LITTLE ROCK — Pie in eyes not a total pain in neck
With two game-ending hits this week, journeyman Donnie Murphy of the Florida Marlins has learned how to take a celebratory shaving-cream pie in the face.
His advice: Keep your mouth and eyes closed.
“The first time, I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for at least a couple of hours,” Murphy said Saturday. “It was the nastiest feeling ever. When you get it in your eyes, it stings, your nostrils actually burn, and it takes forever to clean out. But it’s definitely a good time.”
Shaving-cream pies for late game heroics are a Marlins tradition, and Murphy has been the primary target this week. A career .195 hitter who has spent parts of five seasons in the majors, Murphy earned the Three Stooges treatment when he hit a two-out, two-run pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning Monday to beat Colorado 9-8.
The reserve infielder came through again Friday when his pinch-hit RBI single with two out in the ninth beat Atlanta 7-6.
It was the third game-ending hit this week for the Marlins, and the fifth one-run victory in their homestand.
Murphy, who has spent most of this season with Class AAA New Orleans, was called up from the minors July 3. With his latest game-winner, he’s 3 for 9 for Florida and enjoying his burst of notoriety.
“It’s definitely fun,” he said.
“I like to turn on the TV and see myself. And I’m hearing from people I haven’t talked to in years.”
NASCAR baby boom
Two more NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, Ryan Newman and Sam Hornish Jr., confirmed Saturday that their wives are pregnant.
Four drivers - Edwards, Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya and Elliott Sadler - have already added newborns to their families this year. The wives of Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray, Newman and Hornish are all expected to have babies before next season.
The Hornishes already have one daughter, 2 1 /2-year-old Addison, and are expecting their second child Dec. 30. Newman said his wife also is due in December though he did not give the actual date. It will be the Newmans’ first child.
Number theory
Texas Rangers public address announcer Chuck Morgan has good memories of late Yankees announcer Bob Sheppard, who died recently at 99.
“Al Oliver’s Rangers uniform (from 1978-1981) was zero,” Morgan told Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Well, Bob refused to accept zero as a number. For example, he’d announce, ‘No. 2. Derek Jeetah, No. 2,’ but when Al Oliver was introduced, he’d announce, ‘Integer zero. Al Oli-vah, integer zero.’”Unscripted
In light of former Dallas Cowboys Coach Jimmy Johnson’s scheduled appearance on the new show Survivor: Nicaragua, Ian Hamilton of the Regina (Saskatchewan) Leader-Post suggested a few other TV opportunities for NFL celebrities:
“Michael Vick’s cameo on Dog the Bounty Hunter.”
“Eli Manning turning up on Big Brother.”
“Travis Henry’s recurring role on How I Met Your Mother.”They said it ...
The Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley, on Friday’s dugout scuffle between Seattle Mariners second baseman Chone Figgins and Manager Don Wakamatsu: “Think of the confrontation as something like Reggie Jackson vs. Billy Martin, without the star power.”
NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Juan Pablo Montoya, to The Associated Press on his 3-year old daughter Paulina’s trip to the emergency room Thursday: “Her brother [5-year-old Sebastian] practiced his golf swing on her head.”Quote of the day “Ever since I was elected in December, people have asked,‘What’s it feel like to be a Hall of Famer?’ Now I can tell you what it feels like. It feels like going to heaven before you die.” Former major league Manager Whitey Herzog
Sports, Pages 16 on 07/26/2010