Cheap Seats

If the shoe deal fits …

Philadelphia 76ers rookie Allen Iverson already has hit the wall.

OK, so it’s only a mural of Iverson, who has joined Reebok’s sneaker stable, but it covers one side of a building in downtown Philadelphia.

The shoe is the special Iverson shoe Reebok is calling “The Question,” because his nickname from way back has been “The Answer.”

It will be in stores in Philadelphia and Washington in mid-December. National distribution will follow in late January or early February.

If the shoe doesn’t sell, will Reebok start calling it “The Rhetorical Question?”

The movie ‘Speed’ it wasn’t

Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer might have had the best seat in the house at the World Series, but it hasn’t always been carte blanche treatment for Zim.

Zimmer, a baseball dinosaur whose face once inspired Red Sox pitcher Bill (Spaceman) Lee to mock Zimmer as “the Gerbil,” remembered back to 1969 when he managed one year with Key West in the Florida State League.

“Somebody told me it was only an hour’s drive from Miami. I thought, shoot, that ain’t bad.”

It would get worse. The team bus had no toilet, no air conditioning, and didn’t go any faster than 40 miles per hour. On one overnight trip, as the bus approached a T intersection, Zimmer noticed the bus driver was nodding off. “We just missed hitting a blueberry pie truck,” Zimmer said.

“I stopped the bus and asked if anybody could drive. We had a kid from Key West, Vic Albury, who later pitched for the Twins, who said he could. I told the driver to get in the back. Found out later he was an alcoholic.”

A spitting image of days’ past

Roberto Alomar, take note: Ted Williams forgives you.

The Splendid Splinter, who was known for a while as the Splendid Spitter after he spit at reporters and heckling fans, said he was disappointed that Alomar spit at an umpire, but wrote it off to the heat of battle.

“It wasn’t the right thing to do,” the Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer said. “But I’ve got to tell you that I did some things that weren’t the right thing, either. It was the spur of the moment.”

Alomar spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck after being called out on strikes in a game in Toronto. The Orioles second baseman will serve a five-game suspension at the beginning of the 1997 season.

Williams was fined $5,000 in 1958 for what sportswriter Red Smith called a “moist expression of contempt for fans and press.”

Charles B. on Charles O.

“Can you believe they have 59-year-old Charles Oakley guarding me?” Charles Barkley asked as he ran past the scorer’s table at a Rockets-Knicks exhibition game.

Noting that Sir Charles is nearly a year older than Oak, the Knicks’ forward playfully reprimanded reporters for paying attention to such foolishness.

“Next thing I know, you’ll be listening to Dennis Rodman,” Oakley said.

And the next thing they both knew was they were both fined and will miss their teams’ openers.

The last word …

“Jeff Fisher’s like Frankenstein. He’s taken parts from Buddy Ryan, Mike Ditka, John Robinson and George Seifert. Now, he’s created a monster.”

- Houston linebacker Micheal Barrow on the success of his coach, Jeff Fisher

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo