It’s No More Mr. Tough Guy for Davis Love

Anyone who has spent time on a golf course has seen macho golfers come to a par-three hole, place the ball on a tuft of grass and prepare to hit an iron. No tee for them.

Davis Love III used to do that, until he played a round with Sam Snead.

“Son, I’ve never seen a player good enough not to use a peg when the rules give it to him. Not yet, anyway,” Love quoted Snead in his book, “Every Shot I Take.”

“After that, I’ve never not used a peg,” Love says.

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Looking back: On this day in 1947, the Cleveland Indians purchased Larry Doby from the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League, making him the first black player in the American League.

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Trivia time: What did Doby do in his first game with the Indians?

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What’s to save? Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the save is the most overrated statistic in baseball. For example, he points out that Heathcliff Slocumb of the Boston Red Sox got a save in a game in which he faced five batters in the ninth inning against Toronto. He wrote:

“Two of them walked, two of them got hits and one of them made an out. Three runs scored in the inning and Slocumb was credited with a save.”

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Back to basics: Martina Navratilova has a suggestion on how to improve tennis:

“Go back to wooden rackets. Baseball is not played with aluminum bats. If they played with all this space-age material in major league baseball, we would have a home run derby. We are having a home run derby in men’s tennis right now because the rackets are so powerful.”

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Real recognition: John Curtis of San Diego was mentioned in an article by Wayne Lockwood of the San Diego Union-Tribune as one of baseball’s most disappointing free agents of all time.

Curtis wrote the paper:

“After this many years [it has been almost 15], I thought everyone had forgotten me. Thanks for remembering. My wife is ordering a plaque with the inscription, “Most Disappointing of All Time.”

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Loyal warrior: Greg Rusedski was born in Canada and lived there until two years ago when he used his dual citizenship--his mother is British--to become a British citizen eligible for lucrative endorsements.

Canadian journalists call Rusedski “a Brit of convenience.”

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Trivia answer: He struck out as a pinch-hitter.

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And finally: Anna Kournikova, the 16-year-old Russian tennis player who is dating Russian hockey player Sergei Fedorov, drew whistles from a group of teenagers while strolling through Wimbledon. Kournikova’s response:

“You couldn’t afford me, boys.”