Cheap Seats
Bet it’s a one-way street, too
Carl Lewis Way won’t be paved in gold, but there will be a speed limit.
The Willingboro, N.J., town council voted to rename a stretch of road now called Beverly-Rancocas Road for Lewis, who was born and raised in the town.
The council had proposed renaming the road “Olympians Way,” to honor other area Olympic athletes, including Lamont Smith, a gold medal winner in the 1,600-meter relay, but members decided otherwise.
“We realized no one is ever going to win another nine gold medals,” said councilwoman Lavonne Johnson. “Carl is in a league of his own.”
Johnson said Lewis will be in town for the dedication at an as yet unspecified date.
Unless, of course, he’s on Larry King lobbying for a turnpike instead of just a street.
Sweet Guangzhou Brown
They were Chinatown’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters - six men in a Plymouth sedan who took on all comers from Indiana to Aberdeen, Wash.
That was the Hong Wah Kues - Great Chinese Warriors - very likely the nation’s only ChineseAmerican professional basketball team. In 1939, seven years before the NBA was born and 12 years after the Globetrotters got their start, an accountant from San Francisco found six athletes who could dribble, shoot, play a little ‘D’ - and speak Chinese.
“We went because it was a lot of fun and they were paying us,” said Chauncey Yip, 78, noting that the pay was all of $200 a month.
Newspapers in those politically incorrect - OK, racist days described the team as “the laundry men” and a “group of tiny Oriental rug cutters.” Fans would clap and cheer, “C’mon, chink.” “They told us to talk Chinese only on the court,” said ex-Kue Fred Gok. “and you could be telling them to go to someplace and they don’t know the difference. You get back at them.”
The dark side of publishing
The latest sports kiss-and-tell tome is “The Dark Side of the Game: My Life in the NFL,” by former Falcons linebacker Tim Green - who writes that he has “no desire to indict anyone or anything.” Los Angeles Daily News columnist Tom Hoffarth isn’t biting.
“Then (he) admits that ‘players see the media as a lower form of life, somewhere between the slug and the toad … anyone who criticizes (players) is a fool who never played the game … a former player (doing so) is a traitor.’ Again, Green is not trying to indict anyone. That’s why he (was) on ‘60 Minutes’ discussing NFL player use of drugs and gambling.”
And to think he left Wazzu early
Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe is only 24, and yet he’s already dreaming of retirement.
“I think about what it will be like,” Bledsoe said. “I know that I’ll really miss playing the game, and the camaraderie with my teammates. The one thing that probably will drive me out of the game before anything else is the public lifestyle. I just don’t like it.”
Bet you like that $42 million, though, Drew.
The last word …
“I’ll say this. John Madden makes $7.5 million a year with Fox. I’m trying to pattern myself after him.”
- Former UCLA coach Terry Donahue, on whose broadcasting style he might try to emulate
, DataTimes