He Continued Getting Bigger, and Got Better

Benny Dees, head basketball coach at the University of New Orleans, was an assistant coach at the University of Alabama when Charles Barkley was a star at Leeds (Ala.) High School.

Says Dees: “Coming out of high school, I never thought Barkley would make it. I figured he’d gain 60 pounds and become a slob. So he gains 80 pounds and becomes a superstar.”

Bernard King, hoping to come back from knee surgery, was struggling during a workout with the New York Knicks and a teammate told Gary Binford of Newsday: “If I was him I wouldn’t try to play this season.”

The player was informed that King’s contract with Converse will net him $100,000 should he play in one game.

“Oh yeah,” the player said. “In that case, I would play. I would have played yesterday.”

Said WTBS analyst Bill Russell after a play by the Washington Bullets went awry against the Chicago Bulls: “Malone went for the alley-oop and Corzine caught him in the alley.”

Trivia Time: What do sprinter Ben Johnson of Canada, welterweight champion Lloyd Honeyghan of Britain and center Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks have in common? (Answer below.)

Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller tells what a gopher ball means to him: “I was a kid in Iowa, and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were coming to the area on a barnstorming tour. They were autographing baseballs for charity and you could get some for $5. But I didn’t have $5.

“But I knew a way to get it. They were paying money for gophers’ feet over in Adel, Iowa, and there was this field just full of ‘em. So a friend and I backed up the old car, attached a long hose to the exhaust pipe, stuck the hose down into one of the gopher holes, then took a big old gunny sack and opened it up over the hole on the other end of the field. Then we revved up the old car and they came pouring out into that gunny sack like you couldn’t believe.

“When I had enough, I cut off their feet, got my $5 and went and got my autograph of the Babe. Still got that ball and that autograph, too.”

Baltimore Oriole Manager Cal Ripken Sr., after riding 21 floors in an elevator with a man wearing nothing but socks in Miami: “All I know was that he wasn’t carrying a gun.”

A fan recently made a half-court shot between the third and fourth quarters at the Salt Palace in Utah, winning a $25,000 Cadillac.

Jazz Coach Frank Layden grabbed the fan, pulled him into the team’s huddle and sent him out with four Utah players to start the fourth quarter.

Add Jazz: From the Denver Post: “The Imelda Marcos award winner of the month was Karl Malone, who bought 22 pairs of shoes at a store in Atlanta. Price tag: $2,000.

Is that why they call him the Mailman?

Hal McRae of the Kansas City Royals, on Bo Jackson: “He’s got more talent than anybody I’ve ever seen. If he applies himself, there’s no way they’ll keep him out of the Hall of Fame.”

Add McRae: Said Manager Billy Gardner when asked to clarify McRae’s status as a player-coach: “If he hits good, he’s a player. If he doesn’t, he’s a hitting coach.”

Trivia Answer: All three are Jamaicans.

Quotebook

Kansas City Royal reliever Steve Farr, asked if his shoulder problems might be mental: “How could it be mental? I don’t have a college education.”