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Attention: Spokane Chiefs Marketing Dept.

Dr. William Hamilton, the “team surgeon” of the New York City Ballet, last week repaired the torn paroneal tendon in the left ankle of Mike Modano of the NHL’s Dallas Stars. Dr. Daniel Cooper, the Stars’ sawbone, referred Modano to Hamilton upon learning that the injury is commonplace among dancers.

So, fellas, apparently it IS the ballet.

Your true voice

When AT&T needed a basketball coach, it reached out and recruited John Thompson.

The Georgetown coach plays himself in a TV spot selling “500” numbers, a service that will forward calls to a series of numbers until you answer. Character actor Ernie Lively plays a recruiter who beats Thompson for a prospect because a tipster has his 500 number.

FCB/Leber Katz Partners, the ad agency that created the campaign, was careful not to let Thompson commit a recruiting violation, even a fictional one. “We cleared everything with the NCAA,” says Vonda LePage, an agency vice president.

He played too long without a helmet, too

Since he’s had to take a breath from gushing nauseatingly over his replacement players, Tommy Lasorda has noticed that former Dodgers Pedro Guerrero and Steve Sax have taken new career paths - Guerrero coaching for the Angels and Sax running for a seat in the California Assembly.

“Wow, I’ve seen it all now - Guerrero coaching and Saxy running for the state legislature,” Lasorda said. “What’s happening to this country? Wow!” Sax’s candidacy reminded Lasorda of the time the Dodgers were playing in San Francisco, and Sax was talking to a fan behind the dugout.

Sax: “I was talking to my brother-in-law.”

Lasorda: “I didn’t know that was your brother-inlaw.”

Sax: “Yeah, he married my cousin.”

Swears Lasorda, “That’s the honest-to-God’s truth.”

Of course, Sax’s biggest baseball notoriety came from his unpredictable arm and his mental block in making the simplest tosses from his second base spot to first. Of his political aspirations, Murray Chass of the New York Times wrote, “One person who has watched him on the field said Sax threw his hat in the ring and missed.

From our fashion desk …

Remember the hot-selling T-shirts the last time Miami and Notre Dame met on the football field? Well, in the U-District in Seattle there’s already an update on sale for this fall’s meeting of the Fighting Irish and Washington that reads, “Catholics vs. ExConvicts.”

And bet us a WSU grad doesn’t hold the copyright.

The last word …

“If you had to coach an NBA team that had both Rod Strickland and Latrell Sprewell, do you think you would go with hemlock, or simply a shotgun barrel in the mouth?” - Los Angeles Daily News columnist Michael Ventre