Cheap Seats
Let’s get Mom on the track
Martha Earnhardt, describing the similarities between her son Dale’s Winston Cup championship driving style and hers:
“Dale has always been a real aggressive driver, and sometimes I think he might have gotten a little bit of that from me instead of his dad. When I’m on the road, I find myself not liking to follow people. Of course, I haven’t run over anybody yet.”
He’s a nice guy, but where’s the cash?
Days after firing Idaho State University athletic director Irv Cross and head football coach Tom Walsh, president Richard Bowen said the pair were fired because the job was not getting done.
“In the case of Irv Cross, he has demonstrated that he is a wonderful human being with a lot of talents,” Bowen said. “But running the athletic department didn’t encompass one of them.”
Bowen said Cross failed to raise the kind of money that was anticipated when he hired the former pro football star and television personality on March 1, 1996.
“The search committee that hired Irv Cross, they said that the reason they gave for recommending Irv was that he would be able to bring substantial money to the athletic department,” Bowen said. “That just didn’t happen.”
Maybe they should try a telethon.
Hey, cut it out!
The Commonwealth Games went virtually unnoticed when they were held in September in Kuala Lumpur. All of which prompted Harry Pearson, in Total Sport, to comment:
“The Commonwealth Games is the sporting equivalent of the appendix: We all know it’s there, but the exact point of it, no one can quite fathom. Sometimes, of course, the appendix grabs our attention by bursting.
“This has yet to happen in the case of the Commonwealth Games, though, personally, I think we should remove it as soon as possible just to be on the safe side.”
Takes green to tear up greens
The Riveridge golf course in Eugene, Ore., has instituted an unusual way of appeasing players who want to wear spikes and groundskeepers who want players to wear spikeless shoes.
If you wear spikes, the greens fee is $35. If you have alternative spikes or tennis shoes, you pay $27.
A real catch
How valuable was Mike Piazza to the New York Mets?
Before they acquired him on May 22, the Mets had averaged 18,876 for 26 home dates. After Piazza joined the club from the Florida Marlins, they averaged 35,239 for 51 home games.
Makes sense to us
When John Brodie was playing quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, he also held the ball for extra-point kicks. When asked why the highly paid quarterback would be responsible for that, he replied, “Well, if I didn’t, it would fall over.”
The last word …
“I’m not a politician. Then again, neither is Jesse.”
- Former Minnesota Twins first baseman Kent Hbrek, explaining why he declined an offer to be Gov.-elect Jesse “The Body” Ventura’s running mate.