`World's Worst Caddy' Misses Trevino's Victory In Charlotte

Golf's best-known working caddy was missing from the side of Lee Trevino during the Senior PGA Tour's weekend visit to Charlotte, N.C.

"For 19 years, Herman Mitchell has hauled Trevino's tools, advising, fussing, laughing with the great champion, but health problems have sidelined him," explained Ron Green of the Charlotte Observer.

Mitchell, 56, is at Duke Hospital, losing weight. He will remain there until the last week of June.

Mitchell weighed 321 pounds when a doctor told him he had a weak heart muscle, and if he didn't lose 100 pounds, he wouldn't live to see another Christmas. Thus far, he has lost about 60.

"It's companionship I miss more than anything," Trevino said. "Herman always stays at the same hotel I do. I get a two-bedroom suite, and we watch TV and eat and squabble."

Squabble?

"Oh, yeah," Trevino said. "We fight like two married people, then we laugh about it.

"We yell at each other out on the course. A lady came up to Herman after a round one day and said, `Does he treat you like that all the time?' And Herman said, `No, ma'am, this is one of his good days.'

"I told Herman he was the worst caddy in the world, and he said, `There can't be that big a coincidence.' "

Despite Herman's absence, Trevino won the tournament.

CAUGHT IN THE DRAFT

Terry Armour of the Chicago Tribune says he's "not trying to scare California's Lamond Murray and Jason Kidd or anything, but the last pair of under-classmen from the same school to declare for the same NBA draft were Memphis State's Marvin Alexander and Sylvester Gray in 1988."

Alexander, then a junior, wasn't even drafted. Gray, a sophomore, was selected in the second round by the Miami Heat.

Where are they now? Gray is playing overseas, and Alexander is with the U.S. Basketball League's Memphis Fire.

NAME GAME

Rookie catcher Javier Lopez of the Atlanta Braves found out earlier this season that his isn't a household name. When a bat company sent a shipment of personalized black bats to him, the name on the barrel said, "Davey Lopez."

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Ray Miller, pitching coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates, instructs his pitchers to work fast.

"When a pitcher works fast, he has less time to think, which is a good thing," Miller told Paul Meyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

THEY SAID IT

-- Donnie Walsh, president of the Indiana Pacers, when asked if Coach Larry Brown finally has found happiness with a franchise: "Nah, Larry is never happy. I think he had his bags all but packed a couple times this season. Larry never thinks his teams are good enough, but that's what makes him tick."