A Little More on Bad Guys of Baseball

Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer called upon guest columnist Don Carman to select baseball’s All-Bad Guy team. A sampling:

First base--Pete Rose: “Voted in overwhelmingly by his prison baseball team.”

Outfielders--Shoeless Joe Jackson: “We built this team, and he came.” Ty Cobb: “He was such a bad guy, he makes Albert Belle look like Kirby Puckett.”

Third base--Tony Phillips: “Not exactly a fan favorite, but who cares? This team wouldn’t have any fans.”

Trivia time: Can you name the high hurdler who finished second in the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games with the same time as the winner?

Hidden agenda: Ron Sirak of the Associated Press writing on the U.S. Open: “[Davis] Love shot a 69 on Sunday--a final-round score bettered by only two players, neither of whom was in contention. And [Tom] Lehman shot a 71 while lugging around the lead in the last group of the day.

“This was no collapse. It was not like they shot 78.”

Sirak wouldn’t have been referring to Greg Norman’s 78 in the Masters on the final day, would he? Naw, that would have been a cheap shot.

Class act: New York Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto on the style of former Yankee announcer Mel Allen, who died Sunday:

“Like an opera singer. He was like Pavarotti, or Nureyev dancing. He built it to a crescendo--not like me. I’m up all the time. He’d go up and down. He got excited when it mattered most.”

Different view: Believe it or not, Marge Schott has some supporters, among them Boston Red Sox outfielder Kevin Mitchell, who played two seasons in Cincinnati.

“I’m going to picket for Marge,” he said. “I’m going to get a sign that says: ‘Free Marge.’ I had a great time with her when I was there. She invited my grandmother to sit with her in her box. She showed me respect and I gave her respect.”

Farewell speech? Aging boxer Larry Holmes, who presumably has retired, in an interview with Ron Borges of the Boston Globe:

“I don’t want to end up all beat up and hurt and people blaming boxing for it. I dragged it out for a while because every time I’d say, ‘I’m out,’ someone would knock on the door with a big number, but I’m 46 years old.

“These kids are getting younger, not older.”

Looking back: On this day in 1964, Jim Bunning of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched a perfect game against the New York Mets, beating them, 6-0. The no-hitter gave Bunning one in each league.

Trivia answer: USC’s Jack Davis.

And finally: Conrad Brunner in the Indianapolis Star on the trade that brought Jalen Rose from Denver to the Indiana Pacers:

“Rose and [Reggie] Miller will give the Pacers an ‘AM radio’ backcourt--all talk, all the time.”