Cheap Seats

This ain’t Paris, Bubba

At the top of Atlanta’s International Boulevard where it crosses Peachtree Street, a 10-foot-tall plastic Marilyn Monroe was grinning fetchingly in a pose from her “Some Like It Hot” role. At her feet, a young man on a bullhorn urged the crowd to come to an outdoor bar called Fat Tuesdays. He then pulled a rip cord and Marilyn’s plastic skirt fell around her ankles.

“Come and party ‘til your pants fall down, we don’t care,” he said.

Only a few feet away a young Japanese man captured the whole thing on video. Why?

“It is an Olympic moment,” he said.

Is that like a Dick Enberg moment?

Jerry Ball, CPA?

Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Jerry Ball, about to be supplanted by free-agent acquisition Russell Maryland, claims to have charted the yardage that’s been gained by ball carriers running through his spot on the line since his pro career began.

Ball wouldn’t reveal the number, but claims it’s small enough to validate his ability as a line clogger.

“You can’t get 1,000 yards over 10 years through my hole,” Ball said. “You can count from Detroit to Cleveland to here. … That’s a fact.”

Just one of the guys

Robert Landers, the Texas farmer who last year shocked the golf world by earning exempt status on the PGA Senior Tour, is a first-alternate this season. That means he only plays when one of the regulars takes a week off.

While Landers doesn’t get to play as often, he’s making more of his opportunities - including a check for $15,750 at last month’s Kroger Classic. So far, Landers has won $44,857 in 11 events, an average of $4,077. That’s up from last year, when he averaged $2,346 in 33 events.

Landers credits the improvement to better equipment, including new shafts for his irons and a long putter. As far as changes in technique, Landers said he probably won’t be making many, even after listening to a Dave Stockton lecture last week at a junior clinic. “Everything he said to do, I was doing wrong,” Landers said.

Breakfast of Chumpions

Like the chefs who feed a world-class collection of appetites at the athlete villages, Joe Chiovera, the regional food and beverage director for Marriott International, has to cater to all tastes at the cafeteria in the Main Press Center during the 1996 Olympics.

Chiovera has fed international travellers for years, but he said one thing that has surprised him at the Olympics is “the demand for doughnuts. We can’t keep enough of them out there, especially the chocolate ones.”

He said another surprise was beer in the morning, adding, “I bet I can take you out in that dining room right now and show you a dozen people having beer for breakfast, all Europeans drinking Heinekens or Amstel.”

Europeans? Sounds like he stumbled into the media tent.

The last word …

“It’s better than not having any tread at all.”

- Oakland A’s manager Art Howe, on how it feels to be considered a retread

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo