Stadium Sodbusters Set for the Boys of Summer

For the folks at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, there is life after the Super Bowl.

Like, getting ready for an off-road race in 12 days.

The painstakingly nurtured and beautifully painted playing field had its four hours in the national limelight on Sunday, and crews on Monday began cutting the sod into sections for removal.

Before the sod is ripped up, though, acres of plastic sheeting will cover the field, topped by plywood and then thousands of tons of dirt that will be sculpted and dragged into a race track for Toyotas, Datsuns and Mazdas for Mickey Thompson’s Off-Road race on Feb. 13.

The dirt will be rearranged for a motorcycle motocross the following week.

After that, said assistant stadium manager Jack Argent, the dirt, plywood, plastic sheeting and sod will be removed and new Santa Ana Bermuda sod, now being grown at a nursery, will be brought in.

A pitcher’s mound will be formed, bases anchored, home plate sunk, foul line posts erected, outfield fences positioned and, come April 1, it’s play ball! with an exhibition match between the Padres and the San Diego State University Aztecs.

The first home game of the season is April 12--just 10 weeks from today--between the Padres and the Dodgers.

A Removable Feast

So what happened to all the leftover food from Pete Rozelle’s gluttonous Super Bowl Party Friday night at North Island?

There wasn’t that much left over, said Susan McCann of the National Football League’s special events office.

But what wasn’t consumed was offered to sailors on base, who came over Saturday morning with their own containers to take home leftovers.

A San Diego Record

The 73,302 fans at Sunday’s game consumed 40,000 hot dogs, 100,000 cups of beer and 40,000 sodas.

That’s the word from Service America, which handles the concessions and programs at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Vice President Jerry Long said Service America grossed nearly $1.5 million at the stadium Sunday, a record for it in San Diego--although it has done better on Super Bowl Sundays in other cities with larger stadiums.

Fear and Leaving

Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson coined the phrase: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

But when Thompson’s Saturday night appearance at Symphony Hall turned a little too weird, dozens of members of the audience who came to see the author of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: ‘72” turned to the ticket windows for refunds.

Ostensibly in San Diego to deliver a lecture titled “Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl,” Thompson--whose outrageous behavior, legal run-ins, and pharmaceutical excesses have been well-documented over the past two decades--more than lived up to the reputation that made him the model for the character Uncle Duke in the “Doonesbury” cartoon strip.

After arriving nearly an hour late, Thompson, a bottle of whiskey in hand, immediately began fielding questions from the audience. His answers, such as they were, were largely incoherent mutterings into a hand-held microphone.

When members of the audience shouted that they could not hear Thompson, he complained that he could not understand their questions, either, or, alternately, angrily tossed the microphone on the stage while maligning the hall’s sound system with a stream of expletives. At other times, Thompson wished out loud for a gun so that he could “blow away” some members of the audience.

As Thompson’s unintelligible, often vulgar, ramblings continued, the mood turned ugly. Insults were thrown at Thompson, and some people began to walk out, encouraging others to leave too. About 200 of the 1,600 present did, stopping on the way out to demand refunds.

Of Mice and Munch

At the science fair at Del Dios Middle School in Escondido, one student posed the question: “Does handwriting have an effect on grades?” She concluded that it doesn’t matter. But to play it safe, her report was typed.

Another student asked, “Does different food affect mouse’s growth?”

One group of mice was fed regular rodent food, and it did the best. A second group was fed cereal, carrots, celery and water, and didn’t do too bad. The third group of seven mice was fed pre-sweetened breakfast cereals, cheese puffs and grape soda. These mice, the student said, gained the least weight. And, oh yeah, two died.

But our favorite is the student who wondered if talking to plants would promote growth. She grew radishes and talked to one group of them each time she walked by. Conclusion:

“Talking to plants does help them grow. I have not figured out if it is because they like hearing your voice or if it is because of the carbon dioxide that you exhale. Maybe next year I will do an experiment where I talk to one group and just breathe on the others.”