Maybe the Hole in the Ground Could Be Used as the Marker

It’s an event that, if revived, would certainly go over with a bang.

A story in the Des Moines Register tells of the late Al Blozis setting an Army record for the hand grenade throw--94 yards 2 feet 6 1/2 inches--while assigned to infantry training at Ft. Benning, Ga., during World War II.

Blozis, who stood 6 feet 6 and weighed 245 pounds, was a world-class shotputter while competing for Georgetown University.

George Kiseda, a former editor in The Times sports department, wonders whether there would be any volunteers to mark the hand grenade throw if the event made a comeback.

Trivia time: Can you name the starting lineup for the Los Angeles Lakers’ first NBA championship team in 1971-72?

Panic time: The baseball season is only a month old, but already there’s depression in the Bay Area about the plight of the San Francisco Giants.

Lowell Cohn, writing recently in the San Francisco Chronicle, questioned the wisdom of attempting to send pitcher Trevor Wilson to the minor leagues:

“The team is in last place. The pitching stinks, the fielding is horrible and the Giants aren’t getting timely hits. And all of a sudden everything is going to be all right because (General Manger) Al Rosen and (Manager) Roger Craig decided Wilson has been the problem all along.

“Have you ever heard the word scapegoat? “

Glad to oblige: Bob Richards, a two-time Olympic pole vault champion in the 1950s, once haggled with California Relays meet director Tom Moore over appearance money at the Modesto track meet.

Richards requested bonus money if he broke the meet record. Moore readily agreed. When Richards came to Modesto he learned, much to his chagrin, that the meet record was also the world record at the time--15 feet 7 3/4 inches set by Cornelius (Dutch) Warmerdam in 1942.

P.S. Richards didn’t get his bonus.

Wait a minute: Loyola Marymount is the host of what is called the first Los Angeles Invitational basketball Classic Nov. 22-23. ‘Taint so.

The first Los Angeles Classic was an eight-team tournament held at the Sports Arena in the late 1950s and early ‘60s.

It featured some of the best teams in the country. For example, California beat West Virginia in a replay of their 1959 NCAA championship game.

Add Classic: John McKay, the former USC football coach, once described a basketball classic as the host team inviting three teams it could easily beat.

Golf scam: Bob Hope was playing with producer Sam Goldwyn at Lakeside Country Club when Goldwyn blew a two-foot putt. Enraged, Goldwyn hurled the putter into a bush and stormed onto the next tee.

Hope quietly retrieved the putter and used it to sink a 20-foot putt on the next green. Goldwyn was impressed and asked Hope if he would sell him the putter.

“Sure,” said Hope with a straight face, and Goldwyn unwittingly bought back his own putter for $50.

Water conservation?Cincinnati Bengal Coach Sam Wyche said he is getting mixed signals from NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on whether there will be changes so his players don’t have to stand naked before female reporters.

“(Tagliabue) actually once asked me why the players have to take a shower after a game,” Wyche said.

Joe Browne, the NFL’s vice president for communications, responded by saying: “Sam is all wet on that shower remark.”

Trivia answer: Wilt Chamberlain, Happy Hairston, Jim McMillian, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich.

Quotebook: San Diego Padre pitcher Eric Nolte after yielding seven runs in 1 1/3 innings last Sunday against Philadelphia: “Even my wife thinks I stink.”