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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Your reaction to that …

What’s our old buddy Paul Seebeck up to? Phone traffic must be slow again for the host of Spokane Score Central on KTRW radio he’s back to making calls instead of taking them. Who’s he calling? Members of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee, who on Sunday will finish filling in the bracket of 64.

Seebeck has decided to do a little lobbying on behalf of Washington State and has urged listeners to do the same - providing them not only the fax numbers of committee members, but in the case of Arizona State athletic director Charles Harris, his home phone and wife’s name as well.

That’ll certainly have a positive impact on the selectors - getting calls at home at all hours from Cougar fans. Say, how do feel about the media indiscriminately passing out phone numbers? Why not give Paul a call at home (838-4536) and talk it over with him?

Does he eat at McDonald’s now, too?

Born and raised to be a quarterback, Todd Marinovich has given it all up for rhythm guitar. The former USC Trojan and Los Angeles Raider is playing in a rock band called Scurvy.

“It’s great that he’s finally doing something he loves,” said a friend, Maili Bergman, who attended a recent hourlong Scurvy gig.

Ballyhooed as a teenager for the way he was raised by father Marv to be a quarterback - the no-junk-food diet was only part of it - Marinovich flamed out after two years at USC and two with the Raiders, taking a year off to surf, paint and party before resurfacing briefly in the CFL. A knee injury ended that chapter, and after surgery a friend taught him how to play guitar. “I guess you’d have to say that there isn’t much chance I would play again,” Marinovich told the Los Angeles Times.

Says QB guru and Hall of Famer Sid Gillman: “It’s a real crime that talent went to waste. A rock ‘n’ roll band, that’s probably where he belongs. He’s a nut.”

Team for sale; one owner, a real pain

After five years of failed attempts to sell his small stake in the New York Yankees, Harvey L. Leighton placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal: “Opportunity to own 1 percent or more of the New York Yankees - Price $2,950,000. Profitable and fun. Must be approved. Serious only, please.”

Leighton acquired 3.1237 percent of the team in the 1970s as part of a group of investors assembled by George Steinbrenner, who has veto power over sales.

“I’ve contacted brokers and everybody’s excited at first - it’s a rare product that doesn’t come up often,” Leighton said. “Then they find out about George.”

The last word …

“We need more cohesion, rather than Stalinistic purges where you operate under a level of fear. We all need to join hands and sing, ‘Kumbaya.’ ” - Nuggets forward Brian Williams, on the arrival of tough-guy coach Bernie Bickerstaff