Cheap Seats
In deep or in shallow, in pool or in pond…
So now Shirley Gustafson and David Berkoff will be synchronized swimmers. The two coaches of the Missoula Aquatic Club in Montana will be married next summer after Berkoff - a former Olympian, who moved to Missoula several years ago - accepted his girlfriend’s bended-knee proposal in front of 500 spectators and swimmers at the Montana Long Course Swimming Championships.
“The kids were always asking if I was in love with Dave,” said Gustafson, who did her best to keep the romance secret for a time by being “mean to him in front of the kids.”
Said Berkoff, “I was thinking the other day about this, but then I just figured it was going to wait until the fall.”
Do as I say, not as I do
Not that it will burst any bubbles, necessarily, but this news from Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun was a bit disheartening: “Mike Schmidt didn’t even check out of his hotel room in Cooperstown, N.Y., following his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame when he was on a shoppers’ network peddling his signed (and dated) baseballs for $82 apiece.”
This would, of course, be the same Mike Schmidt whose acceptance speech included impassioned commentary on how greed is ruining the game of baseball.
Next thing you know, Kellen Winslow will be joining Newt Gingrich’s staff.
Career moves
The administration of U.S. Track and Field has taken its share of mostly deserved shots regarding the marketing and promotion of the sport in this country. No critic of the hierarchy has been quite so strident as Carl Lewis, so Mark McDonald of the Dallas Morning News asked Lewis if he might take an administrative role in track after he retires.
“No way!” said Lewis, looking genuinely shocked. “I’d rather clean houses!” What a coincidence. We’d rather he clean houses, too.
And Andre Rison could drop him
Former quarterback Phil Simms, who backed out of a deal in the off-season to play for the Browns to remain a TV analyst, was in Cleveland for the NFL exhibition opener to do a dummy broadcast for NBC for critque purposes.
When owner Art Modell heard Simms would be in town, he said: “We’re going to hold a special ceremony for his agent (David Fishof). We’re going to throw his agent from the upper deck instead of the ball.”
In a league of his own
We hadn’t heard from our man Ralph Kiner lately until he delivered this gem while introducing Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Wolff, who used to do Washington Senators games. Kiner tried to quote Charles Dryden, recalling that Washington was always “first in war, first in peace and last in the National League.”
Well, he was only one league off.
The last word …
“He’s the only player vested in the Big Ten.”
- Wisconsin football coach Barry Alvarez, on 25-year-old quarterback Darrell Bevell
, DataTimes