Marlins Find No Shortage of Talent--for Front Office

They are coming out of the woodwork for a position with major league baseball’s newest addition, the Florida Marlins.

A rabbi wants to be the team chaplain. A Manhattan lawyer with degrees from Harvard and Yale is offering to negotiate contracts. A public relations director for the Salvation Army wants to work in the press box. An aeronautics specialist would be a natural for traveling secretary.

A lawyer for the U.S. Department of Labor even wrote that he is willing to discuss any position “from manager to lowly attorney,” the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported.

For what it’s worth: The Atlanta Braves’ combined no-hitter Wednesday night was the first in National League history, but it was not the first time three NL pitchers threw nine innings of no-hit ball.

In 1956 against the Milwaukee Braves, the Cincinnati Reds’ Johnny Klippstein pitched seven innings, Hershell Freeman the eighth and Joe Black the ninth without giving up a hit. Jack Dittmer doubled against Black in the 10th, and Black lost the game on three hits in the eleventh.

The game was recorded as a combined no-hitter, but because of the recent ruling by the commissioner’s office defining no-hitters as games of nine innings or more that ended with no hits--it no longer qualifies.

Trivia time: Chevrolet-powered cars have won 32 consecutive Indy car races. When was the last non-Chevy victory?

Connors clone?Vince Evans, the Raider backup quarterback, in an interview with The Times’ Elliott Almond, said he expects to be called upon at some critical point this season:

“You dream for this. I’m 36 years old and at the tail end of my career, and this is how you would want the story to end. I feel like Jimmy Connors in a way.

“A lot has been said (about) when a guy is over the hill. But I feel that when an athlete keeps himself in shape, eats right and goes to bed on time, I think he can play and be competitive for as long as he wants to. Certainly that has a cap on it. I like the situation I’m in right now. I thank God for it every night.”

Heisman hype: Critics shouldn’t point the finger at Houston’s David Klingler when it comes to running up statistics for Heisman Trophy consideration, as he did by throwing for nine touchdowns in the Cougars’ 73-3 victory over Louisiana Tech. After all, the coach of Georgia Tech 75 years ago when the Engineers buried Cumberland, 222-0, in football’s all-time rout was John Heisman.

More on 222-0: The score wasn’t the only scary thing about the game for Cumberland. Bill Finch, one of Georgia Tech’s tackles, wore a glass eye. Teammate George Griffin, in an interview with the New York Times a few years ago, recalled that Finch took it out and tossed it into the water bucket during a timeout.

“Some of the Cumberland boys came over and started to drink out of it,” he said. “They got a terrible fright.”

Trivia answer: Sept. 3, 1989, when Teo Fabi won at Mid-Ohio with a Porsche engine.

Quotebook: Race driver Al Unser Jr., on what he learned from his father, Al, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner: “He taught me all I know, but not all that he knows.”