Fan Given a Piece of His Mind

Chicago Bear Coach Mike Ditka, while fielding questions from the press following Sunday’s 44-7 rout of the Bengals at Cincinnati, was being heckled by a group of fans outside the dressing room.

Finally, Ditka decided he had heard enough. He turned toward one loudmouth and shouted, “Get your mouth shut, jerk.” He then formed a circle with his thumb and forefinger and said, “See that? It’s your IQ, buddy--zero.”

The press conference then resumed, and when a reporter asked a question, Ditka laughed and said: “I’d rather talk to him . I know I’m smarter than that (expletive deleted).”

Take-your-choice-dept.: From a United Press International story last week on the Transamerica Open tennis tournament in San Francisco: “Jimmy Connors ignored some serving problems with a new graphite racket to defeat Peter Lundgren, 6-3, 6-4.”

From an Associated Press story: “Connors, who’s experimenting with a prototype graphite racket this week, displayed an unusually strong serve in disposing of Lundgren.”

Trivia Time: Boston’s Wade Boggs set a club record Sunday with his fourth straight 200-hit season. How many 200-hit seasons did Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski have? (Answer below.)

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: Purdue freshman Jeff George, the nation’s most recruited quarterback last year as an Indiana prep, told the New York Times he almost went elsewhere.

“I really fell in love with UCLA,” he said. “I got off the plane for my visit and they took me to Beverly Hills where I saw Kareem’s house. I went to Westwood, where movie stars hang around outside the theaters. That would be a turn-on for anyone right out of high school.

“But I knew that here, when the pressure started and I went through some bad times, my family would be around me.”

Good thing. In the last two games, Purdue has been hammered by Pittsburgh, 41-26, and Notre Dame, 41-9.

Would-you-believe-it dept.: From Richard Justice of the Washington Post: “Players traditionally take a dozen autographed baseballs home with them at the end of every season. This year, Cincinnati owner Marge Schott decided she’d charge her players $50 for a dozen balls. She lowered the price to $33 when some of the Reds discovered she had added a mark-up of $17.”

For What It’s Worth: USC’s win over Washington Saturday was its fifth against Don James since he became the Husky coach in 1975. In the other four years they won--1976, 1978, 1979 and 1984--the Trojans went to the Rose Bowl.

32 Years Ago Today: On Sept. 29, 1954, Willie Mays made his famous over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz’s long drive to center field, and pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes homered off Bob Lemon in the 10th inning to lead the New York Giants to a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the World Series. Otherwise, Wertz was 4 for 4, including a double and a triple, and another hit would have given him a World Series record of five hits in a game.

On this date in 1963, Stan Musial, 42, closed out his career by going 2 for 3 as St. Louis beat Cincinnati, 3-2. Cincinnati rookie Pete Rose went 3 for 5, and Musial said later, “He was gaining on me already.”

From the Denver Post: No. 1 draft choice Dwayne (Pearl) Washington of the New Jersey Nets was named MVP of the annual Maurice Stokes benefit game at Kutscher’s Resort in the Catskills, but former pro Jan Van Breda Kolff, who was on Washington’s team, quit the game because “I can’t play with the selfish (bleep).’ ”

Trivia Answer: None. The closest they came were Williams with 194 and Yastrzemski with 191.

Quotebook

Earl Weaver, who is retiring again as the Baltimore manager, on the first sub-.500 season in his career: “One good thing. The memory of this’ll help me stay retired.”