Cheap Seats

Pitching with an international twist

St. Louis third baseman Gary Gaetti on New York Mets pitcher Masato Yoshii, the 33-year-old Japanese rookie: “He throws that Japanese splitter. It comes East to West.”

John Stockton, crimestopper

Even Utah’s criminals were Jazz fans while Karl Malone, John Stockton and Co. were making their unsuccessful bid for the NBA title.

Valley Emergency Communications Center dispatchers in Salt Lake City usually can count on up to 200 calls for law enforcement assistance per hour on an average night. During the finals opener, however, calls dropped off sharply after the 7 p.m. tipoff at the Delta Center.

VECC assistant director Gary Lancaster said that by halftime, calls were down to about 100 per hour; by the end of the fourth quarter, it was less than a call per minute.

A computer graphing of the call log showed about a 20 percent drop in calls per quarter.

Not even the Olympics, BYU football and Utah’s NCAA basketball championship-game appearance had such an impact. Only the Super Bowl compared.

They’re all wet about Hill

M’s outfielder Glenallen Hill, on his reputation:

“I’m stereotyped. People look at me and I’m big and I’m black and they think I’m a gangster. But what I am is a surfer dude from (California).”

Fear of flying

Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes of the problems big people have on airplanes, such as 6-foot-6, 340-pound Steelers lineman Jamain Stephens.

“Even on first class, it’s a tight fit,” Stephens said. “You can imagine what it’s like in coach.”

Stephens once got stuck in an airplane lavatory for 5 minutes while trying to squeeze out.

A toast to the minors

There are some benefits minor league baseball players have over major leaguers, believe it or not.

Gary Varsho, manager of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in the Class-A Midwest League, told Paul Meyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “In the minor leagues, when you get off the bus at the hotel after a game, there’s always a convenience store you can walk to to buy beer.

“In the major leagues, it takes some searching.”

Is that all?

Primo Nebiolo, the head of track and field’s governing body, was turned down by the organizing committee at Sydney, Australia, on his request for 16,000 free tickets to the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Said Michael Ventre of MSNBC, “So, if you spot a man standing outside the track stadium with a sign that says, ‘I need 16,000,’ you’ll know who it is.”

Where are the windmills?

Dan Gadzuric, a 6-foot-11 center from Holland, is bound for UCLA.

Said Gadzuric, “UCLA reminds me of home.”

Says Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle: “L.A. reminds him of The Hague? Maybe things look different from that altitude.”

The last word …

“The obvious reason is I’m a sick man. In other words, I’m addicted to it.”

- Former light heavyweight boxing champion Donnie Lalonde on why he is still fighting at age 37.