Cheap Seats
With these bats, who needs talent?
When Rob Ducey’s order of new bats didn’t show up in time last week, Seattle Mariners teammate Ken Griffey Jr. lent him a couple of his bats. Ducey hit two home runs, two doubles and a triple with Junior’s sticks.
“They are such good wood,” Ducey said. “Harder wood, wider grain than anyone else gets. Louisville takes care of their stars. They’re double-lacquered… . I wouldn’t get double lacquer.
“The ball jumps off his bats,” Ducey said. “My bats are balsa by comparison. They’re pressed cardboard. I have to cover them up when it rains. My bats are the same model, but they’re not the same bat.”
Only waves are in bleachers
The inaugural World Championships of Beach Volleyball began with one key element missing - the ocean. The competition took place on 2,700 tons of sand spread over the tennis courts at UCLA.
“It was wild, it was truck after truck after truck after truck,” said James Leitz, the president of Event Source and manager of the transformation of the Los Angeles Tennis Center into a beach volleyball facility.
It took eight 12-to-14-hour work days.
In addition to the sand, which filled 100 double trucks, a quarter of a million nuts and bolts and four semi-trucks of steel were used to turn eight tennis courts into six world-caliber beach volleyball courts over the 60,000 square-foot facility, Leitz said.
Sand was poured 18 inches deep on vinyl covering the courts. The Pacific Ocean is some 10 miles away, but that doesn’t matter.
“I’m excited, are you kidding me?” said Holly McPeak, who along with Lisa Arce was seeded No. 1 but finished second to Olympic gold medalists Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva in the women’s division. “This whole setup is bigger and better than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s awesome.
“The Olympics were special. For me, this is very comparable. I feel like this is the ultimate challenge, this is the biggest tournament ever.”
Brazilians Rogerio Ferreira and Guilherme Marques, seeded ninth, defeated third-seeded Americans Mike Whitmarsh and Canyon Ceman in the men’s final.
Rumble at Christie’s
More than 3,000 items from Muhammad Ali’s historic boxing career - from his 1957 Golden Gloves trophy to the custom-made robe he sported for his 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” with George Foreman - hit the auction block next month.
The items up for sale Oct. 19 at Christie’s in Los Angeles include key chains (a tiny boxing glove inscribed “The Thrilla in Manila”); rare fight posters (Leroy Neiman’s drawing for the 1971 fight in Madison Square Garden); and big-ticket items (a 1966 Ali letter to his draft board, expected to sell for $100,000).
The items belong to Ronnie Paloger who has spent many years accumulating his boxing trove.
Obviously, Paloger is ‘The Greatest’ collector.
Baseball’s unexpected fringe benefits
Ozzie Guillen of the Chicago White Sox revealed he still has the pair of binoculars hurled at teammate Albert Belle on Belle’s return to Cleveland in June.
“They’re good ones,” he said. “I’m going to watch the bullfights with them.”
The last word …
“They sell 5,000 standing-room seats every day.” - Ralph Kiner, attempting to describe the turnout for the recent interleague series between the Mets and Orioles.
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