This No. 42 Had Career Year in Matter of Hours

Texas Ranger rookie Marc Sagmoen already is known for being the fourth player to hit an inside-the-park home run for his first career hit.

He was promoted to the big leagues shortly before baseball’s edict retiring the No. 42 for every team to honor Jackie Robinson. As it happens, Sagmoen had been given that number.

Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out that Sagmoen “went from hitting .177 in Oklahoma City to being called up to the big leagues to having his number retired, all in a matter of hours.”

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Trivia time: Who was the first woman to play in a men’s PGA tournament?

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Rest stop: The Cincinnati Reds have been struggling so far this season, especially in road games. However, outfielder Deion Sanders has a solution:

“Just asking, [but] when do we play the Cubs?”

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Please be more explicit: After the Detroit Lions drafted a cornerback, Bryant Westbrook, it was assessed this way by Oakland (Mich.) Press columnist Keith Langlois:

“A one-eyed, arthritic Mongolian hunchback would’ve upgraded the Lions at cornerback.”

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Aging rookie: Art Spander in the Oakland Tribune on the San Francisco 49ers selecting Virginia Tech quarterback Jim Druckenmiller in the first round of the NFL draft:

“Druckenmiller is already 24, so by the time he’s ready to start--if he’s ever ready to start--he’ll be old enough to retire.”

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Mean metropolis: Johnny Davis, who recently was fired as coach of the 76ers, discovered what others have known for years--that the City of Brotherly Love doesn’t have much of it.

“There is a lot of hostility in Philadelphia,” Davis told Kerry Eggers of the Portland Oregonian. “I don’t know why it is, but it seems to be a somewhat hostile place.”

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Spare me: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “Don’t recall press-box poets ever frothing over an event as in Tiger Woods winning the Masters. ‘A celebration of mankind,’ gushed one author. ‘The reverberation of human spirit’ slobbered another. Oh brother.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1976, Rick Barry of Golden State had seven steals in an NBA playoff game against Detroit--one short of the record he shares with five other players.

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Obscure stat: St. Louis’ recent 1-0 and 2-1 doubleheader sweep of the San Diego Padres in Hawaii marked the first time a team has swept a doubleheader with only three runs since Cleveland beat Toronto by the same scores on May 17, 1981.

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Trivia answer: Babe Didrickson Zaharias in the 1938 Los Angeles Open. She shot 84-81--165 and missed the cut.

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And finally: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle on Fuzzy Zoeller’s inappropriate remarks about Tiger Woods:

“Wash out your mouth with something stronger than chilled vodka. At least now we know why they call Fuzzy Fuzzy.”