THE INSIDE TRACK : MORNING BRIEFING : For Once, Yogi, Take Your Eyes Off the Plate

Yogi Berra was one of the few former teammates Joe DiMaggio would invite to join him and Marilyn Monroe at lunch when the New York Yankees’ Hall of Fame outfielder was married to the actress.

“You had lunch with Marilyn Monroe?” asked an obviously impressed Dave Kaplan, director of the Yogi Berra Museum in Montclair, N.J. “What do you remember from that lunch?”

“The shrimp cocktail,” Berra said. “That restaurant served the biggest shrimp I ever saw.”

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Trivia time: What is the oldest minor league baseball park still being used?

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Call the CIA: The European Ryder Cup team will have a secret weapon in its match against the American team--an American caddie.

Lance Ten Broeck of Chicago, a former PGA tour player, will carry clubs for Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik in next month’s matches at the Country Club in suburban Boston.

“I asked him last week,” Parnevik said. “He said he would feel very comfortable on the European side, and he would do what he can to make me win my match.”

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Fallen star: Ruben Sierra was a four-time all-star and runner-up for the 1989 American League most valuable player with the Texas Rangers. Only 33, younger than Barry Bonds or Rafael Palmeiro, where is he now?

Playing for the Atlantic City Surf of the independent Atlantic League.

“It’s a little hard after 12 years of flying and good hotels,” said Sierra, who makes $3,000 a month, with $20 a day for meal money.

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Switchback: Reader Ron Rector e-mails to correct a Morning Briefing item that said Larry Jackson was Boise JC’s quarterback in the 1950 Junior Rose Bowl game.

“Believe me, Larry Jackson was a running back,” Rector said. “I had to tackle him that day and he ran out of a three-back formation behind the quarterback, who was a little guy with glasses.”

Rector played tackle for Long Beach CC, which won the game, 33-13.

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How embarrassing: Pittsburgh Pirate relief pitcher Greg Hansell was called on to pitch the eighth inning of a game in Houston when he suddenly felt a tingling sensation in his right arm.

Instead of going to the mound, he went to the clubhouse for a medical exam.

It turned out that his arm had fallen asleep when he had it propped up on the bullpen railing for most of the game.

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Trivia answer: War Memorial Stadium, in Greensboro, N.C., built in 1926, home of the Greensboro Bats of the South Atlantic League.

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And finally: The late Bill Veeck, a maverick among baseball owners--he was the one who sent a midget to the plate as a pinch-hitter--had this to say about his fellow owners:

“Baseball must be a great game, because the owners haven’t been able to kill it.”