Cheap Seats
They might get some birdies this way
At the NFL’s annual golf shootout this year at the Coto de Caza golf club located 90 miles north of San Diego, there was one competition that was close to every hacker’s heart - a club throwing contest for anyone frustrated with his game.
A hair-raising trip to nowhere
It was a special moment for Al Valenti when a street in Boston was renamed Tony DeMarco Way in honor of the former welterweight champion, whose promoter was the grandfather of Valenti.
Valenti predicts the urban transportation renewal in Beantown won’t remain stagnant. He says someday there will be two more streets that get new names in honor of men involved with boxing.
“There’ll be a street for Don King called One Way and one for Mike Tyson called Dead End.”
Something to crow about
There are thieves everywhere. Frank Lindstrom set a heavy gold bracelet on the tray of his golf cart while playing his approach to the 12th green at Oak Hills Golf Course in Spring Hill, Fla.
Then he looked up to see a crow fly off with the jewelry, according to Golf Digest. Lindstrom chased it briefly, only to watch as the bird flew over the trees.
But that wasn’t the worst part of his day. He had to explain the theft to his wife, who had given him the $450, 14-carat gold bracelet in 1985.
Two weeks later, Lindstrom got the bracelet back. A man who had read about the incident found the bracelet in a supermarket parking lot - 35 miles away.
Wolverine hunting season opens in Ohio
Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson, a native of Fremont, Ohio, was a little wary when he appeared before the Ohio Legislature to receive a resolution honoring his achievements. Fully aware he was a major factor when his Michigan team defeated rival Ohio State, he scanned the balconies of the ornate Ohio House chamber as he moved toward the rostrum.
“I have to look around for a minute to make sure there are no snipers up there,” Woodson said with a big smile.
A true deep threat
New York Giants coach Jim Fassel is a former Stanford quarterback coach, who recruited John Elway at Granada Hills (Calif.) High in the late 1970s.
Once, when Elway was a Stanford freshman, George Seifert, then a Stanford assistant coach, used Elway to simulate kickoffs.
Elway threw the ball to the 5-yard line. Not deep enough for the Stanford coaches. “How far can you throw it?” Fassel asked the quarterback. Elway shrugged and said, “A ways.”
“I told him to throw it as far as he could,” said Fassel. “He threw it out of the end zone, over the fence and past the trees.”’
Wrote Harvey Araton of the New York Times, who uncovered the story: “So if you’re in the Denver huddle and Elway says, ‘Go long,’ don’t stop running.”
It’s about time
When legendary boxing trainer Eddie Futch recently retired, he said it was because he “wanted to spend some time enjoying myself and my family.”
Futch is 86.
The last word …
“My car is like my wife - I want to be the only one able to touch it.”
- Max Papis, an Italian race car driver
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo