SWINGING GAMES

Midori Ito lighted the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony Saturday, but apparently baseball lights the fires of Nagano youngsters.

They were lined up the other day, waiting their turns against the six pitching machines in a batting cage installation across the street from the Big Hat hockey arena and only a block from the main press center.

The tab? 500 yen--about $4.25--for 15 minutes.

BOOTY BULL

Luge competitors, like most other athletes, enjoy playing mind games.

Austrian sledders were spreading the word during training runs that they had produced new aerodynamic booties that they would wear on race days.

Herr Jordans?

A REAL NOBODY

Bobsled driver Brian Shimer is a four-time Olympian, but he recognizes that most winter competitors live in anonymity.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” Shimer said. “The only way people might know me is if I were to say, ‘Hey, I’m the guy who drove Herschel Walker.’ ”

The U.S. Bobsled Federation, much to Shimer’s chagrin and several of his bypassed teammates’, brought in the inexperienced football star as something of a celebrity pusher for Shimer in the 1992 two-man event at Albertville, France. They finished seventh.