It Can Be Alarming, but Connors Finally Has the Last Word

During the semifinal match between Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors in the D.C. tennis tournament, a car alarm started to beep in the parking lot.

According to John Feinstein of the Washington Post, the following exchange took place:

Lendl: “I think it’s my car.”

Connors: “Maybe you ought to go out and check.”

Lendl: “If you want the match that bad, I give it to you.”

Connors: “The hell with the match, I want the car.”

The car is a blue Mercedes.

For the Record: The trivia question during Channel 11’s Dodger telecast Friday night was, “Who threw the last pitch to Babe Ruth and the first pitch to Jackie Robinson?” The answer given was Johnny Sain.

Wrong. Sain threw the first pitch to Robinson, but the last pitch to Ruth was thrown by Jim Bivin of the Philadelphia Phillies. The date was May 30, 1935. Ruth was playing for the Boston Braves. Five days earlier, the 40-year-old Ruth hit three home runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field, the last homers of his career.

The Numbers Game: When Steve Carlton joined the San Francisco Giants last year, he found that the number he had worn for 15 years, No. 32, was being worn by Dan Gladden. Gladden graciously gave it up and switched to No. 10.

The duo went their separate ways, Carlton to the Chicago White Sox last summer, back to Philadelphia for spring training, and finally to Cleveland. Meanwhile, San Francisco traded Gladden to the Minnesota Twins, who issued him No. 32.

So who did the Twins pick up last Friday? It was that man again, but this time he found his number was up. Gladden keeps No. 32 and Carlton will wear No. 38 when the Twins open a series at Anaheim Stadium tonight.

Trivia Time: In 1963, who were the most valuable players in the National League and the American League in baseball and in the National Football League, all wearing No. 32? (Answer below.)

Peter King of Newsday reports that New York Giants Coach Bill Parcells has called a moratorium on dormitory pranks.

Things got out of hand a few times last year, especially the time that nose tackle Jim Burt sprayed fire-extinguisher foam all over the room of Phil Simms. The cleaning bill did not please Simms.

Says Burt, who leads the team in practical jokes: “Tell Bill that I don’t know what moratorium means.”

Said Philadelphia third baseman Mike Schmidt when asked what he’ll miss most in baseball if he retires next year: “Room-service French fries.”

Ray Dandridge, the Negro league star inducted last week into the Hall of Fame, played with Willie Mays at Minneapolis of the American Assn. in 1951. Dandridge, 37 at the time, never made it to the majors, but he was delighted to see Mays get called up.

“I was hitting behind Willie, which became a problem,” Dandridge says. “Every time Willie would hit one out, they’d knock me down. Finally, one day I went to the manager and said, ‘Skip, if you don’t get that man out from hitting ahead of me, I’m gonna get killed.’ ”

When he got called up, Mays was hitting .477.

Trivia Answer: Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers, Elston Howard of the New York Yankees and Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns.

Quotebook

Dave Anderson of the New York Times, on charges that Rickey Henderson of the Yankees has been guilty of malingering: “The Yankees wondered if Henderson’s hamstring was more ham than string.”