These Performers Didn’t Have to Rely on Their Acting Skills

A group of NFL players gathered at the Rose Bowl in June to film a soft-drink commercial.

The scene is a training camp. Temperatures rise. Players begin to melt into the field.

Enter Cincinnati quarterback Boomer Esiason, who throws bottles of the soft drink to San Francisco running back Tom Rathman, Philadelphia quarterback Randall Cunningham, Green Bay linebacker Tim Harris, Washington defensive end Charles Mann and Detroit linebacker Chris Spielman. They drink up and return to normal.

On the day the commercial was shot, the temperature on the field reached 114 degrees.

The director, Michael Ritchie of George Lukas’ Industrial Light and Magic studio, said: “I thought that on a comfortable 70-degree day we could use our imaginations and make believe the day was a scorcher. Instead, we got a heavy dose of reality that we didn’t need.”

Trivia time: This year, there were eight different singles champions in the Grand Slam tennis tournaments. When did it last happen?

Before taxes: After Jose Canseco’s wild ride Friday night--when a mistaken cab driver nearly took the Oakland Athletics’ slugger from the team’s hotel to Shea Stadium before Canseco noticed the problem and rerouted the driver to Yankee Stadium--the A’s slugger emerged from a meeting with Manager Tony La Russa and joked that he had been fined $25,000. When a reporter asked him to repeat the amount, Canseco shot back: “About how much you make in a year.”

Add Canseco: Saturday, discussing Canseco’s mishap, his performance and the fine, La Russa said: “After he got a double and a homer, it went down to $2,500. Another homer and it’s down to $250.”

Canseco took the team bus to Yankee Stadium Saturday.

Reality Czech: Petr Nedved, an 18-year-old Czech taken by the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of this year’s NHL amateur draft, took part in the team’s first training camp workout Saturday.

Said Coach Bob McCammon: “Everyone says he looks like (Wayne Gretzky) when he’s skating in on you, and he does to a certain degree. He’s a pure talent and whether he plays in the National Hockey League this year or not, he definitely has superstar potential.”

Nedved, who sought asylum in Calgary in 1988 during a world junior tournament, played with Seattle of the Junior A Western Hockey League last season, scoring 65 goals and 145 points in 71 games.

Said Nedved: “I got used to the rough stuff in Seattle and handled it pretty good. The NHL . . . that is a bigger step.”

Trivia answer: In 1966, the Australian Open was won by Margaret Smith Court and Roy Emerson, the French by Ann Haydon Jones and Tony Roche, Wimbledon by Billie Jean King and Manuel Santana, and the U.S. Open by Maria Bueno and Fred Stolle.

Quotebook: Ion Tiriac, Boris Becker’s manager, on John McEnroe: “Half come to see him win. Half come to see him lose. Half come to see what happens.”