Davis Might Throw Book at the Author

Don’t expect to find Al Davis’ just-published, unauthorized biography, “Slick: The Silver and Black Life of Al Davis,” at Raider souvenir stands this season. Excerpts:

--Gladys Valley, wife of former Raider owner Wayne Valley:

“He’s just petty and small and weasely. He’s like a rat under your house.”

--Former Syracuse Coach Ben Schwarzwalder, commenting on Davis the student, sitting in the bleachers and drawing diagrams of Syracuse plays:

“I didn’t like him. I knew he wasn’t much of a player, that he’d withdrawn from the team because he couldn’t make it. But I didn’t know if he was a spy or whatever, if he was giving our plays away to other teams.”

--Barry Thomas, on a recruiting visit by Davis when he was an assistant at The Citadel:

“The first thing he wanted to do was see my legs, and the next thing he wanted was to see my mother’s legs. He had a theory about . . . your potential to get bigger depended on your mother’s genes. He wanted to see how developed her calves were.”

--”Slick” author Mark Ribowsky, on why Davis is in the 1949 photo of the Syracuse basketball team: “(Davis) never played a minute for the Orangemen that season. In fact, he wasn’t even a member of the team.

“Hearing the team picture was to be taken earlier than usual, while the squad worked out before the cutdown, Davis decided to forgo his Thanksgiving vacation and work out with the team. Given a uniform on picture day, he can be seen to this day, in black-and-white eternity.”

Trivia time: Who was the first black player in the American League?

Sails pitch: Dennis Conner, short of funds in his campaign to defend the America’s Cup off San Diego next year, spotted defense rival Bill Koch while riding Stars & Stripes in San Diego Bay last week.

Koch is worth more than $600 million, according to Forbes magazine.

Conner to Koch: “Want to go for a ride?”

“Sure,” Koch replied.

Conner sent his chase boat to pick up Koch at the dock, and off they went.

“We’re into creative marketing,” Conner aide Jerry La Dow said. “We thought we’d hold him for ransom.”

Splash: Humorist and New York sportswriter Arthur (Bugs) Baer, in 1923, writing about the Jack Dempsey-Luis Angel Firpo fight, during which Dempsey, knocked out of the ring in the first round, climbed back and knocked out Firpo in the second:

“If this fight had been held on a barge, Firpo would be champion today because Dempsey would have drowned.”

For the record: Add Ohio Stadium to Monday’s Morning Briefing list of on-campus college football stadiums seating more than 90,000. Ohio State is adding about 5,000 end-zone seats, raising capacity from 86,071 to about 91,000.

Trivia answer: Larry Doby, in 1947.

Quotebook: John Mackey, NFL Players Assn. president, arguing in 1970 with then-Baltimore Colt owner Carroll Rosenbloom about a possible players’ strike: “If you didn’t have tickets to give away, you wouldn’t have any friends.”