Paul Olden's question for the ages

Yankees' public address announcer Paul Olden may never become as famous as Bob Sheppard, but he has his own underground following for over 30 years.

Olden was a reporter for a radio station in Los Angeles on May 14, 1978 when Dave Kingman hit three home runs for the Cubs against the Dodgers.

Olden asked then-Dodgers’ manager Tommy Lasorda this question: ``What is your opinion of Kingman’s performance?’’

It produced the all-time sound bite, even if much of it could not be aired.

Lasorda answered, "What's my opinion of Kingman's performance? What the (expletive) do you think is my opinion of it?" Lasorda went on and on in a profanity-laced tirade. It is available on the WEB if you hunt for it. WFAN recently aired an edited version.

``More than 30 years later I’m still hearing about it from various people,’’ Olden said with a laugh in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Lasorda still hasn't quite let it go. "If the guy had asked it a different way, I would have been OK with it,’’ Lasorda said in the interview. ``But he said, 'What is your opinion?' That changes it. If he'd said, 'What did he hit?' or, 'Was he swinging right?' that would have been different. But he said, 'What is your opinion?' and I proceeded to tell him."

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