Coaches' corner.

GARY SHELTON, of the St. Petersburg Times, trying to get Lou Piniella to manage the local Devil Rays rather than the Mets: "In New York, you'd just be healing the sick. Here, you'd be healing the dead."

BILL LANKHOF, of the Toronto Sun: "Baseball is the only industry where owners try to outdo each other every season by announcing who lost the most money."

BUM PHILLIPS, on his philosophy of football coaching: "It's all right to be called stupid. Just don't go around proving it."

STEVE HOVLEY, former Oakland outfielder, on an Oakland A's Hall of Fame induction: They're going to retire the uniforms of Reggie Jackson and myself. But they expect me to be in mine.

BOB BASSEN, former NHL journeyman: "My dream in hockey is to score as many goals this year as Wayne Gretzky scored last week."

BUDDY RYAN, as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles: "I was great on team unity. I had the entire club focusing on hating the same guy. It made me feel proud."

JOHNNY KERR, the former 6-8 Chicago Bulls center, on the way he guarded Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: "I'd push up close to him and breathe on his goggles. It worked. He never scored more than 63 points against me."

LINDSAY NELSON, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and were forced to play in an ill-shaped football stadium: "The Coliseum is the only ballpark in history that has room for 93,000 people and two outfielders."

JIM MURRAY, the late Los Angeles Times sportswriter, on covering the San Francisco Giants in Candlestick Park: "Only a place that calls an earthquake a fire could call Candlestick a ballpark."

RUTH ANN STALLINGS, wife of former Alabama assistant coach Gene Stallings, seeing her husband walking down the street on a perfect afternoon with an umbrella over his head:

"Gene, are you crazy?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Why do you need an umbrella on a perfect day?"

"Because the Bear [Bryant] told me it was going to rain."

CASEY STENGEL on the secret of his longevity: "Every time I decided to cut a ballplayer, I had his room searched for a gun."

JACK BUCK, the late legendary Cardinals broadcaster, on why Pete Rose deserves to be in the Hall of Fame: "He could do it all--run, hit, and bet."

WHITEY FORD, on why his managers loved him: "Because I always told the writers that if I hadn't smoked or drank or played around, I'd have won 25 games every year. The writers would say, 'Gee, his manager has gotta be a genius to win with a pitcher like that."

EDWARD BENNETT WILLIAMS, former owner and president of the Washington Redskins, after hiring Vince Lombardi as vice president and coach: "I can honestly say that I am the first president of a corporation who will come into supreme power upon the death, resignation, or impeachment of the vice president."

BILLY MARTIN, the late Yankees skipper, on why as a manager he never made bedchecks: "I was always the last guy to get back to the hotel after staying out all night."

EARL STROM, the former basketball referee, to a heckler bedeviling him for a call: "Hey there, dummy, let's talk about it tomorrow morning when you come by for the garbage."

LOU HOLTZ on fatherhood: "I loved my little boy until he told me he wanted to grow up to be a football coach. I then stopped raising him and began grazing him."

BILL LEE, the wild man of baseball pitching, upon announcing that he had decided to live until the age of 102: "It was meant to be 105 years, but I couldn't sacrifice beer drinking. So I took three years off my potential."