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

Cheap Seats

But can they take a punch?

Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers on the recent U.S. Figure Skating championships:

“I can’t believe they can do what they can do. The quad? Where the guy spins four times in the air? You won’t see me doing that. I have a tough enough time getting up and down the ice.”

He could afford to monogram them

Denver quarterback John Elway is superstitious, like many other athletes, but is endeavoring to become less so.

“I had so many (superstitions), they became a pain,” Elway said. “I would wear socks on the same feet.”

Asked how someone knows which socks belong on which feet, he said: “That’s where it really gets hard.”

But not as tough as winning a Super Bowl.

A hand on Angel’s shoulder

Angel Manfredy saw a hand reach through the window of his car, so he threw a punch.

“I thought he was trying to steal my car,” Manfredy said in recalling the incident at a news conference to promote his lightweight bout against Arturo Gatti Saturday night in Convention Hall at Atlantic City, N.J.

What the Chicago fireman was in the process of doing when he reached through the window 4-1/2 years ago was pulling Manfredy out of the wreckage.

“I drove into a telephone pole,” the 23-year-old Manfredy said.

Then he said proudly, “I was dazed. If that couldn’t knock me out, how is Gatti going to knock me out?”

It also would appear to be difficult for Manfredy to lose on cuts. His forehead was cut so badly in the crash, he said, that he required 265 stitches.

And we thought it was about a ball and a hoop

Professor, er, coach Phil Jackson on the Chicago Bulls’ adjustment to the return of Scottie Pippen:

“It’s just symbiotic, it’s chemistry, it’s done with osmosis, getting out there and feeling out each other, knowing where the shots are coming from and what kind of personalities do well on the court,” Jackson said.

Jackson says Pippen faces some severe readjustment to the court.

“It’s a shock to the nervous system,” Jackson said. “That’s a natural thing, the pressures, the game, the energy. All those things are draining, and it takes a while for the nervous system to adjust to that.”

And then there’s Rodman.

Going on a Spree

What is a Latrell Sprewell card worth these days? Not a thing at Collectors Realm in Berkeley, Calif.

“We’ve taken every Sprewell card we had and we’re giving them away,” said Bob Kurtz, co-owner of the shop. “We’re getting great response. People have torn them up right in front of us.”

Can’t tell ‘em with a program

Tim Keown in the San Francisco Chronicle: “One problem with hockey: You have to be incredibly hard-core - as well as a subscriber to numerous sportswear catalogs - to distinguish one black uniform from the other.”

The last word …

“To err is human, to forgive is divine. But to forgive a football coach is unheard of.”

- University of Georgia athletic director and former football coach Vince Dooley.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo