Even Baseball Legend Wasn’t Always Perfect

Pittsburgh columnist Bruce Keidan, reviewing “Branch Rickey’s Little Blue Book,” points out that the author, John Monteleone, found 131 containers of Rickey’s papers in the Library of Congress.

Rickey was a longtime general manager of the the St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Included in the find were some of Rickey’s scouting reports:

--”He would not throw or run and could not field and was a self-appraised star and could have no part ever in a pennant-winning club.”

The player: Ralph Kiner.

--”His running form is bad . . . a bit above-average speed. He has a beautiful throwing arm [but] he runs with the ball and that’s bad. His form at the plate is perfect.”

The player: Roberto Clemente.

--”A big right-handed pitcher. Good fastball, good curve, good change-of-pace curve. . . . An intelligent gentleman and a fine character.”

The player: Vern Law.

*

Trivia time: Who is the NBA’s all-time leader for accuracy on three-point shots?

*

Memories: Fred Mitchell in the Chicago Tribune, on final memories of Phoenix and the Super Bowl:

“Longest stretch limo: Deion Sanders, by a block and a half.

“Most jewelry: Sanders, by a half-ton.

“Worst rug: Joe Namath.

“Coolest hat: Michael Irvin.”

*

Leave room to putt: What was the largest sports crowd ever in Arizona?

No, not the Super Bowl. It was the recent Phoenix Open golf tournament at Scottsdale. Final-day crowd, the day before the Super Bowl: 156,875.

The figure was arrived at by multiplying parked cars by 3.1.

*

Hey, be nice: The Associated Press, describing the parking-lot scene, hours before the Super Bowl kickoff:

“ ‘Steeler fans are pretty brash, crude and nasty,’ ” said one woman, her black cowboy hat adorned with a silver star.

“This, from a woman who was driving a van with a plastic arm and leg jammed in the back door--and a sign indicating the extremities belonged to Steeler quarterback Neil O’Donnell.”

*

More ice! Apparently, no one can claim anymore that ice hockey is strictly a Canadian game.

USA Hockey says it had 402,533 registered players, coaches and referees in 1994-95, male and female, an increase of 16% over the previous year.

Hottest growth region: The Southeast, where membership is up 182% in the last five years.

Comparison: Canadian Hockey registered 584,783 last year.

Cheap titles: Boxing statistician Bob Yalen reports the sport’s alphabet guys--the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO--sanctioned 174 “world championship” bouts in 1994.

That’s roughly one every two days.

*

Trivia answer: The Chicago Bulls’ Steve Kerr, 46.7%, excluding this season.

*

Quotebook: Washington Bullet center Jim McIlvaine, on the NBA team’s contest to change the nickname: “I want a name that’s different. I’d hate to have a name that’s been used by every high school in the country, like Wildcats.”