PEOPLE

Boston Red Sox fans will be pleased to learn that the skis that helped kill their team's chances for a second straight pennant in 1968 have been sold. Pitcher Jim Lonborg, who severely injured his left leg on a Nevada slope after the 1967 season, donated the skis to KQED, San Francisco's educational TV station, for a charity auction. Intoned Columnist Arthur Hoppe, the auctioneer, "Lonborg's career was almost wrecked when he busted his leg on these very same skis.... Isn't that wonderful?" David Douglas of Fremont, Calif., who got the skis with a high bid of $67, was unmoved by their tragic history. "I'm a skier first and a baseball fan second," he said. "They're a good pair of skis, a bargain, and I'm not concerned with a jinx."

The Hudson Valley Philharmonic will be giving a series of concerts in the New York area this summer, and one of the featured soloists will be Marques Haynes, the captain of the Fabulous Magicians basketball team. It seems that while the orchestra plays such numbers as Boléro and the 1812 Overture, the Magicians will perform fancy ball-handling routines, the idea being, presumably, to acquaint basketball fans, painlessly, with the joys of classical music. Haynes thought it was worth a try once he was assured that the Magicians wouldn't have to wear tuxedos and that there would be a sufficient number of time-outs, and last week he and his teammates were practicing for their debut by means of tapes provided by the orchestra. Said Haynes, "Tchaikovsky is excellent dribbling music."

A group of former war correspondents who covered D-day went to the White House recently to meet President Nixon before flying to Europe for the 25th anniversary of the invasion. After chatting and posing for pictures the group started to leave. "Wait," said the President, "I've got something for you. I don't have much time for golf," he explained, "but I've been given a lot of golf balls with my name imprinted on them. I want each of you to have one." He then handed out the balls, tossing them to persons beyond his reach. "I'll feel squeamish about hitting 'President Nixon' with all my might," one of the visitors remarked. Nixon laughed. "Don't do it," he said, "you might drive it out of bounds and hurt somebody. Because of the name on the ball, I'd get blamed. Use it only for putting."

"I'd sure like to stay here and try to break 100," said the Duke of Windsor, peering forlornly through dark glasses at the Silver Lake golf course in Akron. His Royal Highness, who was in Akron as the guest of Industrialist Nathan Cummings, added, "I forgot this was my wedding anniversary when we made the date to come to Akron, and I might say that the duchess was terribly unhappy."

Records of some of Jack Dempsey's early fights are lost, but there was a later bout that also never made The Ring Record Book. Dempsey's victim in that fight was J. Paul Getty, today perhaps the richest man in the world. "I've known Getty for 50 years, even before I was champion," said Dempsey last week. "He was very much interested in my career, and we worked out a few times. Getty's a very peculiar guy. One time, back in 1923, when I was training up in Saratoga for my fight with [Luis] Firpo, he said to me, 'Now look, Jack, you may think this is strange, but I think I'm pretty good. I want you to do the best you can against me, and I'm going to do the best I can. When it's over we're still good friends, so do the best you can because I'm going to try to knock you out.' I said, 'O.K., that's swell.' So we shook hands and I knocked him down a couple of times and bloodied his nose. I didn't try to kill him or anything like that, just to show him he couldn't fight. Finally I said, 'Enough?' and he said, 'That's it," and he quit. He weighed about 180 pounds then, the same as me." They did remain good friends, too, and later this month Dempsey will be Getty's guest in England.

Ewing Kauffman, owner of the Kansas City Royals, has now missed one of his team's home games. The Royals were to play the Yankees, game time 7:30 p.m., on the evening that Kauffman's daughter, Marion Sue, was to marry Mark Clinton Williams, wedding time 7:30 p.m. "I toyed with the idea of listening to the game through an earplug transistor," Kauffman said wistfully, "thus becoming the first father to give away the bride while listening to a ball game. But Mrs. Kauffman put her foot down."

The most popular figure on a team of Very Important People proved to be S. I. Hayakawa, acting president of San Francisco State. The Reno VIPs, which also fielded Denise Long, the Warriors' 13th-draft choice, Lady Jockey Robyn Smith and Stassa, a belly dancer, lost 5-3 to the KSFO No-Stars in their annual softball game, but Hayakawa got the biggest hand—a seven-minute standing ovation at the Cow Palace. Hayakawa had been invited to take a bow, but when he insisted on playing he was named catcher. "It will give me a closer look at the strikes," the semanticist explained, sort of.

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