Salary-Hiking Owners Get a Rise Out of Him

The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell fingers Chicago White Sox and Florida Marlin owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Wayne Huizenga as the two most responsible for the recent hike in player salaries.

Writes Boswell: “Thanks, guys. By next century, could you please leave the game alone?

“The reason salaries have risen an utterly unnecessary 17% to $1.37 million a man is that Reinsdorf paid $11 million a year for Albert Belle, while Huizenga spent $90 million on free agents.

“As Oriole assistant general manager Kevin Malone says of Belle’s salary, ‘Last year the highest-paid player made $8 million.

“ ‘So, the White Sox jump Belle to $11 million. Can’t they count? What happened to nine and 10?’ ”

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Trivia time: What boxer is credited with having the most fights?

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Big bats: Reggie Jackson, when asked by Newsday’s Jon Heyman about the surge in hitting stats in recent seasons:

“The pitching is bad. But the hitting is good. You’ve got Albert Belle, [Mark] McGwire, [Ken] Griffey, [Frank] Thomas, [Gary] Sheffield.

“These guys can hit in any league at any time. All these players are just as good as players in the past.

“Stronger. In better shape. By and large, players of today are bigger. I was a big guy and still am big, and they’re all bigger than me. I don’t think there’s ever been a time like this.”

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Add Reggie: Jackson, on hitting stats at Denver’s Coors Field.

“I don’t put a lot of credibility into what they do in Colorado. [Hitting in] Coors Field is like hitting in the lobby of a Doubletree.”

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Tall frustration: Toni Kukoc, the 6-foot-11 Chicago Bull player from Croatia who passes like a point guard and has a deadly three-point shot, infuriates his coach, Phil Jackson, according to a story in the European basketball magazine, FIBA Basketball.

“He runs hot and cold as much as any player I’ve seen,” Jackson said.

What keeps Kukoc from starting?

“His defense and his rebounding,” Jackson said.

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Rollerblade heaven: With pressure on stadium and arena managers to fill dates, the manager of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis has hit on a way to turn a buck when his stadium is empty:

Rollerbladers.

“We charge $5 admission and rent blades for $4, and let ‘em skate anywhere,” Bill Lester said.

“The turnout is about 1,200 and last year we got $125,000 from it,” he told Amusement Business magazine.

On other event-less nights, Lester turns the stadium over to walkers and joggers . . . at $1 a head.

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Trivia answer: Abraham “Abe the Newsboy” Hollanderski, who had 1,309 bouts from 1905-18.

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And finally: In the final days of spring training, a boy asked Frank Thomas for an autograph during batting practice, but the player told him: “I can’t, I’ve got to go hit.”

Replied the boy: “But you already know how to hit.”