OFF THE WALL We just couldn’t let this stuff go …

Gnomes all the rage at this year’s Masters tourney

The boxes weren’t flying off the shelves. They weren’t even making it onto the shelves.

The Masters has gone gnome-mad, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.

Yes. Gnomes. The must-have item at the Masters this year isn’t any of the shirts or pullovers or caps with the tournament’s logo that can only be bought by those who are lucky enough to have secured a way onto the grounds of Augusta National.

Instead, the gnome is all the rage. Just ask Tom Frettoloso, who left his house at 4 a.m. on Tuesday to get to Augusta National and was headed back to his vehicle by 8 a.m. — without having seen a single golfer take a single swing.

He had a bunch of souvenirs, including two gnomes. He wouldn’t say how he got two; signage in the store said the Masters was limiting them to one per person.

“I’m self-employed and need to get to work,” said Frettoloso, a house painter, who was weaving his way toward the gates while thousands of people were walking the other way onto the Augusta National grounds. “But I’ve gotten the gnomes just about every year. I got a ticket for the practice round and here I am and now I’m done.”

Gnomes made their Masters debut in 2016 and were a quick hit, though nobody seems to remember them being as much of a phenomenon as they were this time.

There’s a couple different versions of gnomes this year; the one that hundreds were lined up to get Tuesday morning was this year’s version of a caddie, standing about a foot high, dressed in a green-and-white striped Masters shirt, khakis, green-andwhite shoes, a yellow cap and with a bag of clubs slung over his right shoulder.

Asking price at the Masters: $49.50.

Asking price online: Most were going for somewhere between $150 and $500 on Tuesday, depending on where you looked.

Trivia question Who was the first foreignborn player to win the Masters? They said it

• From Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times: “MLB suspended Brewers catcher Pedro Severino after he tested positive for Clomiphene, a drug to treat infertility — in women. He’ll miss 80 games, or well into the season’s second trimester.”

• From Janice Hough of Leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “There are relationships that don’t last as long as the last two minutes of a close college basketball game.”

• From Bob Molinaro in the Norfolk Virginian-pilot, on the U.S. World Cup opener coming the day after Thanksgiving: “For the Americans, let’s hope it’s not a Black Friday.”

• From Tim Hunter of KRKO Radio, on why he hopes Seattle trades for Baker Mayfield :“I mean, we’d be getting a quarterback AND someone to take care of the stadium. What a deal!”

Trivia answer

On this date in 1961, South Africa’s Gary Player won the Masters. OTW’S answer for Saturday wrongly omitted Frank Robinson as a rookie of the year and manager of the year winner, as pointed out by reader Gary Schwartzwald of Santee. Robinson is the only player to win both of those and the MVP Award. He won two MVPS (1961AL and ’66-NL).