What to Do When a Homer Is Not a Homer

Robin Ventura, who lost a grand slam when his New York Met teammates swarmed onto the field after his hit had beaten the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, isn’t the first player to lose a home run in a dramatic game.

With Felix Mantilla on second and Henry Aaron on first in the 13th inning of a scoreless tie in 1959, Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves hit the ball out of the park off Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Harvey Haddix, breaking up a no-hitter (Haddix had a perfect game for 12 innings). The score was recorded as 1-0, though, after Adcock passed Aaron on the basepath. Adcock was credited with a double.

That is one more base than Ventura got from his homer. His hit was called a single, because he never reached second, and the score called 4-3 instead of 7-3.

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Trivia time: What football coach went 10-0, 10-0 and 9-1-0 in three regular seasons, but was 0-3 in the Rose Bowl those seasons?

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Who knows? How old is New York Yankee pitcher Orlando Hernandez?

The Yankee media guide says “El Duque” is 30, but Cuban sources claim he is 34, perhaps older.

Says Jay Greenberg of the New York Post:

“Pinning El Duque down is like hitting his slider. Half his charm is his mystery. He should pitch with a turban, wearing a cape. When Hernandez takes the mound, the snake stands on its tail.”

Yes, but how old is he?

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Different folks: Walt Weiss started at shortstop for the Braves in a National League championship series game, but in pregame lineups provided by the Met press crew, he was identified as “Al Weiss.”

Al Weis was an unlikely star for the Mets when they won the 1969 World Series.

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What’s a dauber? After the San Francisco 49ers lost to the Carolina Panthers, 49er Coach Steve Mariucci said, “We need to keep our daubers up.”

To which San Francisco Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius commented, “Frankly, this looks deeper than upright dauber. . . . You could stroll from area to area in the 49ers’ locker room . . . and hear five different reasons why the team of the ‘90s has suddenly turned into Kitty Litter.”

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Not another one: Is there a Norris Trophy curse?

Defenseman Al MacInnis of the St. Louis Blues, who won the award last season, will be out up to six weeks because of a broken foot. Rob Blake, the 1997-98 winner, was sidelined 20 games last season because of a broken foot and two suspensions. And Brian Leetch, after winning in 1996-97, went from a plus-31 rating to a minus-36 the next season.

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Trivia answer: California’s Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf in 1948, ’49 and ’50.

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And finally: Cal offensive coordinator Steve Hagen spent four years at Cal Lutheran, so last week’s earthquake should not have shocked him, but it did. Here for Cal’s game against UCLA, he spent the rest of the morning after the quake in his rental car in a parking lot across from the team hotel in Glendale.

“I was on the 14th floor,” he said. “It scared me to death, especially hearing the building creak like it was breathing.”