Manager left flush after loss
Not only did St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny give the team the day off Thursday at spring training, he also cleaned up after everybody the day before.
Literally.
Rookie third baseman Patrick Wisdom’s home run in the sixth and final inning gave the Red team a 7-6 victory over the Blue team in an intrasquad game Wednesday that meant some of the losing squad had to go to work off the field.
Matheny had determined the players (and manager) on the losing club had to perform the duties normally handled by the clubhouse equipment staff. Matt Holliday was assigned to clean the training room, while Trevor Rosenthal was tasked with the kitchen area.
Matheny, who had no particular team in the fight, assigned himself to clean all the toilets. Not onlythe one in his office, but the ones in all the other shower areas.
“Both teams are my team,” Matheny said. “It’s the right thing to do.”
Barry, Barry, Barry
Former Oklahoma Sooners and Dallas Cowboys Coach Barry Switzer (Crossett) made headlines earlier in the week when he called former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel an “arrogant little p***k” on a St. Louis radio show.
Switzer, 76, was on another radio program Thursday and again stirred the pot with some of his comments. This time Switzer was asked, if he were a coach in the NFL right now, would he draft Manziel. The end result was a puzzling remark about how he would never recruit a white quarterback.
“I’ve said some negative things about him, but at the same time I’ve said some great, positive things about him. I love his ability,” Switzer told WNSR-AM 560 in Nashville. “I’ve always said I’d never recruit a white quarterback. The only way I’d ever recruit a white quarterback to play for me is if his mom and daddy would both have to be black, and that’s the only way I would do it.
“My quarterback is a quarterback-fullback offense - how the wishbone was. I’d have to have a Jamelle Holieway, J.C.
Watts and Thomas Lott [former Oklahoma quarterbacks who are all black]. Those guys are going to be my quarterbacks - great runners, great ball carriers and be able to pass. Those guys could throw and run.”
Open mouth, insert foot again, Coach.
Go deep for seats
Think you can hit a home run at the San Diego Padres Petco Park?
If so, the Padres are willing to let you try. Should you succeed, you’ll clinch a free pair of 2014 regular-season tickets, in addition to the major ego boost the accomplishment would surely bring.
Padres marketing brass labeled the stunt “Swing for your seats” and will open the stadium March 15 so fans can attempt to hit a ball, pitched by machine, over the outfield fence of Petco Park.
Be warned: Participants get only one swing at no more than two pitches, and foul balls don’t count.
In addition to other rules, competitors must be at least 16, use a bat provided by the Padres and wear a helmet.
No Clowney fan
It would be fair to say that Dee Ford isn’t a card-carrying member of the Jadeveon Clowney Fan Club.
“I’m better,” the Auburn defensive end told Sirius XM radio during the NFL Combine. “People are just looking at the fact that he is a physical specimen.
“Honestly, if you watch the film, he plays like a blind dog in a meat market, basically.”
Quote of the day
“It shouldn’t take much for Georgia to get your attention. Why? Because they’ve been playing well. They beat us.” Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson on facing Georgia today, less than 48 hours after beating No. 17 Kentucky
Sports, Pages 22 on 03/01/2014