Novel idea: Save money
Novelist Sidney Sheldon, who grew up in Chicago, is a lifelong fan of the Cubs.
But Sheldon, who was presented with the Fan of the Year award at Wednesday night’s RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner-City) dinner in Los Angeles, has a beef with today’s greedy players.
“I used to collect autographs before players started charging for them,” he said.
It’s not as though Sheldon, 88, can’t afford to pay. He and his wife live in a 22,000-square-foot home on a three-acre estate in Holmby Hills, Calif. They put it up for sale last year for $23 million.
Captive audience
Over the years, Bud Greenspan, the world’s premier Olympic filmmaker, has been in great demand as a public speaker. He said he once showed up for an engagement and there was one person in the audience.
He said that since he already had been paid, he decided to deliver his speech, and the man in the audience was attentive, clapping and laughing throughout.
“Afterward, I said to the man, ‘Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t. I’m the next speaker.’ “
A bad sign
Pat Haden, NBC Arena Football League commentator, talking about the high salaries in sports while working a recent game: “I signed a multimillion-dollar contract with the Rams. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get them to sign it.”
No hot air allowed
Howard Freeman, the promoter of a hot-air balloon festival held each July in New Jersey, has invited NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and players’ union Executive Director Bob Goodenow to hold a negotiation session in a balloon.
“Soaring over the bucolic countryside is a perspective-changing experience,” Freeman said.
Bad planning
So what’s it like to be the winning coach of the Super Bowl? Brian Billick recalled on the Fox Sports radio morning show what it was like for him four years ago when the Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants 34-7.
He said he had a phenomenal time attending an all-night team party.
“And, in the infinite wisdom of the NFL, the winning head coach has an 8 a.m. news conference the next day,” Billick said.
The votes are in
Dan Le Batard, for his ESPN the Magazine column, interviewed former Minnesota Viking Robert Smith about Randy Moss.
Smith, who admitted to having run-ins with Moss, said, “Anybody who knows what sports are about would want Randy on his team. I saw an online poll: 55 percent said they’d want Randy as a teammate. The other 45 percent are liars.”
The last word
Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times, on the poor attendance for UCLA basketball games in Pauley Pavilion: “Or, as Bruin fans refer to the sight of all those empty seats: Pauley unsaturated.”