He’s got game on diamond
Now that Ray Allen has signed his big NBA contract, it sure looks like he owns the whole city.
The Seattle SuperSonics star took batting practice with the Seattle Mariners on Friday, whiffing at several pitches before he picked a good one and hit it over the left-field wall at Safeco Field.
That turned out to be his final swing.
“When I hit one over, I knew I was good,” Allen said, a big smile on his face.
Allen was a guest of Seattle reliever Jeff Nelson, his neighbor in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah.
“It only took him 100-something swings,” Nelson joked. “But the last one looked good. He got it out.”
The two had been discussing having Allen come to a ballgame, and Nelson said it offered a morale boost for the last-place Mariners.
“For a superstar athlete, Ray’s just an unbelievable guy,” Nelson said. “Pro guys dream of playing in other sports. Whether it’s a basketball or a football player, they want to come out and try to hit a baseball. So that was fun for him. Same goes for us.”
Allen had to use some extra caution on the baseball diamond. After all, the five-time NBA All-Star had just signed a five-year, $85 million contract extension with the Sonics.
“They still have some strings on you,” Allen said. “You can’t get hurt. Some guys have gotten hurt before they signed the big contract. I’m out here making sure, very gingerly, that I don’t get hurt.”
Trying to Cope
When retired Pittsburgh Steelers radio announcer Myron Cope was given the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award at the Pro Football Hall of Fame last weekend, he was given two minutes to speak.
Cope rambled for 13 minutes and was eventually escorted back to his seat before he could finish.
He apologized this week for causing a scene, saying it was conceit.
“People may think I’m senile, but I ain’t. I thought I was a celebrity,” the 76-year-old Cope said.
While some fans in the audience booed, Cope used the speech to lobby for former Steelers linebacker Andy Russell to be considered for induction into the hall in Canton, Ohio. Russell retired in 1976 after playing 11 seasons in the NFL.
Cope said he felt horrible after it happened and couldn’t sleep.
“I didn’t realize it was being televised live locally and being taped for showing later and they had to stick to a strict time frame,” Cope said. “But, like I said, that’s no excuse.”
Look at the Irish
In looking at NCAA’s mission to rid its ranks of “hostile and abusive” nicknames and mascots, Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune suggests that it also turn its attention to Notre Dame and “that stupefying, stereotypical mascot of theirs.”
That would be the leprechaun, which Downey says is mischievous and up to no good.
“And what of that big, crooked stick in his hand?” the columnist asks. “He doesn’t carry that cudgel because he is lame. It isn’t a cane. A leprechaun doesn’t limp. Look at that little fool do his dance. He moves fine. No, a shillelagh looks like a weapon to me. You wouldn’t let a Seminole or an Illini walk around a football stadium with a bow and arrow, would you?”
•In a related item, Playboy reports in its August issue the published results of a survey of 768 Native Americans, 90 percent of whom said they were not offended by the Washington Redskins’ mascot.
Wise guy
Sheldon Napastuk of the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders shared a story in the Calgary Sun about a former Iowa State teammate who was putting his rear on the bus window when he pressed too hard, broke the glass and suffered an injury that required stitches.
Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times saw the story and wondered whether the affliction was listed on the team injury report “as a pane in the rear.”
The last word
“They say you can’t pull fat. I found out that’s a lie.”
–Cincinnati Reds reliever David Weathers after being sidelined because of an injury.