Raiders Come, There Goes the Neighborhood

Sacramento Bee columnist R.E. Graswich, musing over the Athletics’ reluctance to join all the high-fiving over the Raiders’ return to the Oakland Coliseum:

“The A’s have been very quiet the last few days. . . . Maybe [owner Walter A.] Haas lacks that special Raider spirit.

”. . . Imagine living in an apartment for years, paying the rent on time, keeping the place clean . . . and having an unabashed thug living next door, someone who throws beer bashes every weekend, plays rock music, loves guns and pit bulls and has lots of friends with Harleys.

“One day the thug moves to Los Angeles. Peace and quiet settles in . . . but after years of serenity, the landlord entices the thug to return, giving him free furniture, a remodeled kitchen . . . and a ‘loan’ for a new Harley.

”. . . At some point, Haas may decide he’s had enough. He may agree to move the A’s to a city where they would be appreciated--a place such as Sacramento.”

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Trivia time: What is the record for most victories in one season by two bespectacled pitchers on the same team?

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For what it’s worth: The Sacramento Bee recently polled readers, seeking to identify which baseball records are least likely to be broken.

Result: Cy Young’s 511 pitching victories and Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak.

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Debunking legend: At the recent Babe Ruth Conference at Hofstra University, Ruth statistician Bill Jenkinson started arguments when he asserted that one of Mickey Mantle’s most famous home runs was strictly myth.

He was discussing tape measure homers when turning to Mantle’s epic 1956 Yankee Stadium blast that hit the facade of the upper deck.

“People have claimed the ball was still going up when it hit the facade,” Jenkinson said.

“It never happened. It’s a physical impossibility. It was coming down. Physicists have told me if Mantle could have hit a ball that hard, then he was capable of clearing the roof by 100 feet.”

Jenkinson, who has notes on every one of Ruth’s 714 home runs, said he’s writing a book that will have a ranking of history’s longest home runs.

So who hit the longest one?

“I can’t give that away. . . . My publisher told me not to tell anyone yet,” he said.

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Revised account: Jose Canseco claimed recently that angry fans surrounded his truck after he struck out five times in eight plate appearances during a Pawtucket, R.I., rehabilitation assignment, denting it with baseballs and fists.

Since then, some witnesses have stepped forward.

Said George Costa, a fan: “Absolutely nothing like that happened. When the truck drove off, a couple of kids chased after it and that was that. It wasn’t like the French Revolution.”

And from Mayor Robert Metivier: “He’s a crybaby.”

Jose’s version: “We had I don’t know how many--100, 200--people surround us as we were leaving.

“We had people around the truck who were slamming it with baseballs. I don’t know if they had bats in their hands or what, but the truck sustained quite a few dents.”

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Trivia answer: Forty-one, by Carmen P. “Specs” Hill (22-11) and H. Lee “Specs” Meadows (19-10) of the 1927 Pittsburgh Pirates.

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Quotebook: Joe Falls of the Detroit News, on trying to develop a hatred for the New Jersey Devils during the Stanley Cup finals:

“How do you hate New Jersey? It’s like hating Memphis State.”