Cheap Seats

Sharing the wealth

Gary Sheffield of the Los Angeles Dodgers sent a limo to pick up former Florida Marlins teammates for a visit to his opulent pad in Bel-Air when the Marlins were in town.

“I’ve never seen a guy with that much cake still be that generous with it,” said Marlins left fielder Cliff Floyd.

Is that a zip code or a scoring play?

The Anaheim Angels retired Boston shortstop Nomar Garciaparra on a 5-3-1-3 groundout in the eighth inning Friday night at Boston.

Rookie third baseman Troy Glaus grabbed Garciaparra’s one-hop smash and threw high and wide to first. Garciaparra, in an effort to avoid first baseman Darin Erstad, veered toward the inside of the base and tried to swipe the bag with his foot. Erstad, thinking Garciaparra was safe, threw the ball back to pitcher Allen Watson, but umpire Ray DiMuro still hadn’t given an out or safe call.

Watson alertly threw back to Erstad, who tagged Garciaparra before he returned to first. DiMuro ruled Garciaparra out, claiming he never touched the bag.

We all have the right to be an idiot

David J. Neal of the Miami Herald, on Bobby Hull:

So, the Golden Jet might’ve said a bunch of things that would fly only with the Luftwaffe. Le sigh. How disappointing. I mean, a North American racist … who’d have thunk it?

Actually, my first thought after hearing of the comments The Moscow Times attributed to Bobby Hull, all of which Hull has denied, was of Ernie Terrell. Terrell uttered brilliant simplicity after Ring Magazine refused to designate a Fighter of the Year award for 1967 because it felt the obvious winner, that brash independent thinker named Muhammad Ali, shouldn’t be held up as a positive example for its readers.

“If Clay did something illegal, put him in jail,” Terrell said in explaining why Ring was out of line. “But it’s not against the law to be a clown.”

Banana nut bread, anyone?

Bruce Lietzke’s caddie didn’t believe him when the veteran touring pro said he was going to take 11 weeks off and not hit a golf ball. The caddie put a banana inside the head cover of Lietzke’s driver.

“He was the one who pulled the cover off the driver 11 weeks later, and he never doubted me again,” said an amused Lietzke.

It was a pretty smelly lesson.

Not the best analogy

New York Giants linebacker Corey Miller’s reaction to learning that teammate Jason Sehorn was out for the year after being injured returning a kickoff during an exhibition game:

“It was like the president had been shot or something. It was total disbelief.”

But doesn’t the president shoot himself in the foot at least once a week?

The last word …

“We accidentally won too many games last year.” - Detroit Tigers president John McHale, attempting to explain why his team has not measured up to expectations this year. The Tigers had improved by 26 games over the previous season.