For Pete’s Sake, It Was No Time to Show Off

When Pete Newell held his Big Man Camp in Honolulu, he was surrounded by some of the flashiest dunkers in basketball. The motto of the camp, however, is, “Leave your dunks at the door. You’re here to work.”

Newell, who will soon turn 85, told the players, “I’m here to introduce you to your feet. This is not about how well you can dunk. In the NBA, the big man has to play a lot of isolation basketball. It’s 90% feet and 10% ball.”

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Trivia time: When was the last time a Buick won a NASCAR Winston Cup race, and who drove the car?

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Superstitious: LPGA member Pearl Sinn will not play with a ball marked with the number three.

“I’ve always played badly with them,” she says.

She also says she loves even numbers, but “if I shot a 67, I’d take it.”

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Many, many: When a reporter asked Jose Canseco what he considered his biggest mistakes as a young superstar, the New York Yankees’ new designated hitter said, “Do we really have time for all those?”

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Nothing special: Said Tampa Bay’s Gerald Williams, after becoming the 25th player to hit 20 home runs as a leadoff batter:

“There are a lot of guys who evaluate stats. I’m just a player who wants to play.”

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Fair warning: As more people train with weights, more get hurt--especially baby boomers and older people who are trying to keep from showing their age, a study has found.

Weight training injuries rose by 35% from 1978 to 1998. The largest group was in injuries per 100,000 men 65 years of age and older, which rose 303%. Injuries per 100,000 women ages 45-64 rose 281%.

“Weight training can be a very physical exercise, and maybe a lot of these older people aren’t ready to participate,” said researcher Chester S. Jones of the University of Arkansas, who reviewed federal injury data over 20 years.

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Daily double: Dale Earnhardt Jr. will drive with an Olympic Games paint scheme on his car in a Winston Cup race tonight at Bristol, Tenn. If he wins, and drag racer Kenny Bernstein wins next week’s U.S. Nationals top fuel competition, Budweiser will award $5 million to be divided among the USOC, the two drivers and a lucky consumer.

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Delayed action: Detroit Tiger General Manager Randy Smith was unable to get back from Las Vegas in time to be present for the birth of his second child, so he and his wife waited a day to name it.

“That’s perfect for a GM,” assistant GM Steve Lubratich told Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun. “A baby to be named later.”

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Ying and yang: The 1991 Cleveland Indians lost 105 games. The 1995 Indians won 100 games and went to the World Series.

Says catcher Sandy Alomar about this year’s Cleveland team: “We’re hard to figure out. One day we look like the 1995 Indians. The next day we look like the 1991 Indians.”

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Trivia answer: Brett Bodine, in 1990, at North Wilkesboro, N. C.

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And finally: Former U.S. and British Open champion Johnny Miller, in assessing Tiger Woods to the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir, said: “Tiger is not really 24. He is more like 28, golf-wise, maybe 30. He was a child phenom. He’s way past 24.”