Power Isn’t Necessarily the Only Clout

This is the year of the home run in major league baseball, but Colorado Rockies hitting coach Ken Griffey Sr., for one, isn’t pleased with it.

“From the players to the fans to the media, it seems everybody believes the only way you’re going to get to the Hall of Fame anymore is by hitting homers,” Griffey said. “I try to tell the youth of America there’s more to baseball than home runs. But they won’t listen. What can you do? Guys in the major leagues get ticked now when they don’t get a ball to drive. It’s all or nothing with them.

“That’s not baseball. It’s T-ball.”

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Add homers: Kansas City Royal relief pitcher Jeff Montgomery has given up eight home runs in his last 16 innings.

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Trivia time: Who was the oldest medal winner in an Olympic Games?

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Probably so: Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News had this thought when he learned that Herschel Walker had signed with the Dallas Cowboys:

“You don’t suppose Herschel has circled the two Cowboys-Giants games in that schedule he carries in his wallet, do you?”

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Three for two: When does a Triplett become a twin?

When they’re born to pro golfer Kirk Triplett and his wife, Cathi, who had twin boys last January.

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Bake a cake: Supporters of University of Hawaii football are going to their pockets in a show of support for the cash-strapped program.

Following word that the football program was having its budget cut $50,000 as the athletic department weans itself of state funding, fans began calling Coach Fred vonAppen offering money and other help.

“I was speaking tongue-in-cheek,” vonAppen said of his quip that he may hold a bake sale to raise money. But some fans took him seriously and offered him baked goods.

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Sound logic: Howard Twitty, a longtime regular on the PGA Tour, says there are six good reasons why he intends to play on the Senior Tour when he reaches 50 in a couple of years.

“I have six children and that means I have a lot of college to pay for in the future,” Twitty said. “The only way I can do it is to play on the Senior Tour and win some tournaments.”

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Trivia answer: Oscar Swahn of Sweden, 72, a silver medalist in shooting in 1920. Swahn had won a gold medal in 1908 at age 60.

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And finally: Several years ago, when John Daly was playing poorly, drinking too much and feeling sorry for himself, Fuzzy Zoeller drove him slowly through a graveyard, and said: “Look around at all these people, John. Your life is not all that bad.”