”

Home-grown: Bill Pappas, who is 6 feet 7 and grew up in Indianapolis, was recently signed to be the engineer on Jim Hall’s Pennzoil Indy car team.

“I’m a typical Hoosier,” Pappas said. “I grew up dribbling a basketball around a 2 1/2-mile race track.”

Name game: The Good Doctor in Inside Sports was asked what celebrities he saw at last year’s America’s Cup yacht races.

His answer: Don Knotts, Brett Hull, Leona Helmsley, Howard Stern, Soupy Sales, Bobby Riggs, Howard Keel, Scotty Bowman and Boomer Esiason.

Trivia answer: The 1966 Los Angeles Open, won by Arnold Palmer at Rancho Park.

Extra duty: Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta is listed as a senior at Miami, but he is actually a graduate. Torretta received his undergraduate degree in business administration before entering graduate school and playing his final year of football.

Quotebook: Atlanta Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville, on Deion Sanders: “There’s never been a better athlete than Deion, probably never will be.”