Cheap Seats
They’ll play for a song
Dave Poile, general manager of the expansion Nashville Predators, who begin NHL play next season, on the team’s proximity to the country-music industry:
“We should lead the league in good national anthem singers.”
A stand against skimpy coverage
Sports Illustrated and other sports magazines have their annual swimsuit editions. Now, The Sporting News has the anti-swimsuit issue: a cover featuring a burly football player wearing a bikini.
“It’s a spoof on Sports Illustrated, but also a little bit more of a comment about the fact that a lot of sports fans don’t want swimsuit issues,” said John Rawlings, editor of TSN, which is using the special cover for newsstand issues only.
Sports Illustrated spokeswoman Robin Shallow said 55 million readers can’t be wrong. That’s the number of people, including 19 million women, who will read the swimsuit edition, she said.
The Sporting News anti-swimsuit edition was to arrive at newsstands this week - the same time Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue shows up.
The contrast on the newsstands will be obvious. SI features German model Heidi Klum on its cover. TSN has a man wearing a football helmet, bikini top and bottom, and a menacing glare. The cover headline reads, “Swimsuits Don’t Fit Us.”
Suit yourself.
They could’ve still beat the Senators
Finally arriving at a place that understands cutbacks, the Florida Marlins showed up at the White House missing 10 of their World Series heroes.
“They’re all working on the ‘98 budget cuts,” Bobby Bonilla told President Clinton, who laughed.
Nineteen Marlins greeted the president following an off-season of payroll purges. Twelve of the 25 players who beat Cleveland last October are no longer with the team, and just two of the former players - Jeff Conine and Tony Saunders - showed up Tuesday.
“There’s no use going to Washington,” said pitcher Robb Nen, who spent the day at Scottsdale, Ariz., practicing with his new team, San Francisco. “It’s not worth it to meet the president.”
See if he ever gets a night in the Lincoln bedroom.
Clip and save
Chan Gailey, named Dallas Cowboys coach by owner Jerry Jones, on how much control he’ll have under a man notorious for meddling: “I’m going to handle the offense. There won’t be any doubt about that.”
He’s the exception … really John Feinstein writing in Inside Sports magazine: “The all-time idiotic Super Bowl question was asked in 1980, when Jim Plunkett was the quarterback of the Oakland Raiders.
“A writer from New Jersey (who since has passed from this mortal coil) sat down next to Plunkett and said, ‘OK, Jim let me get this straight. Is it blind mother, deaf father, or deaf mother, blind father?”’
The last word …
“Last year was pretty amazing. I could have been studying for finals and midterms (at Stanford), but I got my Masters instead.”
- Tiger Woods
, DataTimes