Doesn’t Seem to Need Any Instruction

In the current issue of Baseball Weekly, Manager Joe Torre of the St. Louis Cardinals says that outfielder Mark Whiten will spend a few days in the Florida Instructional League next month with Torre and hitting coach Chris Chambliss to work on the “mental approach” to hitting.

Torre says this covers such items “as looking for pitches in certain zones and thinking about driving the ball up the middle.”

He is speaking, of course, of the same Mark Whiten who tied major league records by hitting four home runs and driving in 12 runs Tuesday against Cincinnati.

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Trivia time: Who set a world record and won an Olympic gold medal the first time he tried an event?

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Metmania: A backhanded show of support for the New York Mets on Banner Day at Shea Stadium: “You’re Not Last--We’re Still Behind You.” Other banners: “We Bought Season Seats. Why Are You Here?” and “Catch the Marlins.”

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Perspective: In setting a women’s world 10,000-meter record of 29 minutes 31.78 seconds Wednesday in Beijing, China’s Wang Junxia’s time was nearly 28 seconds faster than Emil Zatopek’s winning time in the men’s 10,000 in the 1948 Olympic Games in London.

Zatopek set an Olympic record then with a time of 29:59.6.

Moreover, Wang’s time would have been good enough to place fourth in the men’s division of the NCAA track and field meet last June in New Orleans.

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Something smells: College football players often work at interesting summer jobs. Linebacker Jimmy Sprotte of Arizona listed his in the media guide:

“Gutted fish at Fred’s Lake.”

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Silver & Black sells: SportsLetter of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles reports that anticipated sales of NFL apparel will reach $3 billion for the 1993-94 season.

The NFL team with the biggest share? The Raiders with 17.3%, ahead of the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys at 14.5.%

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Going, going . . . : When Gale Sayers’ autographed Chicago Bear jersey was offered at a charity function in Chicago, former Green Bay Packer Paul Hornung jumped up and said the folks in attendance should be ashamed of themselves if it didn’t go for $1,500. To dramatize his point, he opened the bidding at $900.

He now owns the jersey.

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Reversal of fortune: Cleveland Indian catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. went 0 for 8 in a recent 22-inning game against the Minnesota Twins.

“I was hitting .311 when the game started,” Alomar said. “By the time it ended, I was in a slump.”

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Greg who? Who is the most popular athlete among youngsters in Australia? It isn’t golfer Greg Norman, or even rugby star Allan Langer.

In a newspaper poll of 600 youngsters in Brisbane, Michael Jordan won easily. Norman, the British Open champion, was 12th.

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Trivia answer: Jim Thorpe in the decathlon in the 1912 Olympic Games at Stockholm.

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Quotebook: Former teammate Bob Golic on Raider Howie Long’s new candy bar: “Milk chocolate and almonds--what a new concept.”