Fellas, That's Your Buddy!

Fellas, That’s Your Buddy!

L.A. Times Archives

April 30, 1986 12 AM PT

Peter King of Newsday said it didn’t take long for Buddy Ryan, new coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, to get the attention of his players.

According to King, when Ryan saw tight end John Spagnola chatting with millionaire owner Norman Braman and General Manager Harry Gamble at the team’s first mini-camp as practice was beginning, he screamed for Spagnola to get his you-know-what to the workout.

“When you’re on this field, you’re mine,” Ryan yelled.

How about his communication with the players?

Linebacker Mike Reichenbach said he always comes through loud and clear.

“Buddy is not afraid to tell you that you stink,” he said.

Add Ryan: He told King: “I heard the league was thinking of making our game against Chicago a Monday night game, but they wanted to get it on early. They’re afraid we’d be 0-5 when they put us on. No way we’re going to be 0-5. We’ve got other plans. We’re going to be good.”

Trivia Time: Who is the only man to play for both the Seattle Pilots and Seattle Mariners? (Answer below.)

Auburn football Coach Pat Dye, asked what sport he thought Bo Jackson would play, told the Hartford Courant: “I can’t read his mind, but I think football is his better sport. I don’t think anybody’s written it, but he could be the best ever. Ever. When you go back and study the great running backs--Jim Brown, Gale Sayers, O.J. Simpson, Earl Campbell--each one of them had something special. Something that set them apart.

“Well, here’s a guy who is more graceful than Sayers, has more strength than Campbell, is bigger and faster than Brown and O.J. and has the best hand-eye coordination I’ve ever seen in a human.”

Question: How did Dye manage to lose to Alabama the last two years?

Orel Hershiser says that nobody hits a ball harder than Dale Murphy and that there’s no finer person in baseball.

Recalling when the Atlanta outfielder hit him in the stomach with a line drive during an exhibition game, Hershiser said: “I never saw anything. I fell and looked up, and there was Murphy standing over me and asking if was OK. He genuinely cared. He was relieved I was breathing. I should have asked him to autograph my tummy.”

Asked about UCLA’s Mike Sherrard, Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver coach Bruce Coslett told Newsday: “I don’t like him because he doesn’t have what I would consider first-round hands.”

He added: “I may be wrong on him. He makes all the plays, and that’s the thing that tantalizes you. He has the knack to increase his speed according to where the ball is thrown. But he catches everything in his chest. If he has to reach up and catch it, he can’t.”

Said Gil Brandt, Dallas Cowboy vice president, taking a different view: “Hands you can improve, speed you can’t. Remember a couple of things. Cliff Branch came into the league with the reputation of having bad hands. Look what he did. And Sherrard told us he could pluck them in high school, but they changed his way of catching in college. He’s a top-character person. He can learn.”

The Cowboys made Sherrard their No. 1 pick Tuesday.

Trivia Answer: Pitcher Diego Segui. He was 12-6 for the Pilots in 1969, their lone season in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee and becoming the Brewers. He was 0-7 for the first-year Mariners in 1977. Quotebook

University of Louisville basketball Coach Denny Crum, asked his salary: “I’m getting $300,000 but over a 150-year period.”