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Another “SportsCenter Moment”
According to the latest ESPN “SportsCenter” promo, “Seth Hayes” is the kid-anchor who “came out too early” and had to quit because he wasn’t ready.
Writes Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News: “ESPN could have used someone like Rich Eisen to do the spot for real.”
Can we do the Funky Chicken next, teach?
Arthur Murray Studios has suspended a dance instructor who gave a Buffalo newspaper snapshots of Bills quarterback Jim Kelly taking lessons in preparation for his upcoming wedding.
“She let out information she wasn’t supposed to. It was a secret,” said William Guiher, the studio’s owner.
Guiher, who refused to divulge the instructor’s name, said the employee will cool her heels indefinitely, pending “an investigation by Arthur Murray International and myself.”
The Buffalo News published the photos May 17, the day before Kelly - not exactly known for his light feet - married Jill Waggoner. Therese Forton, who coordinated the lavish wedding, said the Kellys were disappointed the photographs were published. “The pictures were supposed to be for their portfolio only,” she said.
Although Arthur Murray Studios was not asked to sign a secrecy pledge, Forton said there was a “tacit understanding” the lessons would be kept quiet.
You got a light?
A ruptured pipeline spewed 310,000 gallons of gasoline into a swamp along the Olympic torch relay route Friday, forcing a 15-mile detour and dampening some festivities along the original route.
Explained state police spokesman Wayne Winkler: “We don’t want to come through with a flame in an area where we have gasoline.”
The soccer world’s favorite sport
A poll of 500 fans found that 65 percent believe soccer “will soon surpass baseball in popularity in the U.S.”
The poll, conducted last week by VR Sports, a California firm that develops and publishes sports gaming software, just happened to be conducted at three Major League Soccer games.
Time to invest in one of those foam bricks
Paul Gascoigne, at the center of the English soccer team’s rowdy return flight from Hong Kong in which two airline TV sets and a table were smashed, said he welcomed a Football Association inquiry.
Reports said $7,500 damage was done to the jet, which carried the team home while it was celebrating Gascoigne’s 29th birthday. According to one tabloid, Gascoigne struck the TV sets with a kung-fu style kick.
FA officials face the embarrassing prospect that the first high-profile incident of rowdiness associated with next month’s European Championships involves the English team itself.
The last word …
“To hear Karl Malone talk, you’d think Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton were planning to get up Wednesday morning to work the ticket booth at KeyArena. In fact, while the Sonics front office was making essential preparations for the NBA Finals you just don’t invite Michael Jordan in at the last minute - the players were consumed by Utah.
Dan McGrath, Tacoma News-Tribune columnist
, DataTimes