Page 4B
The Behrend Beacon
Pest control, Mr. Nice
by Mai Florence
Los Angeles Times
New York Giant cornerback Jason
Sehom didn’t impress his wife, ac
tress Angie Hannon, when he came
home with a customized $60,000
Cadillac Escalade SUV. hut he was
pretty pleased.
“When you put it in reverse, lour
spotlights shoot out of the hack
bumpers, and there’s a (closed-circuit
TV) screen so you don't have to turn
around and look to back up." he told
People magazine. “I just want to go
to the store. I don’t want to dock the
Star Trek Enterprise, you know'.’"
Comment from Tom Fitz Gerald of
the San Francisco Chronicle: ''We've
seen Sehom get burned often enough
to know why he’s worried about go-
ing in reverse.”
Harmon and Seahorn
TViviatime: Who uas UCLA's first
consensus All-American in basket
ball?
Revelation: Stricter visa regula
tions in the wake of Sept. 11 have
forced several Latin American big
leaguers to reveal they're older than
we thought.
According to Baseball America.
“Fifteen players have added tears to
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their lives, and we expect to find out
about more.”
Said Dan Daly of the Washington
Times: “On the plus side, they’ll
qualify for their pensions that much
sooner."
Party line: Rudy Martzke in USA
Today: “Despite another Match Play
Championship without major names
in the final. PGA Commissioner Tim
Finchem insisted to ABC’s Mike
Tirico that match play is “great for
Cl 'll." "
Mr. Nice Guy: Skip Bayless in the
San lose Mercury News, on whether
Oakland Raider Owner A 1 Davis
might go after Steve Mariucci as a
coaching replacement for Jon Gruden:
"The Raider hierarchy views
Mariucci as softer than Charmin. He’s
a little 100 college rah-rah, too tear
fully sentimental, too country club,
too corny, too melodramatic, too thin
skinned and 100 needy of pats on the
head to be a Raider coach.”
Sh hh!: Demonstrating a base-steal
ing lesson for reporters, new Boston
Red Sox outfielder Rickey Henderson
said it’s important to take the first step
toward second base with the right
fool. Most players start with a cross
o\ er of their left foot, he said.
Don't tell them,” teammate
Johnny Damon chimed in. “They’ll
tell their kids and we’ll lose our jobs.”
Out of place?: Comedy writer
Jerry Perisho: “During the closing cer
emonies of the Winter Olympics, the
rock band KISS with Gene Simmons
played for the crowd. Watching KISS
play in Salt Lake must be like seeing
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at
\\ oodslock."
Pul-down: From Jay Leno: “We
lo'.e Rob Costas, and you know he
lo\es the Olympics. Like tonight, he
said when he saw the Americans with
all that gold, it made him feel 5 feet
tall."
Trivia answer: Dick Linthicum in
P)M and 1632.
And finally: Mike Lupica in the
New York Daily News on the Lakers’
ait college & instate
SPORTS
Friday, March 1, 2002
Guy, and other notes
rout of the Knicks on Sunday: “Shaq
was Shaq, the giant of the game at the
weakest center position in 40 years.
... (He) did whatever he wanted. The
Kings won’t stop him in the playoffs,
the Mavericks won’t. No one will.
“But it is Kobe (Bryant) who makes
them a joy to watch. ... It’s a shame
the Garden only sees him once a year.
He might be the best player in the
sport.”
Ken Maguire of The Associated
Press writes that Boston Red Sox fans
will go to any depth to break the Curse
of the Bambino.
“On Saturday, a group went to the
bottom of a suburban Boston pond in
search of Babe Ruth’s piano, which,
the story goes, was tossed into the
water by the slugger in 1918.
“The group hopes to refurbish the
piano and play it again, just as the
Babe did in 1918, the last time the Red
Sox won the World Series. A season
later, Ruth was sold to the New York
Yankees, who have since won 26
championships.”
More piano: It hasn’t been found
yet, but organizers say they have proof
the piano is there. An infrared cam
era identified a rectangular shape with
wiry weeds at the bottom, 15 feet be
low the surface and near shore.
TVivia time: What former major
leaguer grounded into only 33 double
plays in 4,553 at-bats _ the best in
history with one for every 138 at-bats?
Hint: He also played football for a
local university.
The West way: Skip Bayless of the
San Jose Mercury News suggests that
the Golden State Warriors entice Jerry
West out of retirement to rebuild the
floundering franchise.
“West is the best at identifying,
drafting and luring talent. Jerry St.
West He would do in the front office
what Rick Barry once did on the court.
For the first time in a long, long time
the Lakers would glance uneasily at
Northern California.”
Dream on, Skip.
Required reading: A footnote to
Center
the story about the Canadian writer
who locked himself out of his Salt
I .ake City hotel room - in the nude.
"l ie covered himself with a news
paper." said Michael Ventre of
MSNBC.com. “This is a great argu
ment tor getting your news the old
fashioned way instead of download
ing it with one of those Palm orga-
l’cst control: Scott Ostler in the
San Francisco Chronicle: “Mystery to
me: why the Japanese players in
America seem to treat the Japanese
media like lepers. Ichiro Suzuki
barely spoke to the legion of Japanese
scribes who followed him all last sea-
"Sure. we media are annoying, but
those poor ink-stained Japanese
wretches are the players’ link to their
local fans back home.”
It’s fiction now: Ron Rapoport in
the Chicago Sun-Times: “John
Fcinsicm hasn’t seen ESPN’s movie
A Season on the Brink,’ which will
air March 10, but he read the script
that was adapted from his book about
Bob Knight and hated it.
"Aside from the factual inaccura
cies. Feinstein told the Lubbock Ava
lanche-Journal, the movie uses made
up characters, including a halftime
tirade that didn't happen and has ‘just
ilu- general feeling that they went
mure for melodramatic screaming
scenes
Trivia answer: Don Buford, who
plac ed for USC’s baseball and foot
ball teams in the late 19505.
And finally: Jerry Magee of the
San Diego Union-Tribune, comment
ing on Jon Gruden, the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers' new coach: “The man
dailc gels up a few minutes after 3 in
the morning during an NFL season in
onler to begin his scheming.
"Excuse me, but this doesn’t im
press me. The bite Paul Brown, as ac
complished a coach as ever lived, did
not work nights and neither did Chuck
Noll, echo did pretty well in four Su
per Bowls.”
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Big stars taking verbal hits
early on in spring training
byJonHeyman
Newsday
Not one baseball has been thrown
or batted yet, at least not in a game,
Yet it already has been an active
spring training. The barbs and tis ane
flying around like never before, and
superstars are taking the brunt of it,
The jig is practically up for Ken
Griffey Jr., whose image as self-cen
tered superstar is about solidified with
the latest barrage of comments from
former teammates. Griffey keeps say
ing it comes with the territory of
superstardom, but that’s not so. Some
superstars simply act in such a way
as to separate themselves from their
teammates, and, with the possible ex
ception of Frank Thomas, Griffey
might be the most glaring example.
Former Red Pokey Reese ripped
Griffey, telling the Cincinnati
Enquirer, “It’s 25 of us, not one. I
know he's Ken Griffey Jr., but some
one should have said, We’re all in this
together.'”
Another former Red, Dmitri Young,
now a Tiger, said Reese was “dead
on.”
Praising his new Tigers teammates
in comparison to Griffey, Young told
Michigan’s Booth Newspapers,
“They’re not about, ‘l’m on this bill
board. I’m on that billboard.’
“You sit there and joke around, and
he'll go, 'How many home runs have
you got?’ Or How much money do
you hiake?”’
Young said Griffey made it so bad
in Cincinnati that getting to Detroit
feels like “heaven.” That’s an unlikely
characterization for Detroit. Reese
might be in a bad mood after reject
ing a $2l-million Reds offer in April,
only to sign in Pittsburgh for $5 mil
lion. But it looks bad that yet another
solid citizen, Young, has piled on.
Griffey said the problem is that he
isn’t the rah-rah guy that Greg Vaughn
was. But it has to be more than that.
Griffey also pointed out that he played
behrco!ls @ aol.com
PHOTO COURTESY OP QRIFFEYJR.COM
Ken Griffey has gotten slammed
by former teammates.
95 of the last 97 games “when every
one said to shut it down,” as if play
ing two-thirds of a season was a feat.
Griffey’s remark might have been a
veiled reference to Reese missing die
final 20 Reds games with a sore shoul
der.
Griffey wasn’t the only superstar to
become embroiled in early contro
versy. Manny Ramirez was a day late
in arriving at Red Sox camp, prompt
ing some surprisingly harsh comments
from Trot Nixon, who pointed out to
die Hartford Courant, “You want to
know why the Ymkees win so many
championships? I’ll tell you why, Ev
eryone shows up ready to play base
ball. They figure out some way to jell
together.
“The younger guys are in awe. They
don’t start strolling in, pimping around
and doing this and that Bemie Will
iams shows up, Derek Jeter makes $2O
million ($18.9 million, actually). You
can guarantee he shows up on time.”
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