He Always Preferred to Play the Field

Cal Ripken had such an exceptional fastball in high school, most baseball scouts saw him as a pitcher.

In his senior year at Aberdeen, Md., Ripken went 7-2 with a 0.70 earned-run average and led his team to the conference title with a 17-strikeout performance.

The lanky right-hander preferred playing the infield, though, for reasons that should surprise no one.

“It turned out pretty ironic,� Ripken said recently. “When the choice was ultimately given to me, I made it on the basis that I wanted to play every day, not knowing I’d be able to play so many games.�

Only five players in major league history participated in more games than Ripken, who played in his 3,001st and final game Saturday night.

“Ultimately,� he said, “I didn’t see myself playing professional ball one out of every five days.�

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Trivia time: Who holds the single-season major league record for striking out?

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Nervous time: All things considered, U.S. golfer John Daly would rather be in Pulheim, Germany, where he is playing in the German Masters this weekend amid stepped-up security measures.

“I’m scared, we’re all scared, but I’m more scared to be in the States than here,� said Daly, the first top American golfer to play in Europe since the terrorist attacks last month.

“I don’t feel safe anywhere in the United States. I just want to play golf.�

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Thinking big: Donnie Daniels, Cal State Fullerton basketball coach, whose team finished 5-23 in his first season:

“We have a facility problem that may hurt our recruiting. My dream has been to find recruits that come onto our campus and step into our gym and say, ‘Wow. Look at this. This is great!’ So we went and recruited in Senegal and West Africa.�

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Team effort: Only in “Race City USA� could the police cars be sponsored by NASCAR teams.

The town board in Mooresville, N.C., has approved NASCAR sponsors donating 25 squad cars and having their names affixed to the vehicles. Now it’s up to NASCAR to sign off on it.

The police department wants racing team sponsors to donate the patrol cars, which can cost as much as $30,000 each.

The idea is to equip officers without the town spending more money. In return for the donation, the cruisers would carry the sponsors’ names and the team numbers--just like race cars.

“It will be exactly like a race car, except it will say ‘Police’ on the side and hood and have the lights on top,� said Ray Monroe, a marketer.

“It will be a tremendous boost for Mooresville.�

Mooresville is home base to more than 40 NASCAR teams. Such top racers as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd, Steve Park and Sterling Marlin have shops in town.

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Trivia answer: Bobby Bonds, who struck out 189 times with San Francisco in 1970.

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And finally: Basketball Coach John Masi of UC Riverside, whose team is playing its first season in Division I, commenting on an opening schedule that includes games against Portland, Arizona State, Fresno State and UCLA: “We’ll be 0-6 to start.�