‘Winning Team’ Was a Real Loser

Now it can be told. Grover Cleveland Alexander suffered from epilepsy but it never was mentioned in “The Winning Team,” the movie in which Ronald Reagan portrayed the Hall of Fame pitcher.

According to Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post, Reagan offered this explanation: “They wouldn’t let us use the word ‘epilepsy’ in the movie. I’d already made a movie where I played an epileptic professor.”

The movie bombed.

Add Reagan: Bob Lemon doubled for him in long camera shots, but Reagan said, “I did a lot of that stuff myself.”

Boswell: “Reagan took a one-week crash course from Lemon and was especially pleased with a scene where he hits the pocket of a catcher’s mitt nailed to a barn door.”

If Nancy Lopez fails to win the U.S. Women’s Open this week at Baltimore, it won’t be because she doesn’t know the course.

When husband Ray Knight was playing for the Baltimore Orioles last year, he coaxed her out to the Baltimore Country Club at every opportunity, saying, “I want you to know the location of every sprinkler head on that course.”

Trivia Time: What gold medalist in the 1924 Olympic Games at Paris wrote a book that sold more than 25 million copies? (Answer below.)

The Phoenix Cardinals are working out in Flagstaff, where 10 years ago quarterback Neil Lomax played in a game for Portland State against Northern Arizona.

“I broke my ribs in that game,” he said. “The one thing I remember is our budget didn’t allow for a flak jacket back then and our coach, Mouse Davis, chipped in and picked one up on his own for me. I’ve worn one ever since. I go to bed with one on.”

For What It’s Worth: Four years ago, Dave Stephens of Cal State Northridge was trying to make the Olympic team in the high jump. He didn’t make it, although he did win the NCAA Division II title at 7-1.

His coach, Bill Webb, switched him to the javelin and now he’s headed for Seoul after winning the event in the Olympic trials. Webb, now an assistant coach at Tennessee, also coached former world record holder Tom Petranoff, who also made this year’s team.

Add Trials: Mark Everett, who made it in the 800 meters, is a University of Florida sophomore who ran only 1:58 in high school at Bagdad, Fla.

“The difference is training,” he said. “My senior year, we didn’t have a track. We just ran in the neighborhood. Our coach would tell us, ‘Go down to the telephone pole and come back,’ and that’s what we did.”

Don Baylor, American League player representative, explaining to Murray Chass of the New York Times why owners aren’t to be trusted, told of the time the Boston Red Sox brought up Mike Greenwell when the club was playing in Anaheim.

“The triple A club tells him to get there the best way he can,” Baylor said, “so when he gets to the Los Angeles airport, he jumps in a cab. It costs him $80 or $90, but when he hands the team a receipt, they say you should have known better, here’s $50.”

Trivia Answer: Benjamin Spock. He was a member of the Yale 8-oared crew that carried the U.S. colors to victory.

Quotebook

Bob Woolf, agent for Larry Bird, on his negotiations with the Boston Celtics: “Larry’s not avaricious or greedy--but I am.”