His Diet Was Just a Bit Fishy

The second baseman of the New York Yankees, explaining the power of the first baseman, said: “He told me the reason he had power was his mother was a good cook. He said he was eating fish out of the Hudson River. I told him, ‘You better be careful. There’s garbage in that river.’ He said his mother cooked it good.”

Willie Randolph talking about Don Mattingly? Nope. It’s Ray Morehart talking about Lou Gehrig. They were teammates 60 years ago on the team many consider the greatest ever, the 1927 Yankees. Morehart backed up Tony Lazzeri at second base.

Morehart, a native Texan, was in the stands Thursday night at Arlington, Tex., when Mattingly hit his fourth grand slam of the season, tying a club record Gehrig set in 1934.

Asked to compare the two, Morehart told the New York Times: “It wouldn’t be fair. That’s the only time I’ve seen Mattingly. I can only say he’s not as big as Gehrig was.”

Mattingly is listed at 6 feet and 175 pounds. Gehrig was listed at 6 feet and 200.

Morehart said it was the first game he’d seen in 15 years.

“My next-door neighbor insisted on taking me,” he said. “I wanted to stay home, get out of that traffic, and stay away from that noise. I’m too old to go to the dadgum ball games.”

Morehart is 87.

When Arnold Palmer shot that 10 at Muirfield Friday, his partner was Wayne Grady, an Australian who once shot a pair of 10s in two weeks.

After Palmer’s round, Grady clapped him on the back and said, “You just joined the Bo Derek Club.”

Wrote Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post: “Reportedly, Palmer was smiling, though on second glance he might have been seething.”

Add Palmer: Describing the 12 he took in the 1961 Los Angeles Open at Rancho, he said: “I wanted to knock a three-wood on the green, but put it out of bounds to the left. I hit it again and put it out of bounds on the right. Then the left again, and then the right again. A guy in the press asked me, ‘How’d you make a 12?’ I said I missed a 20-foot putt for an 11.”

Note: That year, he went on to win the first of his two British Open titles.

Trivia Time: If Paul Azinger wins today, he will become the fourth American whose only win in a major tournament came in the British Open. Name the other three. (Answer below.)

Wrote Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel, after the Puerto Rico Justice Department said it wanted to extradite Bobby Knight to serve a six-month sentence: “As far as I’m concerned, they can have him. I think six months in jail would do him good. It would give him an idea of what it’s like playing at Indiana.”

He added: “Bobby and John Feinstein could write a sequel to their best seller, “Season on the Brink.” They could title it, “Season in the Clink.”

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Jeff Kemp said a number of NFL players have offered to help his father, Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), in his presidential bid.

“They’re in a high enough tax bracket where most of them start thinking Republican,” he said.

One former NFL player who isn’t a Republican is Pat Haden, who happens to be Jeff Kemp’s attorney.

“Pat has been pretty liberal in the past,” Kemp said. “We’ve had our share of discussions. But I think he’s coming over to our side as he gets older.”

Trivia Answer: Tony Lema, Tom Weiskopf and Bill Rogers.

Quotebook

Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post, on Nick Faldo, who is tied for second in the British Open: “Faldo, an Englishman, is known here as ‘Our Nicky’ when he’s going good and ‘Nick Foldo’ when he’s not.”