By
The Associated Press
Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews hospitalized
LOS ANGELES - Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews, one of 16 players in major league history to hit 500 home runs, has been hospitalized near San Diego since Sunday because of a heart problem.
"I'm sure he'll come out of this, I'm very hopeful he's going to be just fine," Mathews' wife, Judy, said yesterday from their family home in Del Mar, Calif.
Judy Mathews said she took her 68-year-old husband to the emergency room Sunday at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla after he had trouble breathing.
"He's in intensive care," she said. "He had what they're calling congestive heart failure because of his lungs filling with liquid and his heart having trouble dealing with all that."
"Yesterday, they gave him a temporary tracheotomy. He's still under sedation, I haven't been able to converse with him since I took him in. Hopefully today, he'll start coming out of it."
Mathews, a third baseman, played 17 big league seasons. He was the only person to play with the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta. He was a member of three World Series teams - two with the Braves and one with the Detroit Tigers.
Mathews hit 512 homers - tied for 13th on baseball's career list with Ernie Banks - and hit .271 with 1,453 RBIs. Often batting ahead of Hank Aaron in the Braves' lineup, Mathews led the NL with 47 home runs in 1953, his second year in the majors, and again with 46 homers in 1959.
Along with the Braves, he played for Houston and Detroit before retiring in 1968.
In addition, Mathews managed the Braves for part of the 1972 season, all of 1973 and part of 1974.
Born Oct. 13, 1931, Mathews graduated from Santa Barbara High in 1949, and has lived in Del Mar for several years.
A rare treat: No. 1 visits Notre Dame
Lou Holtz was as pumped as he'd ever been. It was Oct. 14, 1988, the night before Notre Dame was to play No. 1 Miami in a game billed as "Catholics vs. Convicts."
At a pep rally forced outdoors by a record turnout, some 25,000 Fighting Irish fans were screaming for dear old Notre Dame. At one point, the coach finally stepped to the microphone. It went dead. So with the crowd straining to hear every word, Holtz spoke up. Loudly.
"I want you fans to do three things," he began. "Number one, I want you to yell louder then ever before. Number two, I want you to conduct yourself with great class."
"And number three, go tell Jimmy Johnson we're going to beat them like a yard dog!"
Today, Holtz laughs about No. 3.
"I'd never said something like that in my life," said Holtz, now the coach at South Carolina. "I just got caught up in the emotion and started thinking about the whole week and what we could accomplish and just got a little carried away."
So did his team. Ranked No. 4 at the time, the Irish beat the Hurricanes 31-30 when Pat Terrell knocked away a 2-point conversion pass with 45 seconds left. Notre Dame went on to win the national championship, its eighth and most recent title. Add another chapter to the overflowing Irish scrapbook.
Another historic day arrives Saturday, when No. 1 Nebraska visits South Bend for the first time in 53 years to play No. 23 Notre Dame. A sellout crowd of 80,232 - plus tens of thousands of Cornhuskers fans without tickets - will see if Irish coach Bob Davie can pull a Holtz.
Since 1968, only two teams ranked No. 1 have played at Notre Dame - and both went home losers against Holtz-coached teams. In addition to the win against Miami in '88, a No. 2 Notre Dame beat a No. 1 Florida State 31-24 on Nov. 13, 1993.
Unlike '88, though, there was no national title because Boston College stunned the Irish the following week and the Seminoles ended up winning the crown.
Notre Dame has played No. 1 on 22 occasions with eight wins, 13 losses and a 0-0 tie with Army on Nov. 9, 1946. At home, Notre Dame is 3-3 against No. 1's.
History helps, but what really matters is whether Notre Dame can match up with Nebraska, college football's winningest team during the last 20 years.
The Irish are coming off a 5-7 season; the Huskers off a 12-1 campaign and a No. 3 final ranking in the AP poll. Since the Irish won their last national title, the Huskers have won or shared three championships.
Notre Dame is nowhere near the team it was when Miami and Florida State came to town.
Yes, the Irish look improved, but they are 13 1/2-point underdogs against the Huskers, led by Heisman Trophy contender Eric Crouch. Notre Dame counters with Arnaz Battle, who threw the first two touchdown passes of his college career in a 24-10 win against Texas A&M last week.
Davie knows all too well that history won't win games.
"Yes, there is all the history, and playing at home with our fans there. All those things add to it," Davie said. "But we have to play well enough to allow that to be a factor. You have to get to the point where that's a factor."
Batch will start Sunday
PONTIAC, Mich. - Just 24 hours after signing a four-year, $31 million contract extension, Charlie Batch said yesterday he will start Sunday against the Washington Redskins.
"I'm not 100 percent, and there are some things in the game plan that I can't do, but I'll be out there," Batch said after practice. "Obviously, if I keep waiting, I'll get closer to 100 percent, but I can do things now that I couldn't do last week, so we felt the time was right."
Batch broke a bone in his knee during offseason workouts and missed all of training camp and the Lions' 14-10 season-opening win in New Orleans.
Lions coach Bobby Ross said the team is happy to have Batch back, even after Stoney Case helped them to victory against the Saints.
"No offense to Stoney at all, but Charlie is our quarterback of the present and of the future," Ross said. "He's the guy we want out there in a big game."
Batch lived up to expectations in yesterday's practice, completing seven of ten passes, but used very little lateral movement.
"His timing has been really sharp, and based on what I've seen over the past two days, he's ready to go," Ross said. "Obviously, there's going to be some adjustment to going at game speed again, but his timing with the receivers is already there. Keep in mind that he's been throwing for five weeks now."
Batch missed all or parts of 10 games last season, including a playoff loss to the Redskins, after suffering elbow and hand injuries.
"I'm sure there is going to be some rust there," Batch said. "I'm on game one of my season, and all these other guys have already played a game, plus the preseason. So I'm going to already be playing catch-up, and I won't be 100 percent. But I'll do whatever I can to help the team win."
The status of one of Batch's favorite targets is still in doubt. Herman Moore, optimistic earlier in the week about returning from a separated shoulder, suffered a neck stinger during practice and is unsure if he will be able to play.
