Cheap Seats

When Jordan got plastered

An unidentified seller stands to get a windfall when the cast Michael Jordan wore after breaking his left foot in 1985 is put up for auction.

The seller happened to be in the office when Jordan’s doctor removed the cast.

“All I did was ask for it,” the seller told the Associated Press. “Jordan’s doctor gladly gave it to me. Michael even autographed it.”

They can always blame inflation

How bad can baseball’s economics be when two groups have put down the $12 million deposit and are prepared to meet the $120 million purchase price for the Oakland A’s - with all their attendance and stadium problems?

Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan, an Oakland native, is part of one group. Former Yankees general manager Bob Watson, who had a long playing career himself, is part of the other.

Under an agreement with current owners Steve Schott and Ken Hoffman, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority had until Wednesday to receive bids and until May 11 to select the group that will pursue approval from the American and National leagues. The A’s, as part of the agreement reached in October, must remain in Oakland for three years.

Schott and Hoffman bought the club for $85 million in 1995, meaning the value has grown $35 million in four years, a nice return amid the industry’s alleged financial woes in the small-revenue markets.

Here’s a rinky-dink tactic

The Philadelphia Flyers are in the National Hockey League playoffs and Bill Lyon of the Inquirer recalls some zanier days: “The Flyers were coached by Fred Shero, the undecipherable Fog, who admitted that one of his favorite tactics when he could see his goalie was laboring was to reach into his pocket and fling a handful of coins on the ice and then shout to the referee in great alarm:

“`Stop the game! Stop the game! Some idiots are throwing stuff one the ice.”’

So, was he icing the buck?

When opportunity knocks …

Frank Luksa in the Dallas Morning News on New Orleans Saints coach Mike Ditka: “True or not, the story goes that Ditka slammed a blackboard during a fire-‘em-up speech when he coached the Chicago Bears. He broke his right hand.

“The next week, he stood before the team with that hand in a cast and said, `How about winning one for Lefty?”’

A premier attraction

Quotable Colorado coach Rich Donnelly, on the dietary precautions the Rockies took on their season-opening trip to Monterrey, Mexico.

“One of the security guys gave us a list of things we couldn’t eat - meat, potatoes, salad, water, fish, chicken and Mexican food.

“So that pretty much boiled the things we could eat down to Pringles and Oreos.”

The last word …

“I think Dierk’s next plan is to put somebody in the seats in left field.”

- Astros broadcaster Jim Deshaies discussing manager Larry Dierker’s four-man outfield defense for Mark McGwire