Cheap Seats
Not a swift move
A thief picked the wrong suitcase to try to steal at the airport in Seville, Spain, and then tried to outrun the world’s fastest man, Maurice Greene.
The luggage belonged to Larry Wade, one of the American track stars arriving for the world track championships this week.
The hurdler was waiting for Greene to finish a TV interview when he saw a man lift one of his suitcases and hurry away. Wade went after him and so did Greene, who holds the world record in the 100 meters (9.79).
The man was caught, the news agency Efe reported.
Is the leftist a lefty?
Joking with an audience of students Thursday, Cuban President Fidel Castro described the minor annoyances of his life, including cell phones and signing baseballs.
“I don’t know why in the United States they really think that I am involved in baseball,” he said to a burst of laughter from about 2,000 people at a congress of leftist youth groups at Havana’s National Theater.
Castro, a noted baseball fan who was a promising pitcher as a university student, said U.S. visitors continually bring him books on baseball “and a mountain of baseballs to sign.”
The Cuban leader, dressed in his usual olive-green fatigues, also grumbled that the sound of cellular telephones “is unbearable” and added: “Some believe they are very important because they carry one of those little telephones.”
You mean our cell phones are merely overhyped, overindulgent, overpriced pieces of capitalistic garbage?
He saw him first
Paying tribute to baseball scout Ralph DiLullo, who died this week at age 85, Jerry Izenberg of the Newark Star-Ledger recalled DiLullo’s lifelong dream of discovering a future Hall of Famer.
“He did come close once,” Izenberg wrote. “He was out in Queens watching this kid from the University of Cincinnati pitch. Al Campanis of the Dodgers was there too.
“After five innings, he ran for the pay phones and told the head of the Cubs’ scouting department, `He’s the best I’ve ever seen.’ The Cubs wouldn’t spend the money. The Dodgers would. The kid’s name was Sandy Koufax.”
Rules make it hard not to cheat
Dave Kindred of the Sporting News, providing some perspective on the Notre Dame football scandal: “NCAA rules are designed to perpetuate the lie that college athletics is amateurism when we all know it’s professional sports except the players don’t get paid. And in the end, it is that NCAA hypocrisy that makes athletes susceptible… .
“In truth, the athletes likely feel entitled to whatever they get however they get it.”
The last word …
“You’ll see a dozen 7-year-olds flipping you the bird. It makes you wonder about the youth of America.”
- Minnesota Twins infielder Denny Hocking, on playing at Yankee Stadium.