As a Fisherman, ‘Thumper’ Is No Catch of the Day

Bobby Doerr, a Hall-of-Fame second baseman with the Boston Red Sox, has been a friend of Ted Williams for more than 60 years.

They’re also fishing companions, and Doerr discovered another side of the famous baseball player.

“I thought I knew Ted Williams as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Doerr told Steve Waters of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “When you go fishing with him, you find out there’s a third Ted Williams. Worse than Mr. Hyde.

“He’s a perfectionist and he wants you to fish like he does. And that’s hard to do.”

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Trivia time: When the Utah Jazz franchise was in New Orleans, what was unusual about the coaching situation in the team’s inaugural season of 1974-75?

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Come again? Reader Stan Rosenfield recalls this classic Kinerism from New York Met broadcaster Ralph Kiner: “In every game that the Mets have taken an early lead they have scored first.”

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Kiner clone? Cleveland Indian broadcaster Herb Score had this to say recently: “Coming on to pitch is Mike Moore, who is 6-foot-1 and 212 years old.”

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Remember the Alamo: Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe after the favored Celtics lost the top draft pick in the NBA lottery to the San Antonio Spurs:

“I am declaring this to be ‘Feel Sorry for Us Day’ in Boston. I am granting all of us full license to spend this day wallowing in self-pity, bemoaning the fates, cursing the Ping-Pong balls and gloating over the fact that Gen. Santa Anna wiped out every one of those cursed Texans on that glorious day back in 1836.”

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Add draft: Dan Shaughnessy of the Globe writing before the lottery: “There is no consolation in the No. 2 pick this year. In the 1997 NBA draft, there is Tim Duncan and Not exactly.”

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Off-season fun: Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Carolina’s Kevin Greene and Green Bay’s Reggie White were each paid $500,000 to appear on World Championship Wrestling’s Slamboree pay-per-view show last Sunday night.

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FYI: California won the inaugural College World Series in 1947, defeating Yale, 8-7, in the title game. Yale’s first baseman was George Bush. You may have heard of him.

Yale also played in the championship game in 1948, losing to USC, 9-2.

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Trivia answer: There were three head coaches: Scotty Robertson, 1-14 record; Elgin Baylor, 0-1, and Bill van Breda Kolff, 22-44.

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And finally: The Russian are boycotting Japanese rooms during next year’s Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, according to London’s Daily Telegraph.

“The Japanese hotels won’t do,” said Viktor Mamatov, who is in charge of Russian preparations. “I woke up in pain after one night on the floor mattress [futon], and I could sleep only when I piled up six mattresses together.”

Instead, the Russians will stay aboard a Russian liner docked 40 miles away.