Baseball and golf a longtime pairing

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. --

The thousands of people touring the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend all are seeing an exhibit with six glittering trophies that stand out. They stand out amid the myriad artifacts in the great baseball shrine because they are golf trophies.

All of them were won by an avid and accomplished golfer, Babe Ruth. Among the items in his display at the Hall is a Spalding golf ball with which he made a 220-yard hole-in-one at St. Albans Golf Course in Queens 71 years ago.

Legend has it that a tense match between Ruth and Ty Cobb at the inaugural Hall of Fame induction led to a tradition that still was going strong yesterday: the Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational, a golf tournament for baseball's elite fraternity and guests. Bert Blyleven, who will be inducted Sunday, effectively became a Hall of Famer early Saturday morning when he piped a drive down the middle of the first fairway.

"Like I knew what I was doing," said Blyleven, who really does know what he is doing, as a 4 handicap.

The point is, golf and baseball actually are good teammates and basically always have been. Ruth, a 5 handicap, played for Long Island in the Stoddard Trophy amateur matches against Westchester and New Jersey. The "swat" in Sultan of Swat could just as easily have referred to his driver, judging from the club championship trophies from St. Albans and other courses.

Cobb took lessons from Bobby Jones and was a member at Augusta National and Olympic Club in San Francisco. He wasn't as good a golfer as Ruth, but apparently was serious about a game that still captivates baseball greats.

"All of us play a lot of golf," Ozzie Smith said between the fifth and sixth holes of the tournament Saturday at Leatherstocking Golf Course, a Devereux Emmet design. "It's a wonderful course to play. Any time you can get out on a golf course, under blue skies, with friends . . . it doesn't get any better than that."

Joe Morgan said he just got back from Scotland. "I walked 18 holes for seven straight days," he said as he headed to the pro shop during his round for a new putter.

Ryne Sandberg, who maintains a 4 handicap despite managing the Phillies Triple A club, nailed a 3 wood off the first tee. "I get out enough. I play in the mornings, when we have night games," he said.

George Brett, a 6 handicap, wore a white and bright orange shirt with matching bright orange shorts. "I'm Rickie Fowler," he said, referring to the colorfully dressed young PGA Tour pro. Brett and Carlton Fisk had played 30 holes together Friday.

Fisk, another 6 handicap, was playing really well, fellow Hall of Famer Paul Molitor said during their round Saturday. "I don't play a lot. I thought when I got done playing baseball, I was going to really get good at golf," Fisk said. "Then you find out that it takes as much time to get good at golf as it does to play baseball. I said, 'What am I doing? I can have fun shooting 85, too.' "

Of course, John Smoltz, probably a future Hall of Famer, didn't have much fun when he shot 84 in a Nationwide Tour event this year. That was just proof that golf isn't easy, even for the best athletes. And it was another in a long line of connections between baseball and golf.

Local people have seen many of those. Former Yankees pitcher Ralph Terry became a New Jersey club pro -- and briefly a Senior PGA Tour player -- after he retired from baseball. Tom Seaver's father was a national-class amateur golfer. Nelson Doubleday was golf chairman at the Meadow Brook Club while he was co-owner of the Mets.

So it won't be unnatural for the Metropolitan PGA pros to give lessons during a Mets game at Citi Field on August 19.

Blyleven, in fact, was late for his pre-induction news conference Saturday afternoon because he was finishing his round. "I missed a little five-foot putt at the end," he said on the stage, in his initial remarks, "and I'm still kind of ticked off."