He Might Have Been Too Clever by Half

A .500 average is nothing for an umpire to brag about. But it didn’t keep the late Ron Luciano from telling a story on himself in one of his two books.

Reader David Macaray, in response to a Morning Briefing item about Paul Lo Duca winning an argument with an umpire, passed it along in an e-mail:

“After a called strike three on the home team’s catcher, the disgruntled player turned to Luciano and said, ‘Come on, Ron, you called that identical pitch a ball just two innings ago.’ Luciano replied, ‘Well, at least I didn’t miss both of them.’ ”

Trivia time: Brooks Robinson spent 23 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. That ties him with what other player for most consecutive seasons with one team?

Mind games: Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, on Boston’s late-season run at the New York Yankees: “Red Sox fans are getting so excited they’ve already booked future therapy sessions.”

Team effort: Regarding the Yankees’ Kevin Brown breaking his left hand by punching a wall, Jim Armstrong of aol.com wrote, “Judging from their performance over the past three weeks, the rest of the Yankees have hit the wall too.”

Another shot: From Tom Arnold of FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period”: “Hey Yankees, if you’re looking to rebuild next season, might I suggest buying the Red Sox.”

An omen? Joseph Coen, a beer seller at Fenway Park, found a penny on a counter dated 1918, the last year the Red Sox won the World Series. “This is the year,” Coen told the Boston Globe. “This is just another sign.”

A better idea: Jack Daniel’s sponsored the seventh-inning stretch at Monday’s Red Sox-Athletic game at Oakland, prompting Tim Keown of ESPN.com to write: “Seems like they’d be better off sponsoring the bottom of the fifth.”

You make the call: Channel 11, through fox11.com, is allowing its viewers to determine what NFL games it will show Sunday. No, the halftime show from the Super Bowl is not one of the options.

He’s now among them: Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald recently wrote this about sports talk radio:

“It has dumbed down sportswriting and sports television and sports journalism with its lowered standards and head-butting. There’s too much name-calling, hostility, arguing, smearing, jealousy and sewage.

“And now I’ve joined the Evil Empire.”

Le Batard will soon begin doing a talk show for a new ESPN radio station in Miami.

Trivia answer: Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox.

And finally: Brian Bedol, chief executive officer and president of CSTV, on ESPN’s announcement that it will launch a competing college sports channel next year: “My partners and I would like to congratulate ESPN on its 25th anniversary as the new worldwide follower in sports.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.