Cheap Seats
Pippen: Another big stiff
Did Scottie Pippen stiff a Minneapolis restaurant? Ken Wilson, manager of Champs, says so. Wilson says Pippen paid him only half of the $750 due when some of the Trail Blazers arranged to watch the Lennox Lewis-Michael Grant heavyweight fight on satellite TV.
Wilson says after the fight ended in the second round, Pippen “said he would pay half, and that’s all I could get. I told him, `You’re putting me on the spot. This has to come out of my pocket.’ My back was up against the wall. What was I supposed to do? He’s a national sports star, and I’m a little restaurant manager. I’m happy I still have a job, that’s the way I look at it. If he was a regular guy off the street, I probably would have him arrested.”
Pippen says he and the manager had previously agreed on a reduced rate when many of the Blazers didn’t show up.
Who to believe? Well, Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune says the former Bulls forward is known around Chicago as “No Tippin’ Pippen.”
Old-timers coming out of woodwork
Tom Lasorda says he has been overwhelmed by the response to his being named coach for the U.S. Olympic baseball team.
“You wouldn’t believe who called,” Lasorda said. “Everybody wants in.”
Wade Boggs is one.
“That’s probably one of the greatest things you could add to any baseball resume-to play in the Olympics and represent your country,” Boggs, 41, said last week.
Other candidates from the tanned-rested-and-ready-for-Sydney player pool include Chili Davis, Gary Gaetti, Tom Candiotti, Tim Raines, Tom Pagnozzi, Willie McGee, Jimmy Key, Pat Kelly and Terry Steinbach.
Those names drew this response from Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner: “Go Red, White, Blue … and gray?”
Track and jell
John Crumpacker of the San Francisco Examiner with some suggestions on how to revive interest in track and field:
“Why does there have to be water in the steeplechase pit? Why not lime Jell-O? What a sight it would be watching runners plunge knee-deep in Jell-O every lap.
“Or if it has to be water, why not colored water? Liven up yourself.”
The last word …
“Dan Majerle said to me, `You only got this because I let my man blow by me.”’ - Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning, after winning NBA defensive player of the year award.