Most Dangerous Game for Reporter is Soccer
Journalists reporting on soccer games in England might be eligible for combat pay.
Vinny Jones, one of the Brits’ bad boys of soccer, took a bite out of the nose of Daily Mirror reporter Ted Oliver shortly after a riot halted a match between Ireland and England.
“Vinny clamped up my nose with his teeth and shook me like a dog with a dead rabbit,” Oliver said. “Blood gushed from fang holes on either side of my nose.”
Jones’ response: “I always do that to people I like.”
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Trivia time: Who is the only golfer to win the U.S. Junior, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open championships?
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Playground talk: Shortly after Mark Lamping was named president of the St. Louis Cardinals, he proudly told his 12-year-old son, Brian, about his new job.
“Dad, they stink,” Brian said. “All of the kids at school are going to make fun of me.”
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No stars here: Movie producers often hold tryouts for extras. That, right wing Russ Courtnall says, is how he and his Dallas Stars teammates looked during a recent 0-6-1 slump.
“We looked like 20 guys who just walked in off the street and were thrown together for a game,” he said.
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Fast everywhere: Going fast is how Formula One racing driver Damon Hill makes his living.
On a British highway north of Oxford, going fast cost Hill a seven-day suspension of his driving license and a $250 fine. Hill was sentenced after pleading guilty to driving his Renault at 102 m.p.h. The speed limit is 70.
Hill said he was on his way to a TV interview.
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Priorities: At a recent charity golf tournament, NFL quarterbacks Dan Marino, John Elway, Phil Simms, Bernie Kosar and Mark Rypien all played very well.
Fuzzy Zoeller’s comment: “They ought to be good. They play more golf than we do.”
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Just asking: Randy Hill, in the Pasadena Star-News, wonders if “the Angels will announce plans to fill Bo Jackson’s spot on the roster with a hip replacement replacement.”
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Attitude change: From Charlie Vincent of the Detroit Free Press: “Today, too many of the NBA’s best players take the money and run. No. That’s not true, they take the money and saunter. Too few run.”
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Food for thought: At the end of a game with the Boston Bruins, a fan hurled a ketchup bottle that splattered Hartford Whaler Coach Paul Holmgren.
“I ended up smelling like a giant hot dog,” Holmgren said.
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Losing omen: Dale Earnhardt, who never has won the Daytona 500, should have been concerned when the guy who waved the flag to start the race last month was Buffalo’s Jim Kelly, who has never won the Super Bowl.
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Trivia answer: JoAnne Gunderson Carner. No man has done it.
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Quotebook: Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller, on this year’s NBA most valuable player: “Utah’s Karl Malone and John Stockton should split it. They do everything else together, they might as well be co-MVPs.”
