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Tuesday, March 18, 1997

Rendezvous with Barry Switzer plays by company rules

By Frank Luksa

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

UNDISCLOSED SITE - The rule where Barry Switzer works is that no one except the owner can speak about company business without permission from the owner. So I felt obliged to set counter-ground rules during a recent chat with Barry.

I agreed not to disclose where we met, who Switzer works for or what he does. Those sensitive issues are our secret. Beholden to company policy, Barry couldn't speak to them anyway.

The idea behind talking to Switzer was to discover if he has any interest in sports. He agreed to meet me on a date I can't divulge and in a location, which I refuse to reveal. Nor will I ever tell how I got there.

Turns out, Switzer is more sports-oriented than you might think. An avid fisherman, too.

First thing he did after I arrived in his office via a route the world never will know was to offer a photograph for perusal. Three young men stood before a shore-line pit they had dug to roast fish on a spit. Did I recognize them, he asked. I didn't.

Switzer said the picture was 30-odd years old. It had been taken when he and friends were flown in and left to fish for 12 days in Canada. That was him on the right. I forgot the name of the guy in the middle. The other figure giving a hungry look to the fish was a chubby fellow, Jimmy Johnson.

How about those Rangers, getting to the point of Barry's involvement in sports?

"Your friend Deion had a triple to win a game the other day," he answered. I made no reply. He might not understand if I said my attraction to Sanders' charm would intensify if Deion stayed in Cincinnati.

"Juan Gonzalez. I know one of 'em," said Switzer, prompted to return to the Rangers. He didn't stay there long. Switzer recalled that a former Rangers coach, Mickey Hatcher, worked for him on an undisclosed job years ago in Oklahoma. So did one-time Texas catcher Darrell Porter.

"I used to know a lot about baseball. The Yankees were my team," Switzer recounted. He told of watching the World Series on black-and-white TV. Of the time he was in the Army and hitchhiked to Baltimore to see either Mickey Mantle or Roger Maris hit a home run in 1961. He can't remember which one did it. But he says the Yankees won, 4-1.

Those were days when The Sporting News was a baseball-only publication. When Switzer favorites such as Allie Reynolds, Yogi Berra and Hank Bauer played for the Yankees. Mantle, Reynolds and then Bobby Murcer were from Oklahoma, where Switzer spent many years on a job that remains classified.

Mention of Mantle set Switzer off on a story about an awards banquet they attended in Oklahoma. Someone posed the usual question to Mantle. How much money would he make if he played now instead of then?

"Oh, about $500-600,000," Mantle estimated.

"Is that all?" he was asked.

"You gotta remember," said Mick, "I'm 60 years old."

Switzer has been places and seen things ... Indy 500, Kentucky Derby, Final Four, U.S. Open, PGA, Wimbledon, Olympic Games, heavyweight title fights and a Super Bowl from the stands. Despite invitations from Frank Broyles, for whom Switzer worked on a job that is taboo to mention, he never has attended the Masters golf tournament.

But he's going next month for a weekend.

"I'm going to the Masters to be able to say I saw Tiger Woods play. My motivation is simply that," he said.

Switzer was moved to attend his only Mavericks game this season for the same reason. The Chicago Bulls were in town.

"I wanted to see Michael Jordan, the eighth or ninth wonder of the world. I think he scored 37 points, and you weren't aware he was doing anything. He was so smooth."

That reminded him of watching Oscar Robertson against Arkansas in an NCAA playoff. Switzer's memory is that the Razorbacks scored 54 points in that game. Robertson himself scored 56 for Cincinnati.

"Our guys would jump up and come down. He would jump and still be in the air. Robertson flipped his fingers," said Switzer, "and the bottom of the net quivered."

Switzer also is a fan of the NFL. Therefore, he was dismayed when owners last week rejected the 1997 return of instant replay.

"Coaches voted almost unanimously for it. I've been an advocate," he said, relying on newspaper accounts to judge sideline sentiment. Switzer endorses replay at least during playoffs to insure, "the right team got to the Super Bowl without a fluke happening."

All will be revealed after I retire ... where Switzer works, what he does and for whom. The only possible conflict would be if I'm at work on the biography of Deion Sanders.

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(Frank Luksa is a sports columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Write to him at: Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, Dallas, Texas 75265.)