Cheap Seats
Getting a grip on golfers’ feet
Air-bags. Sunshine. Red meat. Add metal golf spikes to the list of things you thought were benign, but weren’t.
And with metal golf spikes now banned at close to 1,600 courses across the country, one Idaho Falls company is working at a feverish pace to meet demand for the alternative: SoftSpikes.
“We’ll make between two and three hundred million of them this year,” Precision Plastics president Wayne Jones said.
With so many golfers making the switch every day, SoftSpikes is in a race for market share with Tred-Lite, a company based in Marlboro, Mass., and a few other competitors in the United States and overseas. It’s anybody’s guess who might emerge victorious.
But when Tiger Woods picks a brand, the race is over.
Much ado about bunch of nobodies
“There is absolutely nothing relevant going on in the NFL,” writes T.J. Simers.
Simers, the NFL beat reporter for the Los Angeles Times, ranks Army quarterback Ron McAda, selected by the Green Bay Packers with the last pick (240th) of this year’s draft, near the top of the Mr. Irrelevant list.
The only man more irrelevant, writes Simer, is the obvious - the Packers G.M. Ron Wolf.
Other most-irrelevant people and things in the NFL in 1997 - after Wolf - according to Simers are:
“John Friesz. OK, so I suppose someone has to start the exhibition games to keep Warren Moon fresh.”
“Jeff Graham. People tell me the Arizona quarterback’s first name is really “Kent,” but does it really matter?”
“Mr. Mariucci. The way I understand it, George Seifert calls the defense, Bill Walsh the offense, thereby leaving Mr. Mariucci to call heads or tails.”
“Michael Sinclair. Tell me what team he plays for and what he was known best for last season.”
“The Saints’ wide receivers. With Heath Shuler and Danny Wuerffel throwing the ball, don’t be surprised if the team’s leading receiver isn’t the season-ticket holder in row 12 beyond the end zone.”
Did she really say ‘poopy teams?’
Dyan Cannon is such a big Los Angeles Lakers fan that her cheers often turn to tears.
“I’ve walked out of there crying,” she says of the basketball games, where she has floor seats next to retired star Magic Johnson.
“I’m the No. 1 fan, because I come to the poopy teams,” says the actress. “I’m there when the teams that aren’t so hot are there.”
The 60-year-old actress, who’s co-starring with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in the new film “Out to Sea,” says she only missed five or six home games out of 41 last season.
So, aside for a few days on a luxury liner, Cannon’s career remains anchored in mud.
At least he has a sense of humor
Manager Terry Francona, whose Philadelphia Phillies went 1-12 in successive series against the Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles and Florida Marlins: “I thought this span of games would be a good measuring stick. It was.”
The last word …
“For better or for worse, (Martina) Hingis is what there is to women’s tennis now, and how scary is that for a sport to be essentially in the hands of a baby sitter?”
- Bernie Lincicome, Chicago Tribune
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo