He Likes Them Better Without the Smile Faces on Their Caps

Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe has noticed something different about the spring training camp of the Boston Red Sox in Ft. Myers, Fla.

“Everybody is too nice,� Shaughnessy writes. “Being around the Sox these day is like trying to park your car in the Christian Science church garage. Everybody smiles and acts polite. They try to help you find your way. They have a glazed look on their faces.�

Shaughnessy soon learned the reason for the new “Have a Nice Day� Red Sox. They have retained a media consultant to improve their image.

*

Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA Division I basketball record for scoring average in a season?

*

Baseball obituary: Columnist Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune commenting on Bo Jackson’s prospects of making a comeback with the Chicago White Sox while playing with an artificial hip:

“Bo Jackson can’t play baseball anymore, not major league baseball. Nothing wrong in that. He can’t outrun a catcher. He has no power. His swing is all arms, like one of those beer-league softball swings. There are worse.�

*

Twin bill: During the ninth inning of a game between Virginia Military Institute and Duke, the teams fielded a battery of identical twins.

The Keydets had pitcher Merlin Ikenberry throwing to his brother, Marlin. For the Blue Devils, it was Phil and Matt Harrell, pitching and catching, respectively.

*

Leave him alone: Manager Tony La Russa of the Oakland Athletics on a bulked up Ruben Sierra: “Ruben looks like he’s wearing a sign that says, ‘Don’t mess with me.’ So I’m not going to mess with him.�

*

Air Hastings: Scott Hastings, backup center for the Denver Nuggets, while appearing on “Late Night� with David Letterman:

“I’m often mentioned in the same sentence as Michael Jordan. You know, ‘That Scott Hastings, he’s no Michael Jordan.’ �

*

Where is he? Marvelous Marvin Hagler, the former middleweight boxing champion, who is now pursuing a motion picture career in Italy, is still bitter over a split-decision loss to Sugar Ray Leonard in April of 1987.

“I wanted to knock him out in the worst way, but I couldn’t catch him.� Hagler said. “He kept running like a little girl. He wouldn’t stand still.�

*

From “Baseball’s Even Greater Insults:�A headline in the New York Daily News after some Mets were arrested in 1986 in connection with a fight in a Houston bar: “The Boys of Slammer.�

*

Trivia answer: Pete Maravich of Louisiana State, a 44.2 average in 1968.

*

Quotebook: Rickey Henderson, suggesting that the Oakland Athletics should pay him more: “The last two, three years, I haven’t been happy. I think if I’m happy, I wouldn’t get hurt at all.�