Derby Watchers Will Be Drunk with Excitement

From the SportsLetter of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles:

“Each year thirsty [Kentucky] Derbygoers imbibe the traditional beverage, the mint julep. If tradition holds, the bars at Churchill Downs will dispense some 80,000 mint juleps, about 7,500 gallons worth.

“By our estimation, one way or another revelers at Churchill Downs will quaff more than 1,200 gallons of bourbon on Derby Day. Oh, we forgot to mention the 2,000 kegs of beer.”

Does anybody watch the race?

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for most minutes played in an NBA playoff game?

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Vicious! Steve Rosenbloom in the Chicago Tribune: “The big news in New York [last week] was a 500-pound joint landing in Yankee Stadium, prompting Steve Howe to announce he was making a comeback.”

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Wrong obit: During a recent San Francisco-Pittsburgh game, Pirate radio broadcaster Lanny Frattare informed his listeners that James Earl Jones had died.

“A lot of us in baseball have a lot of feelings about ‘Field of Dreams’ and the soliloquy he gave in it,” Frattare said. He quickly corrected his mistake; it was James Earl Ray, convicted killer of Martin Luther King Jr., who had died.

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Sour grapes? Steve Kelley writing in the Seattle Times: “No, Minnesota isn’t better than the Sonics. The Timberwolves are starting a lineup that, except for Kevin Garnett, couldn’t post-up a church-league team.”

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Unintentional: Arizona Diamondback pitcher Gregg Olson on getting the first hit of his 11-year career Monday against Florida’s Oscar Henriquez:

“The first at-bat, I was going, ‘Just don’t hit me.’ When I realized he wasn’t going to hit me, I said, ‘Let’s put the ball in play.’ I got lucky and it hit my bat. I was in a full bail [out] mode.

The hit was a 403-foot home run.

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Final indignity: Peter May in the Boston Globe on the Clippers: “The team has so much baggage that even Toronto writers are calling the Raptors the Clippers of the North.

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Natural reaction: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “And then there was the car mechanic who went to a psychiatrist and got under the couch.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1920, Joe Oeschger of the Boston Braves and Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Dodgers each pitched 26 innings of a 1-1 tie for the longest game in major league history.

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Close, but . . . : Bill Livingston in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “When Jerry West retired, it was suggested that the honorary gold watch that should be given to ‘Mr. Crunch’ should have only a second hand, because he was most alive when time was short and games were won and lost.”

Nice tribute, Bill, but Jerry was known as “Mr. Clutch.”

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Funny or corny? Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News: “Mike Malarkey, retiring as golf coach at Tennessee, was never full of himself.”

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Trivia answer: Red Rocha and Paul Seymour of Syracuse, 67 minutes each in a four-overtime game against Boston in 1953. The Celtics won, 111-105.

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And finally: Another anecdote from Ron Fairly on his former Dodger teammate, Stan Williams, who was regarded as the meanest pitcher of his time.

“He kept a black book with the names of players who crossed him. He would draw a skull and crossbones next to the player’s name after five stars. That meant he’d throw one at you.”

Fairly said that a player could get two stars from Williams for hitting a home run and then standing at the plate to look at it.