If on First (Batter) You Don’t Succeed, Just Lower Your Goal

Tommy John, the former Indian, White Sox, Dodger, Yankee, Angel and Athletic left-hander, in his book, “TJ: My 26 Years in Baseball,” recalls former Dodger pitching coach Red Adams’ formula for bouncing back in a game.

John writes that Adams once told him:

“I always started out trying to throw a no-hitter. Then after the first batter, I worked on the one-hitter. After I faced the second hitter, I wanted to keep it down to a nice two-hit shutout. After the third batter, I wanted to pitch a three-hit, one-run game.”

Trivia time: Two of the top five scorers in NBA history never won a single-season scoring title. Can you name them?

Rocket vs. Bullet: When Times staff writer Mal Florence read the news that NFL scouts timed Raghib (Rocket) Ismail in 4.1 seconds for 40 yards, he recalled his interview with former Olympic 100-meter champion and world record-holder Bob Hayes.

Said Florence: “Hayes is generally regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time. He told me that his fastest 40-yard dash was 4.3.”

They’re history: There’s not a prison large enough to hold all the mothers guilty of the worst felony known in sports: Throwing out their kids’ memorabilia.

At least Bill Hawe, 62, of Pleasant Hill, Calif., has only himself to blame.

Hawe, who owns a scientific equipment company, returned from work Tuesday to find that his entire collection of baseballs, worth tens of thousands of dollars, had been stolen.

The set, which Hawe began collecting as a child, included balls signed by Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Bill Dickey.

Said Hawe: “I should never have left that stuff out. It should have been left in a safe place.”

Out of Tunis: In its February SportsLetter, the Amateur Athletic Foundation recalls a comment by Dwight Stones, the former Olympic high jumper and world record-holder. During a recent ESPN indoor track telecast, Stones said that for many years, female Olympic athletes were banned from running distances longer than 200 meters because several women collapsed after the 800-meter race in the 1928 Games.

From the SportsLetter:

“The person most responsible for spreading the myth was the eminent sportswriter, John R. Tunis, who described ’11 wretched women’ competing, five dropping out, five more collapsing at the end of the race and the 11th fainting in the locker room.”

Add myth: The SportsLetter continues: “Unfortunately for Mr. Tunis, the camera had been invented. Photos and records of the race clearly indicate only nine participants, at least eight of whom finished, three breaking the existing world record. Harold Abrahams (of ‘Chariots of Fire’ fame) later wrote it ‘was a scene of a very limited amount of distress among the competitors.’ ”

Trivia answer: Oscar Robertson and John Havlicek.

Quotebook: Center Will Perdue of the Chicago Bulls, explaining a recent five-for-eight shooting performance after he was two for 11 in his previous game: “I stayed closer to the basket.”