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Petty and pink
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, coaches and players clashed over long hair.
Now it’s dyed hair. At Birmingham High School in Los Angeles, coach Al Bennett is refusing to let sophomore Adam Kopulsky play for the JV team until the 15-year-old gets rid of his pink hair.
You guessed it. Kopulsky’s hero is Dennis Rodman.
“I draw the line when it’s a distraction,” said Bennett, “when he’s put himself above the team.”
Kopulsky’s mother, Michele, is supporting her son: “He shouldn’t have to make his choice between basketball and hair color.”
Kopulsky’s regular hair color is brown, but he recently dyed it blond, which is acceptable to Bennett. Pink isn’t.
City Section commissioner Barbara Fiege said there’s no rule preventing players from wearing pink hair - yet. “The Dennis Rodman Jr. case has not come up,” she said.
Jingle Belle
That old humbug, Albert Belle, got positively jolly this Christmas.
The Indians slugger sent a poetic Christmas card to baseball fans, printed on the front of last week’s editions of the Akron Beacon Journal, which read: I hope Santa will come and leave for you all, Lots of baseball spirit to last through the fall Thanks to my friends and fans with such faith Your cheers inspired heights that alone I’d not make.
Spokesman Bob DiBiasio said the poem was written by Belle with help from his brother, Terry, and an unidentified third person.
Belle obviously has his good holidays and bad. He recently pleaded no contest to reckless driving after trying to run down Halloween tricksters.
The last line of Albert’s card: “So Merry Christmas to you from your No. 1 fan … Egg my house one more time and you’re dead where you stand.”
Do they have a patient for you
In other Tribe news, the Indians have hired a psychologist. Charles Maher, a professor of psychology at Rutgers, has been a consultant for the White Sox the past five years, and has also worked with the Yankees and Brewers. Alas, he was hired to work mostly with the Indians’ minor leaguers.
Their big-league wacko needs an entire team of shrinks.
Stiffellas
Grant Hill learned a lesson while sitting through the movie, “Casino.”
It lasts 3 hours and Hill never moved. When he got up to leave, the Pistons star limped out of the theater with a sore knee. He didn’t miss any games, but Hill was uncharacteristically ineffective for a short stretch.
“In those situations,” Hill said, “I have to get up and stretch to keep my knees loose.”
We would have thought the lesson was to avoid Scorsese movies.
The last word …
“Buddy Ryan must be feeling the same heat he once felt in Philadelphia. At least in Arizona, it’s a dry heat.”
- Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Phil Sheridan, as Ryan’s Cardinals neared the end of another awful NFL season
, DataTimes