He May Give Yankees Ghost of a Chance

On the heels of all those Elvis sightings comes suspicion that another 20th-Century superstar with a prodigious appetite wanders among us.

Hide the hot dogs, it’s George Herman Ruth.

Newsday columnist Joe Gergen writes that the ghost of Babe Ruth may be responsible for stirring the New York Yankees to their fast start this season.

Not that he was invited, but Ruth has inundated the American consciousness with the release of a new movie, “The Babe,” starring John Goodman.

The spirit of Ruth was also present last week at the grand opening of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the new stadium that rests near the Babe’s old haunts in Baltimore.

Gergen has no other explanation for the Yankees’ improbable start.

He suggests, too, that it must have been Ruth who slapped opening defeats on Red Sox aces Roger Clemens and Frank Viola as part of the ongoing curse Boston fans have endured since the Red Sox sold Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.

Of the new movie about Ruth’s life, Gergen writes:

“ ‘The Babe’ doesn’t answer the question about whether the man was gesturing to the bleachers in Wrigley Field before a home run in the 1932 World Series any more conclusively than ‘JFK’ specified the President’s assassins. Perhaps, in this latest re-enactment, he merely was pointing his team, the Yankees, in the right direction.

“That would explain a lot.”

Trivia time: How did actor John Goodman prepare for the role of an overweight Ruth in the movie “The Babe?”

It’s a wrap: Fritz Massmann is hanging up the tape and cutters after 38 years as a trainer, the last 22 with the New Jersey Nets.

If nothing else, Massmann will be remembered for his quote after learning in 1976 that the Nets had traded Julius Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers.

“We should shoot all the owners,” was Massmann’s reply.

Massmann worked for 10 coaches, 18 assistants and hundreds of players. He was honored Thursday night before a game between the Nets and Indiana Pacers.

Massmann says he never met a player he didn’t like, but he says athletes have changed.

“Today, they get a hangnail and they don’t play,” he said, “Money has changed things. The athletes think more of themselves than the team.”

Runs, hits and . . . taxes?Did you realize that major league baseball players have to pay non-resident income taxes in some cities? In fact, according to Baseball Weekly, 11 current teams play in jurisdictions that tax non-resident income.

Legislators in Philadelphia were deciding this week whether to become the 12th jurisdiction to enforce tax laws against athletes.

For example, it will cost New York Met outfielder Bobby Bonilla $56,000 in taxes to visit California this year for 18 games against the Dodgers, Padres and San Francisco Giants.

No need to hold a telethon. Bonilla will earn $6.1 million in salary this season.

Trivia answer: Goodman lost 60 pounds.

Quotebook: Convicted felon and Raider fan Claude Dawson Jones, serving a 10-year sentence for robbing 24 banks so he could finance lavish trips to watch his favorite NFL team: “My dream, when I get out of prison, is to work for the Raiders. I’d do anything for them. I’d like to do something constructive. . . . I wouldn’t do their banking.”