What If All Numbers Are Gone?

When Billy Martin had his No. 1 uniform retired by the New York Yankees, some people thought that George Steinbrenner was overdoing it. Martin, after all, was a .257 career hitter.

Under Steinbrenner’s stewardship, the Yankees have been mothballing numbers with increased frequency, and former shortstop Tony Kubek told the New York Times, “He might retire Don Mattingly’s number next year.”

Kubek added: “I think George wants to retire all numbers. He wants to have his players wear letters, a first for baseball. He could have a diphthong on first base, a vowel on second and, who knows, maybe an umlaut on third.”

Trivia Time: The Dodgers have retired the numbers of Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jim Gilliam, Walter Alston, Sandy Koufax, Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson and Don Drysdale. How many of the numbers can you recall? (Answer below.)

Anyone notice where the old Dodger keystone combination of Bill Russell and Davey Lopes wound up Sunday? Both were in left field, Russell for the Dodgers and Lopes for the Houston Astros.

21 Years Ago Today: On Aug. 18, 1965, Henry Aaron of Milwaukee hit a Curt Simmons pitch on top of the pavilion roof at St. Louis’ Sportsman’s Park for an apparent home run. However, umpire Chris Pelekoudas called him out for being out of the batter’s box when he connected. Nevertheless, the Braves won the game, 6-2. The loss of the homer hardly mattered as Aaron wound up with 32 for the season. The league leader was Willie Mays with 52.

For the Record: UCLA contends that it never has lost a football opener to a team that won the national championship the previous season. Sports historian Dwain Esper of Burbank begs to differ.

He called to point out that in 1929, UCLA opened against USC, which had won the national championship in 1928. USC won, 76-0.

There was a lot of hand-wringing among Chicago Bears defenders when Buddy Ryan left to become the head coach at Philadelphia, but they seem to be adapting to the schemes of new defensive coordinator Vince Tobin.

Linebacker Otis Wilson told the Chicago Tribune: “It’s fun. If I would have come in as a rookie with Vince and learned this system, I would have been in the Pro Bowl five years ago. I don’t have a whole lot of thinking. I can just play football. This is just basic. Go out and kick somebody’s butt.”

Add Ryan: Asked about his relationship last year with head Coach Mike Ditka, he said: “He never really told me what to do. I never let him. I said who played, how much, and when. Every now and then, when things weren’t going well on the field, Mike would come by and make some suggestions. I’d just tell him to go . . . himself, and he’d turn around and walk off.”

Trivia Answer: Reese (1), Snider (4), Gilliam (19), Alston (24), Koufax (32), Campanella (39), Robinson (42), Drysdale (53).

Quotebook

Mario Andretti, on surviving a day of attrition to win the Pocono 500 Sunday: “I got kind of religious toward the end.”