Shaq’s Touch Better Online Than at Line
Shaquille O’Neal wants to help more kids learn their way around the Internet, and he has made a large donation to the Boys and Girls Clubs as part of a plan to open new technology centers.
“Right now, certain kids have access to the Internet and certain kids don’t,” the Laker center said.
When the Internet first became popular, Shaq says, he didn’t want anything to do with it. Now he can’t stay off it.
You know, nothin’ but Net.
“I always kind of believed that you had to be extra, extra smart to work on stuff like this, but it’s easy,” he said. “My message to the kids is, if Shaq can work technology, anybody can.”
OK, but if anybody can make free throws, why can’t Shaq?
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Trivia time: How many Angels have been the American League’s most valuable player?
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Ready golf: In a publicity stunt designed to showcase the Reno-Lake Tahoe region as a golfing destination, Don Thompson tried to tee off at 43 area courses in a 12-hour period this week.
He ended up hitting one drive at each of 40 courses. Three private clubs on his list wouldn’t allow him on the tee. (Guess they either weren’t falling for the old just-going-for-a-record trick or didn’t want the rag-tag press crew along.)
Anyway, Thompson got slowed twice, once by a long line at a McDonald’s drive-up window and later by a Nevada highway patrolman.
“I looked up and the light was red and I was half through the intersection,” said Thompson, who claims he was distracted by his melting ice cream cone.
“The patrolman pulls me over and asks me, ‘What are you doing?’
“I told him I was trying to tee off at 42 courses in one day and he says, ‘Isn’t it supposed to be 43?’ He had heard it on the news. He told me to be careful,” Thompson said.
By the way, Thompson, 68, regularly shoots in the 80s.
His favorite course?
“The one I am on at the time.”
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Bald and beautiful: About 40 hair stylists shaved a record 4,071 heads at the Seattle Mariners’ annual Jay Buhner buzz night this season. The popular T-shirt slogan: “America the Buhnerful.”
Sales of the shirts raised $2,800 for groups battling cystic fibrosis.
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Bottoms up: A list of 11 top college sports bars in ESPN the Magazine turned up only one in the Pacific 10 Conference: McDuffy’s Sports Bar in Tempe, Ariz.
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Trivia answer: One, Don Baylor in 1979.
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And finally: On a list of the greatest photo opportunities in sports, ESPN the Magazine lists Monument Park in Yankee Stadium, the Michael Jordan statue at the United Center, the Wayne Gretzky statue at the Edmonton Coliseum, Touchdown Jesus on the Notre Dame campus, the Joe Louis fist in downtown Detroit, the Arthur Ashe monument in Richmond, Va.; Ruffian’s grave at Belmont Park and the Jackie Robinson statue outside Olympic Stadium in Montreal.