Darts Are a Sticky Issue for 2 Authors on the Sport

The point here is darts. And dart players.

Ron Deanne and J.D. Waits want to improve the breed.

Deanne is a championship player (or dart shooter, or dartist). Waits is an OK player, a free-lance writer and Deanne’s co-worker at North Island Naval Air Station.

They’ve teamed up to write (and self-publish), “Getting Into Darts,” the thinking man’s guide to darts.

“Most dart books are written to be humorous or for bragging rights,” said Deanne, 47, a civilian engineer at North Island and a weekend tournament player.

“This book is different. We wanted to provide a process for dart players to become mechanically correct.”

Many Americans are dart deficient in their understanding. They’re yoked to the old image of darts as a barroom game where the only goal is to hit the bull’s-eye (wrong, wrong, wrong).

It fries Deanne when he sees darts portrayed in the mass media, particularly when somebody leaves the darts stuck in the dart board after a game. That’s a no-no for etiquette reasons and also because it can ruin the board.

“People who show darts in movies, television and commercials need to be a little bit educated,” Deanne says. “John Q. Public has an image that darts is a drinkers’ game. But I’ve known teetotalers who shoot darts.”

Waits, 46, a Navy lieutenant commander, figures the world would be a better place if more people played darts. He used to write a column for “Bull’s-Eye News.”

“It’s camaraderie, it’s a shared experience, it’s a zero-pressure sport,” he says. “It’s not an adversarial relationship between opponents. The best dart player is not the one who out-psyches the opponent.”

Deanne, who is sponsored by Buck Knives of El Cajon, does a couple of dozen tournaments a year, including this weekend’s South Bay Dart Open at the Boys’ Club in Imperial Beach, with $10,000 in prize money.

“Getting Into Darts” talks of equipment, stance, electronic darts, strategies and the all-important wrist flex. Book No. 2 is planned.

“The Zen of darts,” Waits explains, “how to visualize the target.”

Where They’re Coming From

Names in (and out of) the news.

* Bob Davidson of La Jolla wants H. Ross and Sonny to team up in 1996 for the Perot-Bono ticket. Don’t ask me why.

* K-BEST’s Ken Copper figures this is the biggest time of the year for whoopee on turkey farms: “Toms are telling hens, ‘Listen sweetheart, I’ve only got a few days to live so.. .’ ”

* Henry Hubbard, the rapist and ex-San Diego cop, is said to be a model prisoner at Donovan State Prison. He plans to take psychology courses so he can “help others.”

* Bob White, Gov. Wilson’s chief of staff, is advising Susan Golding on how to organize a mayor’s office. (White was also chief of staff when Wilson was mayor, but you knew that.)

* Hollywood movie makers are intrigued by the San Diego Convention Center’s open spaces and whiter-than-white architecture.

After the center board took out a big ad recently in the Hollywood Reporter, film companies interested in using the center as a suburban shopping mall or a space station have made inquiries.

* Sugar Ray Leonard is impressed by Alpine’s Terry Norris but thinks he should rev up his personality and drop those funny haircuts that spell words (like KO and San Diego):

“He has looks, he’s articulate, he’s decent, he’s talented. Only thing is he has to start using billboards rather than the back of his head to make his point.”

Java for Justice

Under fire from the State Bar over some money matters, San Diego attorney Thomas Waddell, a specialist in family law, closed down his practice recently.

But court observers figured the resourceful Waddell, 55, would find a way to get back into the legal action.

They were right (sort of).

Now he’s operating a coffee stand a brief (or brief’s) distance from the downtown Family Law Court, catering to attorneys and their clients.