Leyland Managed to Do It All on High School Football Field

Pittsburgh Pirate Manager Jim Leyland was a quarterback, defensive back, kicker and kick return specialist in high school.

“They called me ‘Blue Bayou,’ ” Leyland told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

After the old Roy Orbison song?

“No,” Leyland said. “I’d fake left, fake right and then I blew by you.”

Trivia time: Who holds the major league record for most grand slams?

Case closed: Are baseball players as well conditioned as other athletes? Art Rosenbaum, retired San Francisco Chronicle columnist, recalled what Boston Celtic star Bill Russell said when teammate Gene Conley left the NBA to play in the major leagues:

“It’ll take him six weeks to get out of shape.”

Tribute: Dave Stockton, Senior PGA Tour player, in USA Today on Lee Trevino: “When you’re smarter than most guys and you work harder than most guys, what more do you need?”

Leave him alone: Andy Van Slyke, Pittsburgh Pirate center fielder, on the well-meaning fans who have offered him tips to end his batting slump:

“The thing is, a lot of the people who make those suggestions would have a hard time filling out the application forms to work at 7-Eleven.

“People think they know the game because they watch it on TV or they watch it from a distance, like, say, for example, oh, sportswriters.”

Come again? Paul O’Neill of the New York Yankees on his batting average, which has dropped to .385:

“People keep asking me why I’m not getting any hits. I’m hitting them, but after I hit them, I can’t aim them.”

Trivia answer: Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees, with 23 from 1923 to 1939.

Quotebook: Don Larsen, former New York Yankee pitcher, when asked if he ever tires of talking about his World Series perfect game against the Dodgers on Oct. 8, 1956: “No, why should I?”