Cheap Seats
You can’t go home again
A Rhode Island high school had its state soccer title taken away after learning its star goalie graduated from another school in June and played this season under an assumed name.
Providence Central was 2-6-1 before Erick Yanes - using the name Erick Acevedo - joined the team and 10-1-1 after, including three playoff wins.
Yanes played for Central in 1993, dropped out, then graduated from Central Vocational Technical School.
“He did it because he wanted Central to win, and he felt bad because the team was losing,” said principal Don Pastine, adding that coach John Rosario would be fired if it turns out he knew Yanes was ineligible.
Pastine said Acevedo’s father came to him and told him his son had been receiving congratulatory letters from a Providence radio station that had named him its athlete of the week.
“The boy’s father said that couldn’t be because his son doesn’t play soccer any more,” Pastine said.
Or any less, for that matter.
Ya gotta play hurt
Former NFL linebacker Matt Millen isn’t getting along with Buffalo Bills defensive end Bruce Smith these days. Millen, now a broadcaster for Fox and CBS Radio, criticized Smith for missing last year’s playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers because of the flu, and Smith remains angry.
“I had a talk the other night with a player who got on me because I dogged him because he didn’t play because of the flu,” Millen said. “I’m not going to mention names, but his initials are Bruce Smith. He said to me, ‘I’m not talking to you because you dogged me.’ So I said, ‘You’re right. And if you get sick again and don’t play, then I’m going to dog you again. I’ve been there. You take the shot, you throw up, and you do what you have to to play.’
“You know what his excuse to me was? ‘This is the ‘90s. The game has changed.’ “
The ‘90s - the wimp decade.
Writer at large
Celtics coach M.L. Carr continues to be a target for everyone, but he enjoys shooting back at Peter Vecsey of the New York Post. Carr still is having fun with Vecsey’s incident during last year’s NBA Finals in Seattle, when the writer was charged with fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor.
“When he moves into your neighborhood, do you have to call the neighbors and tell them that a dangerous man is in the area?” Carr wondered, adding that he was going to print up some “Free Peter Vecsey” T-shirts.
Free Peter Vecsey? That isn’t cheap enough.
If he can make it there …
New York Times reader Robert J. Condlin has no trouble understanding the popularity of 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier, the youngster who interfered with the ball in the Yankees’ ALCS win over Baltimore.
“He lied to his teachers about an orthodontic appointment to get out of school, cheated in the game by reaching into the field of play, and would have stolen the ball but for the fact that someone else beat him to it,” Condlin wrote.
“Lie, cheat and steal. The kid’s morally precocious by New York standards.”
The last word …
“There were enough upsets in the NFL last weekend to pay tuition at Boston College.”
- Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Rosenbloom
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo