Schools in This Town Leave Foes in Showed-Them State

While shopping malls around the country braced for their biggest day of the year Friday, the stores in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., were almost bare.

The town of 4,411 about 50 miles south of St. Louis was making history. Both of the town’s high school football teams were playing for--and winning--state football championships.

“Everyone was either glued to their radio at home or on hand to cheer on one of the teams,” said Carol Phillips, a waitress at the Big Brick, Ste. Genevieve’s most popular restaurant. “I’d say we resembled a ghost town,” said her boss, Judy Schwartz.

The Ste. Genevieve Valle Warriors, the city’s Catholic school, beat Hardin-Central, 44-16, at Springfield, while the Ste. Genevieve Dragons defeated Bolivar, 22-15, at Columbia.

“I went to Ste. Gen, and today just gave me goose bumps,” Schwartz said.

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Turnabout: When Ken Griffey Jr. was in Japan with an all-star team, he said he didn’t appreciate how Lou Piniella had treated his father during Griffey Sr.’s duty with the Cincinnati Reds in 1990.

Piniella, now Griffey Jr.’s manager with the Seattle Mariners, apparently was listening. One of his first acts was to hire Griffey Sr. as his batting instructor.

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Trivia time: Who has played in the most consecutive NHL games among active players?

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Much ado: Rock Newman, Riddick Bowe’s manager, explaining that Lennox Lewis doesn’t want to face his fighter.

“Lewis and his people yelled from the rooftops that they wanted to fight Riddick next. We called their bluff. We offered $12 million. . . . they turned it down, tucked their heads behind their tails and ran back to London. All their yelling, it was like Shakespeare wrote--sound and fury signifying a whole lot of nothing.”

The real thing: Pittsburgh Pirates infielder John Wehner was in Caracas, Venezuela, when rebels tried to overthrow President Carlos Andres Perez recently.

“You could see the bombers circling around and you could actually see the bombs falling out of the planes,” Wehner told Pittsburgh TV station WTAE. “They were close enough to make the windows shake at one point. It was pretty scary.”

Not always tops: In the NBA, only four No. 1 draft choices have gone on to win rookie of the year honors: Derrick Coleman, David Robinson, Ralph Sampson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

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What’s in a name? Pookie Wilson, Florida Marlin outfielder, is continually asked where he got his nickname.

“My mom says I was in my crib, two days old, when my dad came up and pinched me on my cheeks and said, ‘My little Pookie,’ and it’s stuck with me,” Wilson told USA Today Baseball Weekly.

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Frugal: Sam Snead turned 80 earlier this year, and the stories never stop about his penny-pinching, about how he used to stash his money in tomato cans in his back yard in the hills of West Virginia. Fred Corcoran, who managed Snead years ago, once said:

“Walter Hagen was the first man to make a million dollars in golf and spend it. Snead is the first to make a million and save two.”

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Add Snead: The big disappointment for Snead was that he never won a U.S. Open, but he knew what he had to do.

“I once figured out that if I’d shot 69 on the final round of all my U.S. Opens, I would have won seven of them,” he said.

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Trivia answer: Steve Larmer of the Chicago Blackhawks, with 825 games.

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Short-handed: Only eight Heat players--the NBA minimum--dressed for Miami’s 101-93 loss to Houston last week.

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Quotebook: Laker forward Elden Campbell, after being asked if he had earned his degree from Clemson: “No, but they gave me one, anyway.”