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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cheap Seats

How about the Pesky Mosquitos?

Among the 6,000 nickname suggestions for the expansion NHL team that will begin play in St. Paul, Minn., in 2000: Gnats, Frozen Ears, Corn Dogs and get this Fighting Smelt.

His number’s down

What’s in a number? Plenty, as far as Vancouver’s Pavel Bure is concerned.

Bure has changed his uniform number back to No. 10 because, he said, “I had probably better luck with No. 10.”

Bure decided to make the switch after some troublesome years of injuries and poor play while wearing No. 96. He had 60-goal seasons in 1992-93 and 1993-94, but then scored a total of just 49 goals over three years.

“We went to the (Stanley Cup) final (in 1994),” Bure said. “I remember the best time of my life was with No. 10. I’ll try. Maybe it’s going to work.”

After the first five games, Bure had five goals.

A virtual steal

U.S. soccer coach Steve Sampson was surfing the World Wide Web earlier this year when he came across a German player named Michael Mason.

According to the New York Times, the midfielder spoke little English and had never set foot in the United States, but Mason’s father was a retired serviceman born in Philadelphia. So he was eligible and Sampson signed him.

Mason was given the nickname “Dotcom.”

What are you people thinking?

Some excerpts from a conference-call exchange between New York writers and Dallas Cowboy coach Barry Switzer:

Q: “How could you take a gun to the airport?”

Switzer: “I’m 60, I’m absent-minded and I forgot about the thing. Do you think I was trying to hijack the plane to Cuba?

“And I keep it loaded. What’s an unloaded gun good for? You people live in New York, you-all ought to understand that.”

Wait a minute!

Playing in Japan during the first weekend of the NHL season was a bit of culture shock for Vancouver’s Donald Brashear. For one thing, the Canucks left wing found a dramatic difference in the rice.

“It’s not like the Minute rice we have at home,” he said.

The last word …

“We’re pleased with some of the things we’re doing offensively. But I don’t think we’re good enough yet to cause anybody to lose their hair at the same rate I’ve lost mine.”

- Purdue football coach and former Washington State assistant Joe Tiller, whose head is pretty bare.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo