At Least in Golf, Opponents Don’t Hit You With Their Clubs

John Brophy coached the Toronto Maple Leafs for parts of three seasons and now coaches the Hampton Road Admirals, champions of the East Coast Hockey League. This summer he is working as a caddie for Nancy White, his girlfriend, on the LPGA tour.

Brophy was noted for his temper tantrums as a hockey player and coach, such as the day he destroyed a plastic cooler with a hockey stick after a one-sided loss, or the night he bit the ear of an opponent during a fight.

“Golf is much worse than hockey,” Brophy told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

“The way I’m wired, I couldn’t play. Playing golf is like losing 14 games in a row in overtime. It’s like hitting 15 goal posts. Golf is the toughest way in sports to make a living.”

Unusual hazards: Parker Johnstone, one of the favorites in this weekend’s sports car race in downtown New Orleans, says that wives and girlfriends might become a bigger problem than rival drivers.

“The track is narrow and bumpy and it could be dangerous, but the scariest thing is that Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus are right behind the pits,” Johnstone says.

Trivia time: The 1936 All-Southern California high school baseball team included Ted Williams of San Diego Hoover, Bob Lemon of Long Beach Wilson and Jackie Robinson of Pasadena Muir Tech. Williams was selected as an outfielder, but Lemon and Robinson were chosen at out-of-character positions. What were they?

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Did you know?: Steve Dalkowski, who pitched for Kingsport in the Appalachian League in 1957, once had 24 strikeouts, 18 walks, four hit batsmen and six consecutive wild pitches in one game. He lost, 9-8. Dalkowski, a Baltimore Oriole farmhand, never made it to the majors.

Also in 1957, Richie Ashburn of the Phillies accidently hit spectator Alice Roth with a foul ball that broke her nose. As Roth was being removed from the stands on a stretcher, Ashburn hit another foul ball that hit her.

You can look it up in “The Baseball Chronology,” edited by Jim Charlton.

Trivia answer: Lemon, who pitched for Cleveland in the big leagues, played third base in high school. Robinson, an infielder-outfielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers, was a catcher who batted leadoff for the Muir Tech Terriers.

Quotebook: After center fielder Doug Dascenzo came in as a relief pitcher for the Cubs against the Dodgers and faced the minimum six batters in two innings Monday, Cub reliever Dave Smith had this to say about his 5-foot-8 teammate: “We’ve found the perfect short man.”