Cheap Seats
Loyal fans at the Grand Ol’ Rink
Tom Fitzgerald, right wing for the expansion NHL Nashville Predators, on the team’s fans: “They don’t know a lick about hockey. They never leave in the third period because they think there is a fourth one.”
She won’t want to try this on ice
Katarina Witt is trying out a new routine, and she’s not wearing skates - or anything else, for that matter.
The two-time Olympic figure skating gold medalist is featured in a 10-page photo layout in the December issue of Playboy, shown prancing through woods and streams.
“I’m sure that some of my skating audience, when they hear I’ve taken off my clothes for Playboy, will be shocked,” Witt writes in the accompanying text. “I don’t know what to say except that I was ready to do this.”
Now, this is dogged determination
Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times:
“I am not making this up. Marge Schott wants to keep one of her limited partner shares in the Reds so she can continue to take Schottzie 02 on the field before games.”
Bowled over before he started
Light heavyweight boxer Ernest Mateen was taken to a New York hospital Thursday for treatment of injuries received before he even got into the ring.
Mateen slipped in the bathroom before his scheduled 10-round bout with Gabriel Hernandez for the vacant New York State light heavyweight title.
Mateen, 175, was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where X-rays revealed a cut on the back of his head. The fight was called off.
Politics on the links
Former Chicago Blackhawks player Dennis Hull, master of ceremonies for the Inland Northwest Sports Award Banquet, on playing golf with former Montreal great Maurice “Rocket” Richard:
“He uses those French-Canadian golf balls. They go 200 yards down the middle and then they separate.”
Between a rock and a rockhead
Philadelphia Flyers general manager Bob Clarke explained why he isn’t interested in acquiring either Vancouver right wing Pavel Bure, who is suspended while waiting to be traded, or Pittsburgh center Petr Nedved, a restricted free agent whose holdout is in its second season:
“What makes you think these guys are not going to walk out on the next team they got to?” Clarke told the Camden (N.J.) Courier-Post. “Bure’s just as dumb as Nedved, and Nedved is an idiot.”
At least one foot short
Tomas Sanchez, who plays football for Arlington Heights High in Fort Worth, Texas, kicked two field goals last weekend to give him a national record of 45 for his prep career.
His team, however, lost, 27-26, when Sanchez missed a conversion kick with 1:02 left.
The last word …
“This is also the home of Mae West, who would have loved the idea of 20,000 men in short pants running through her hometown.” - ESPN2 broadcaster Larry Rawson, setting the scene at the New York Marathon.