Cheap Seats
Pencil us in for a game in 2015
There are tough tickets and then there are tough tickets - and amazingly enough, hockey games at the University of Vermont are to die for.
Of the 1,750 reserved season tickets available at Gutterson Field House, only seven changed hands this year - reducing the waiting list by three names.
Brandon O’Leary recently received a letter saying he might have to wait 15-20 years to reach the top of the list, but at least he has time. He’s 7 years old.
“I’m still waiting patiently,” said O’Leary’s father, Bill, who is No. 259 on the list, “but I figured I better sign my son up now.”
Ring the Belle, run like hell
Guess what Albert Belle went as on Halloween? Himself!
A trick-or-treater has complained that the temperamental outfielder bumped him with his car after Belle’s house in Euclid, Ohio, was egged.
Belle told police a group of teenagers threw eggs at his house after his father told the trick-or-treaters he had no candy - never mind that Albert has a chocolate bar named after him marketed in Cleveland.
“As soon as he closes the door, we hear a bombardment of egg shells on my door,” Belle told reporters. “So I come outside and chase them.”
In his initial telephone call to Euclid police, Belle said, “You better get somebody over here, because if I find one of them, I’ll kill them.”
Said Belle, “People start things, you retaliate, then I’m the one that’s going to get in all the trouble. They’re just going to walk away scot-free or get their name in the newspaper or TV.
“I’m very disappointed that in the last five years, all the things I’ve done for the city of Cleveland, and this is the way I’m going to be treated. I’ve been very disrespected, and I’m not very happy about that.”
He may not have had any candy for the kids, but he obviously had some sour grapes.
Little help
Merritt Field and Haldeman Pool sit side-by-side at Pomona-Pitzer College. At a recent football game against Occidental, a PAT kick sailed over the grandstand wall and into the pool, where a water polo match was in progress.
Soon after, a bright yellow water polo ball flew back, hit the football field and rolled to rest at the 30-yard line. Laughter was heard from both grandstands.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to do that,” said Pomona-Pitzer water polo coach Gary Troyer.
Good thing it was water polo they were playing next door or who knows what would have come back.
Clip and save
With the NBA season now under way, coaches may find this line from 76ers coach John Lucas useful in dealing with the wrath of their owners and GMs should they happen to lose to either of the expansion teams, Toronto or Vancouver. The Sixers did in the very first exhibition game, but Luke had a ready rationale.
“They’ve got a lot of veterans,” he said with a straight face. “They might even make the playoffs.”
The last word …
“Going to a new house, you’d think they’d bring new furniture.”
- Celtics guard Sherman Douglas, on Boston Garden’s old parquet floor being moved to the new FleetCenter
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo