Notes on a Scorecard - June 17, 1993

It is time for major league baseball to borrow a couple of rules from the peacemakers of the NHL. . . .

Anybody who joins a fight between two players automatically is thrown out of a game. The first player who leaves the bench to join a fight is suspended for 10 days without pay and anyone else who leaves the bench is suspended for five days. . . .

If anything, the penalties should be stiffened by baseball. . . .

That would be the surest way to prevent the bench- and bullpen-clearing brawls that have become commonplace this season. The Dodgers have been involved in three of them in less than a week, including a couple on Tuesday night in Colorado. . . .

One-on-one baseball fights usually are harmless. Baseball players can’t fight. Heck, most heavyweight contenders can’t fight. But free-for-alls, with bodies flying all over the place, often result in serious injuries. . . .

It is too bad that fight night at Mile High Stadium overshadowed a remarkable performance by Dodger rookie catcher Mike Piazza. . . .

Piazza hit two home runs, got four hits and drove in five runs, but it was the way he hit his first homer that will be remembered. He took a seemingly harmless little poke at a low pitch and the ball cleared the left-field fence. That fence isn’t very far away and the air is thin in Denver, but it was another display of Piazza’s strength. . . .

Piazza is on a pace to become the first Dodger to drive in at least 100 runs since Pedro Guerrero in 1983. . . .

Vin Scully on Rockies’ first baseman Andres Galarraga, who came within one of the National League record by stringing together nine hits: “He’s not the Cat, he’s Godzilla.” . . .

Tim Wallach is the 81st person to have played third base for the Dodgers since the move from Brooklyn 35 years ago. . . .

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Joe DiMaggio will be presented the Jim Thorpe lifetime achievement award July 12 during a program that will be televised from the Wiltern Theatre by ABC. . . .

A little-known fact about Thorpe is that he drove in the winning run in the 10th inning for Cincinnati on May 2, 1917, after the the Reds’ Fred Toney and the Chicago Cubs’ Jim (Hippo) Vaughn had pitched the only double, nine-inning no-hitter in history. . . .

Toney completed his no-hitter in the bottom of the 10th at 3-year-old Weeghman Park, which later was renamed Wrigley Field. . . .

Look-alikes: Dodger reliever Rick Trlicek and actor Kevin Bacon. . . .

Manager Lou Duva would love to have International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight champion John John Molina defend the title against Oscar De La Hoya, “if his brain trust is silly enough to throw their zillionaire prospect in with my champion.” . . .

George Foreman opens rehearsals next month for his Saturday night ABC sitcom, “George.” . . .

A new arena might be built in San Francisco to lure the Golden State Warriors back from across the bay. . . .

Keith Olbermann is fitting in well at ESPN. . . .

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Blue and gold decorations at USC? Well, director William Friedkin is filming “Blue Chips” on the campus this week and the colors of the Western University Dolphins are blue and gold. . . .

Trojan officials are delighted with the sight lines that the renovation of the Coliseum will give their fans, beginning with the game against Houston Sept. 4. . . .

Forty-four golfers have earned at least $200,000 on the PGA Tour this year. . . .

Busy Natalie Williams is playing professional, four-person beach volleyball this summer, will compete for the U.S. team in the World University Games volleyball tournament next month and will seek her third consecutive Pacific 10 Conference rebounding and second consecutive scoring title next season at UCLA. . . .

Several Raiders, Nick Bell, Anthony Smith and Vince Evans among them, will conduct a clinic for 500 boys and girls 8-14, and Hall of Famer Willie Brown will give a motivational talk at El Segundo High on Saturday at 10 a.m. Spectators of all ages are invited free of charge to the NFL Coca-Cola/McDonald’s Mini-Camp for Kids. . . .

If Ron Harper is worth $4 million a year, what will the Clippers have to pay Danny Manning to keep him from becoming a free agent after next season? . . .

Frank Brown of the New York Daily News, who thinks the Forum is a lousy arena, ought to take a look around Madison Square Garden the next time he covers a hockey game there. . . .

It is commonplace for injured ballplayers to be listed as day to day, but maybe Todd Worrell should be month to month.