Batting .400 Still No Match for Throwing 100

Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies has been criticized for deciding not to face Seattle Mariner pitcher Randy Johnson in an interleague game last Friday.

He reportedly is still shaking from a spring-training strikeout against Johnson.

“I thought I was dead because he almost took my nose off,” said Walker, who is batting .417. “You know the movie ‘Ghost’ when Patrick Swayze was walking up toward the white light? That’s what it felt like.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the major league record for home runs in a season by a right-handed hitter?

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Crazy stuff: Golf Digest reports that members of Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth have devised an unusual bet: Who can hit the farthest on the 16th hole while standing on a log without falling into a creek.

Come on, fellows, the game is tough enough anyway.

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Old schoolmaster: Tony Grossi in the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes that Atlanta Brave Manager Bobby Cox rules his team with a strong hand:

“He passes out two typewritten pages of what he calls ‘common sense’ rules to new players. No music in the clubhouse, no designer sunglasses or earrings on the field. A dress code on the road.

“ ‘The whole country is going to . . . ,’ Cox said. ‘I’ll be damned if baseball will.’ ”

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Update: Manfred A. Stewart, 40, a professional miniature-golf player, was given a 30-day suspended sentence and fined $25 for punching Diamond Duck in the stomach. She is the mascot for the Richmond (Va.) Braves minor league team.

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Say it slowly: Track & Field News reports that meet announcers may have to untie their tongues after relating the long jump exploits of Oregon’s Anouxa Vixathep, a native of Thailand.

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Small talk: Jay Leno asked Muggsy Bogues, the Charlotte Hornets’ 5-foot-3 guard, what he would have done if he had sprouted to six feet during high school.

Said Bogues: “I would have questioned my mom. We’re a five-foot family.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1954, Ed Furgol defeated Gene Littler by one stroke to win the U.S. Open, the first golf tournament to be televised nationally.

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Looking back again: On this day in 1952, Carl Erskine of the Brooklyn Dodgers shut out the Chicago Cubs, 5-0, with a no-hitter at Ebbets Field.

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Trivia answer: Jimmie Foxx of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1932 and Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers in 1938, each with 58.

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And finally: Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune, speculating on Dennis Rodman’s future:

“My sense is that Rodman will end up in Europe, in Greece or France, where they often take our bad actors and obvious clowns.

“He can even wear mascara and dress in feathers and not only be given compliments but be asked for the name of his stylist.

“Sending them Rodman may in some small way get even for soccer.”