This Invention Says Mouthful About Game

Memo to young ballplayers who love to chew: A recent study by the University of California at San Francisco confirmed what numerous users and victims already knew. That is, there’s a strong correlation between smokeless tobacco and mouth cancer.

Now, however, anyone can load up, at no risk.

Lewis A. (Bud) Harmon, 72, an inventor in McCook, Neb., has developed “Harmon’s Tobaccoless Chew,” a mixture of ground-up tea leaves, tobacco flavoring--with no nicotine--and wintergreen.

“It spits brown and everything,” Harmon said. “But you can still swallow it with no ill effects.”

Trivia time: Who holds the major league record for fielding percentage among shortstops?

Mushrooming trend: Since the U.S. Golf Assn. ruled that irradiated golf balls are acceptable, the Whitesell Nuclear Research Establishment in Pinawa, Canada, has reported a surge in the number of golfers sending balls its way. The Manitoba lab zaps the balls with gamma rays, giving them extra bounce, at no charge.

Norm Rubin, an anti-nuclear activist with Energy Probe in Toronto, told the Associated Press he has no problem with atomic golf balls.

Said Rubin: “I would argue that it may be more useful than most of the things that Atomic Energy of Canada does.”

Counting by 10s: From Mark Blaudschun of the Boston Globe: When Irving Fryar was told recently that New England Patriot Coach Rod Rust wanted to use him as his No. 1 receiver, Fryar smiled and predicted he would get “80 or 90 receptions and 30 touchdown catches for 2,000 yards.”

The flab is up: The Soviet team of Marat Kojomorov and Alexander Tchougouvets finished fifth among six nations in last weekend’s World Team Jockey Championship at Longacres, near Seattle.

Both said they had trouble with the American starting gate system and with the unfamiliar sprint distances of six and 6 1/2 furlongs. “There’s no time to make a decision,” Kojomorov told Patricia Greenleaf of the Tacoma Morning News-Tribune.

But their big problem was less technical. During their visit to the Northwest, the Soviet jockeys, who weigh 126 to 134 pounds when racing at home, were able to make the contest’s 120-pound weight allowance only after spending two hours a night in a sweat box.

Extra-base hunch: In the wake of the Phil Bradley-for-Ron Kittle trade between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox, Kittle told Jim Henneman of the Baltimore Evening Sun that it didn’t surprise him.

The trade was completed Sunday afternoon and Kittle got the word in the fourth inning of Chicago’s game with Milwaukee.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been taken out for hitting a double,” he said.

Road scholar: Coach Jim Mora of the New Orleans Saints returned to his alma mater, Occidental College, in June to receive the Alumni Seal for distinguished achievement in his profession.

Mora continues to give liberal education a good name. Usually single-minded about preseason practice, he will make an exception while the Saints are in London for their game with the Raiders Sunday.

Said Mora: “One of the reasons we take the trip is that we want them to be distracted. . . . We’re not going over there with the idea of practicing twice a day and having meetings until 10 o’clock at night. . . . We want them to learn something from their experiences over there, so we’re giving them that opportunity.”

Trivia answer: Larry Bowa, .980.

Quotebook: Reliever Rob Dibble of the Cincinnati Reds, on why he doesn’t mind if a hitter stands and admires a long home run hit against him: “If it goes 500 feet off me, I’m as amazed as he is.”