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

Cheap Seats

It won’t just be the pitchers in hot water

Bring your goggles and your glove to Arizona Diamondbacks games - their new ballpark will have a swimming pool and spa beyond the right-field wall.

To be leased to businesses and groups, the suite will accommodate 35 people and includes a swim-up bar, five waterfalls, a barbecue area and a tanning deck.

General manager Joe Garagiola Jr. thought the idea was all wet at first.

“Joe Jr. pooh-poohed it because he’s Mr. Tradition,” said Scott Brubaker, vice president for sales and marketing. “Now he’s bought off on it because it’s reality. He doesn’t have a choice.”

Joe Jr. must be self-conscious in his Speedo.

If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me

Orioles manager Davey Johnson was among the first in baseball to embrace new technology, using computer-generated stats for strategic purposes. Now if he could only learn how to use the phone.

In most dugouts, the hotline to the bullpen is on the wall nearest home plate, where the manager is usually bunkered. But in Cleveland, it’s at the far end.

So when the Indians rallied in against the O’s in a game last week, Johnson told pitching coach Pat Dobson to get Roger McDowell warming. Dobson made the call, and waited for bullpen coach Elrod Hendricks to ring him back when McDowell was ready. Then Julio Franco singled, and then Carlos Baerga, and finally Albert Belle came up.

That’s when Dobson discovered the phone didn’t ring loud enough for him to hear. From the opposite end of the dugout, he was supposed to see a small green light. Turned out McDowell was ready all along, but Johnson found out too late to yank starter Mike Mussina and Belle hit a three-run homer.

“I’m going out there!” Johnson yelled at Dobson. “If McDowell is ready, wave to me or something.”

Johnson would like the Indians to move the phone.”There were four guys sitting next to it and they couldn’t hear it,” Dobson complained.

Bad moon rising

An astrologer’s unfavorable forecast has caused three weightlifters from the Republic of Georgia to cancel a training session in Atlanta for the Olympic Games.

“They have listened to their stargazer, and he’s told them they should not come early to train,” said Kim Goff of the Olympic Training Alliance.

Bidzini Mikhaishvili, Koba Talakhadze and Muckhran Gogia trained in Coweta County southwest of Atlanta last summer.

“I think we entertained them too well, and the coach got worried we’d mess up their training,” said Cathy Wright of the Coweta Chamber of Commerce.

At this fight, a hockey game could break out

Instead of dropping their gloves to fight on the ice, 16 Central Hockey League goons will lace on boxing gloves to raise money for former fighter Tommy Morrison’s AIDS education effort in Oklahoma City.

The Hockey Brawl, scheduled May Thursday and Friday, will pit some of the CHL’s most-penalized players. They’ll box 2-minute rounds wearing 16-ounce sparring gloves.

The last word …

“They brought me in for a CAT scan. It was a no-brainer.”

- Orlando Magic center Joe Wolf, who suffered a mild concussion in a recent game

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo