Goal in one: Phil aces NFL analysis

THE Someone Gets It Football Analyst of the Week: Phil

Mickelson. No fooling. Mickelson, a Chargers fan and a pregame guest on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” BroncosChargers game, was asked by Stuart Scott who would have the most passing yards, Philip Rivers or Peyton Manning.

Mickelson chose Manning, “because [the Broncos will] be playing from behind.”

Not only was he correct — Manning had more pass yards and Denver won from down, 240 — Mickelson cited a logicbased, circumstancedriven regularity that has thrown ESPN experts for 25 years!

Speaking of thoughtdeprived stats, last week on NBC, Stanford’s Drew Terrell was shown preparing to field a Notre Dame punt, when a graphic appeared: Terrell, in seven returns, averages 20 yards per — including a 76 yarder for a TD.

From that addthendivide data we’re supposed to conclude that he averages 20 yards per return? We’ve seen such graphics for decades, yet there is no average punt return, just as, with 22 people moving at once and circumstances changing after every play, there is no average play in any football game!

But that hasn’t stopped anyone from stuffing databases with such nonsense, later to appear for our enlightenment. And it never will.

History knows the 1941 YankeesDodgers World Series for one play: Mickey Owens’ passed ball.

The Yankees led the Series, 21, but were down a run in the top of the ninth in Game 3. With two out and a 32 count,

Tommy Heinrich swung and missed. But the ball got past Owens. Heinrich bolted to first. From there, the Yankees scored four runs, won the game, then the Series, 41.

Today? There’s a good chance that a player of Heinrich’s star status would have swung, missed, then headed to the dugout, or, if in the mood, jogged toward first.

Funny, what sports fans recall from when they were kids.

Brooklynborn Eddie Yost, an 18year AL infielder, died Tuesday at 86. Called the “Walking Man” for his ability to reach first without hitting a ball fair, Yost’s last two seasons were in 1961 and ’62 with the expansion L.A. Angels.

There was a day in ’61 or ’62 — I was nine or 10 — when I watched an AngelsYankees game on Ch. 11. In one atbat, Yost fouled off 10 consecutive pitches before ball four.

And I recall Phil Rizzuto hollering, laughing, amazed. Funny, how certain things stick.