Web Site Gives A Grass Roots Approach to A’s

Is there anything more boring than watching grass grow? A new Web site is featuring grass--the tended turf of the Oakland Coliseum to be precise.

The site boasts a stadium Web Cam that will be operating 24 hours a day.

The site’s chief attraction will be pregame and postgame activities of Oakland Athletic home games. During games, only the scoreboard will be shown because of Major League Baseball licensing restrictions.

The rest of the time, the camera will continue to operate, offering true baseball fans vistas of fresh grass with the occasional greenskeeper in a guest-starring role.

Trivia time: What do the Waterloo Hawks, Toronto Huskies, Sheboygan Redskins, Pittsburgh Ironmen, Indianapolis Jets, Detroit Falcons, Cleveland Rebels and Anderson Packers have in common?

Sign him up: Before the New York Yankees broke spring camp last week in Tampa. Fla., several of them--and about 50 fans--were dazzled by a young power hitter.

He’s 12-year-old Prince Fielder, son of designated hitter Cecil Fielder. The 5-foot-9, 200-pound seventh-grader has hit balls out of the Seattle Kingdome, Milwaukee County Stadium and Tiger Stadium, according to his dad.

Said shortstop Derek Jeter: “He hits it harder than me.”

Preemptive strike: Cleveland Indian General Manager John Hart on why he felt he needed to trade Kenny Lofton:

“After the season, we were going to have the Kenny Lofton World Tour with Kenny flying from city to city. I was not going to be a passenger on that plane. I wanted to drive the plane.”

New Jersey serenade: From Caught on the Fly in the Sporting News: “The first game after Coach John Calipari sent his brain on siesta and indulged in some loco talk about a Hispanic reporter, the organ pipes at Continental Arena pounded out ‘The Mexican Hat Dance.’ ”

Silent treatment: Colorado Avalanche General Manager Pierre Lacroix on his lack of activity just before the NHL trading deadline: “We had one call--the wrong number.”

Trivia answer: They were NBA franchises that existed for only one season.

For the record: It was reported in Friday’s trivia answer that four major league baseball players have stolen 50 bases in each league. Actually, there were five. Ron LeFlore did it six times with Detroit and once with Montreal.

And finally: Sports historian Dwain Esper noticed that Danny J’s restaurant in Burbank has on its menu a Ty Cobb salad, calling it the original Brown Derby recipe.

The Brown Derby, once a famous restaurant in Hollywood, featured the Bob Cobb salad, named after the owner, who also owned the Hollywood Stars baseball team of the Pacific Coast League.