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News of a coaching vacancy at Idaho cut through the Northwest like Montana State through the Vandals’ defense. While UI athletic director Pete Liske quickly named Kermit Davis men’s basketball coach, the process may not have been as easy as it appeared.
Not with so many supremely qualified applicants. After Joe Cravens was fired, Liske’s answering machine was flooded with wannabe candidates. One man said he had been out of the game for 10 years, but “I want to get back into coaching, I think.”
Another came from someone claiming to be senior personnel management specialist at the Department of the Interior. Something about having been a student assistant or team manager while in college, a high school assistant and an elementary school coach.
Don’t laugh. It worked for Lynn Nance.
“I got it! I got it! … Eye got it”
Joe Plaso has proof he didn’t fall out of the Tea Cup ride. The 36-year-old Cleveland Indians fan went on a Florida vacation with his wife and two kids, and was happy to sneak away from Disney World long enough to catch his family’s beloved Tribe in a spring training game against Detroit.
So there were the Plasos: 10-year-old daughter Erica decked out in her Albert Belle game jersey, with pops snapping away with the family’s 35mm camera. So far, so good - until Belle came to bat.
Camera poised, Plaso moved in behind the Detroit dugout, hoping to capture the moment Belle’s bat crushed a pitch from Detroit’s Jose Lima.
He got his picture all right. Belle hit a laser line drive down the right-field side that smashed into Plaso’s head, opening a nasty gash over his right eye and knocking him to his knees. He looked down to see a pool of blood forming as an usher arrived to help. While Plaso was getting 17 stitches at the hospital, his family watched the rest of the game.
For his trouble, Plaso didn’t even get to meet Belle - the slugger sent word through the Indians that he didn’t want to sign the picture.
The Olerud Express
Slow-footed John Olerud actually stole a base in Toronto’s 9-4 win over Kansas City a couple of weeks back, giving the Blue Jays DH and former Washington State star a chance to analyze his new skill.
“They weren’t holding me on and it was a hit-and-run, so my chances were as good as they could possibly be,” Olerud reasoned.
Then someone told him Kansas City catcher Sal Fasano dropped the ball.
Two faces, one man
Rightfully scorned in the Northwest, Ken Behring was treated like a hero last week by Southern California’s franchise-movers and hand-shakers. L.A. Daily News columnist Michael Ventre provides the perspective: “It says something about Orange County when residents there boo Wayne Gretzky and then throw a big party with Ken Behring as the guest of honor.”
The last word …
“Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf of the Denver Nuggets felt he had the right to silently protest the symbolism of the flag by not standing up during the national anthem. What the hell does he think this is? America?” - Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle
, DataTimes