He Went for Fences in More Ways Than One

Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961, still a major league record. But it isn’t the single-season professional record.

Joe Bauman established that in 1954 while playing for the Roswell, N.M., Rockets in the Class-C Longhorn League. He hit 72 home runs.

Bauman, 73, said that he supplemented his minor league salary with what he called “fence” money.

After each homer, fans would rush the backstop and stick $1 and $5 bills through the fence for the hitter to collect.

“If you were good, you could make $400 to $600 a month, sometimes maybe $650,” he said.

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Trivia time: USC and UCLA played in unsanctioned bowl games in the 1930s in Hawaii. What were the results?

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Good riddance: Bill Livingston in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on owner Art Modell moving the Browns to Baltimore:

“He was never the ideal owner with deep pockets. He was once, literally, a pool hustler. He was a street-smart New Yorker who knew all the angles. But the sharp guy never learned how to honor a commitment to a city he called home for 35 years.”

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Killer instinct: On the “6 Days to Sunday” show Wednesday night on TNT, Jerry Jones, the maverick owner of the Dallas Cowboys, expressed his philosophy:

“I used to have a sign in my office that showed two buzzards sitting on a limb and one says to the other, ‘Patience my [butt]. I’m going to kill something.’ ”

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Stay awake: Cleveland Brown wide receiver Andre Rison in Inside Sports magazine on his relationship with Lisa (Left Eye) Lopes, a rapper who once burned down his house:

“It’s over and done with. I can go to bed knowing I can trust my wife, knowing over half the population of men today can’t.”

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Technical knockout: Before Philadelphia played Dallas on Monday night, Eagle Coach Ray Rhodes said: “Forget the mystique and the bull about Dallas. We’re going to fight.”

The fight didn’t last long. The Cowboys won easily, 34-12.

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FYI: In a survey of 367 Golf Digest readers, 60% said they wanted to play golf with Greg Norman and would pay up to $228 for the opportunity, while 3% preferred O.J. Simpson and would spend $394.

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Looking back: On this day in 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 7-2, that baseball is not subject to antitrust laws, finding it is a sport and not a business.

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Looking back again: On this day in 1994, Laker rookie Eddie Jones scored 31 points in a 122-99 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Minneapolis.

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Trivia answer: USC defeated Hawaii, 38-6, in 1936 and UCLA beat Hawaii, 32-7, in 1939 in the Poi Bowl in Honolulu, which was later called the Pineapple Bowl.

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Quotebook: Dale Brown, Louisiana State basketball coach, on recruiting: “I don’t feel totally comfortable unless I can hug my players. I don’t want to hug a thug.”