There’s No Zoo in the Bronx This Season

The New York Yankees, who used to mix turmoil with winning, have changed their tune, says Dave Kindred in the Sporting News.

“Alas, alack and sad to say, the Yankees have become the Boy Scouts of baseball,” he writes. “Not only are they making history, they’re making nice. No clubhouse brawls, no dugout squabbles, no Mickey Rivers hearing Reggie [Jackson] boast of his 143 IQ and asking, ‘What, out of a thousand?’

“All these Yankees do is win. They do it with class and style. They’re the best of this generation, as the Reds were the best of the 1970s. But while the Cincinnati clubhouse was a waiting room for the train to Cooperstown--Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan are in, Pete Rose ought to be, Tony Perez and Sparky Anderson will be--these Yankees are a dominant team without so much as one dominant player.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for runs batted in by a designated hitter?

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Why grow up? Ricky Williams turned down millions as a probable top-five pick in the NFL draft to return to the Texas Longhorns and play this season under new Coach Mack Brown.

“In the NFL, everyone is trying to step on everyone else to get a starting position and make more money,” Williams said. “It’s survival. It’s all business. In college, it’s your last chance to just play and have fun. I’m a kid. I want to keep being a kid.”

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Fast life: Some baseball old-timers claimed that Rube Waddell threw the ball as hard as any pitcher who ever lived. Waddell struck out 349 batters in 1904 with the Philadelphia Athletics. He was also considered an all-star carouser.

“When Waddell had control--and some sleep--he was unbeatable,” Branch Rickey once observed.

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Different times: One of Coach Chan Gailey’s new rules for the Dallas Cowboys is that any player who commits a stupid penalty in practice must take a lap.

Observed Boston Globe columnist Ron Borges: “If that had been in effect when [former coach Barry] Switzer was around, the Cowboys would have had a half-dozen guys ready for the Boston Marathon.”

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More Gailey: The Cowboy coach is a diplomat. When filling out a questionnaire given to all NFL head coaches, asking them to name the most knowledgeable football writer they had ever met, he wrote: “The one I’m talking to.”

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Combat tested: Dennis Reyes, the former Dodger left-hander who was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, shouldn’t have much trouble adapting to the major leagues, according to teammate Dmitri Young.

Young said of Reyes, “He is only 21, but he played several years in the Mexican League, where you have to be good or they throw tequila bottles, lemons and batteries at you. If they left their guns at home.”

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Trivia answer: Harold Baines of the Baltimore Orioles with 834.

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And finally: First, Dan Marino was a motor sports fan. Then he got involved in race car sponsorships. And then the Miami quarterback took Bill Elliott’s Winston Cup car for a few laps at Talladega, Ala.

“I was nervous,” he said. “We did 10 laps the first time and in about 12 more I got up to about 165 [mph].”

Elliott once ran 212 mph there.