Sports Greats Make a Play for Charity

OK, here’s the deal. I am a sports moron. I had to consult an encyclopedia before a Super Bowl party a few years back so I could pretend to have a clue.

So what was I doing lunching at Spago the other day with four sports greats? For some, this would be a dream lunchtime lineup: legendary Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe, 74, Olympic pole vaulter Bob Seagren, 54, NHL goalie and current L.A. Kings Vice President Rogie Vachon, 55, and basketball Hall of Famer George Yardley, 72. For me, it was a full-blown panic attack.

Luckily, they didn’t want to talk sports.

They quadruple-teamed me to talk about a charity dear to their hearts: the Paralysis Project, which funds medical research. All of them know someone who’s been paralyzed--sometimes on the playing field, other times in traffic accidents.

“I had a close friend who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident,” said Seagren, taking a bite of lobster salad. “His life changed overnight. I had never thought about paralysis before, that a simple curb on the street might as well be Mt. Everest.”

The soft-spoken Newcombe said he became involved after his friend Dodger catcher Roy Campanella was paralyzed in a car accident. Now he is chairman of the Paralysis Project’s sports council, which selects honorees for the group’s annual Great Sports Legends Awards Dinner, which takes place this year on April 22 in Pasadena.

Mindful that he was addressing a sports-challenged person as he began to talk about this year’s honorees, Newcombe explained that “we are honoring International Olympic Committee Vice President Anita DeFrantz for opening up opportunities for women on the committee.” (Other honorees are NHL legend Phil Esposito, two-time Kentucky Derby winner Chris McCarron, three-time gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee, soon-to-be Baseball Hall of Famer Sparky Anderson and Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman, for raising awareness about sports injuries.)

The mention of Sulaiman got my four lunch mates reminiscing about their dozens of injuries and thousands of stitches.

“I remember getting 40 stitches in the first half, and they still made me play the second half . . . of an exhibition game!” said Yardley. “I guess I was a valuable commodity!”

“Or they were trying to get rid of you,” said Newcombe.

Their good-natured joking relaxed me--enough that I was able to ask Seagren how the heck he decided to take up pole vaulting.

“When I was a kid growing up in Pomona, a pole was a method of transportation,” he said. “We’d go from the fence to the clothesline post to the roof of the garage. It was a game--we had to keep off the ground.”

These days, golf is the guys’ sport of choice. That became clear when they teased Vachon about his answering machine message, which includes the phone numbers of three golf courses he frequents.

After I confessed that I’ve never even been to a hockey game, Yardley urged Vachon to invite me to one. Yardley’s tone was sweet and grandfatherly. Suddenly, the image of Dennis Rodman flashed across my brain, and I thought about how much basketball has changed.

“Rodman is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet,” Yardley said. “He just has an image he has to live up to.” The salaries of basketball players have changed, he said (he made $30,000 a year in the NBA), but the egos haven’t.

And neither, someone added, have the groupies. Even pole vaulters? I asked. Seagren nodded.

“I could never write a book,” Newcombe said. “Too many people would be angry at me.” (Hey, I’d buy it!)

Tickets ($250) for the Sports Legends dinner are still available. Information: (818) 754-2874.

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Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.