Weight Is Always on for Billy Casper

Billy Casper, who has weighed anywhere between 175 and 200 pounds and is better known for his exotic diets, notably the eating of buffalo meat, still hasn’t figured what weight is best for his golf game.

He said he won the 1959 U.S. Open at 220 pounds, the 1966 U.S. Open at 180 and the 1970 Masters at 200.

Fellow senior golfer John Brodie, former San Francisco 49er quarterback, told the New York Times: “Billy Casper has won more titles at more different weights than anybody but Sugar Ray Leonard.”

Tom’s tough times: How bad is it for Tom Watson? When he phones home on Friday nights, for the first time he is hearing these words from his kids: “Daddy, did you make the cut?”

Watson’s earnings have dropped off so dramatically that he let go longtime caddy Bruce Edwards, who now works for Greg Norman.

“I gave Bruce the option late last year to take a better offer if it came along,” Watson said. “He got mad at me for even suggesting it. But after I missed the cut at the Memorial, he decided to take Greg’s offer. I can’t blame him. Bruce’s money depended on how much I make.”

Trivia time: What do Mickey Hatcher, Troy Aikman and Darrell Royal have in common?

Big appetite: Dan Gladden, Minnesota’s No. 1 prankster with the departure of Bert Blyleven, worked his devilry on reserve infielder Al Newman when the team was headquartered at the Grand Hyatt in New York.

Gladden checked every item on one of those doorknob breakfast menus and hung it on Newman’s door.

The tab: $102.

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: Kevin Mitchell told USA Today that Willie Mays, working as a special instructor in spring training, gave him a tip that so far has paid off handsomely.

Said Mitchell: “Mays told me to pick a zone and look for a pitch in it. He said when I get it, don’t miss it, because it won’t come again.”

Unbreakable: The toughest record in baseball to break? Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak and Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive games would get some votes, as would Cy Young’s 511 victories during a career and Hack Wilson’s 190 runs batted in for a season, but how about Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters?

Even if you tied the record, which nobody has, you then would have to go out and throw another no-hitter. Nobody has pitched three no-hitters in a season, let alone in succession.

Among the pitchers who never threw a no-hitter in their careers were Grover Cleveland Alexander, Lefty Grove, Dizzy Dean and Steve Carlton.

Trivia answer: All three played football at the University of Oklahoma.

Quotebook: Milwaukee Brewer announcer and commercial TV comic Bob Uecker on the new SkyDome in Toronto: “It even looks good from the last row.”