Englishman Pays Price for Diving in the Drink
Englishman John Collinson, 36, made a modest living diving for lost balls in golf course ponds and selling them for 20 cents each ... and now he is in jail for trespassing.
Police, ever vigilant, caught Collinson, equipped with a rubber diving suit at a course in England several months ago.
He told a jury last week he had even filed taxes on his earnings, roughly $21,500 a year, but a judge jailed him anyway.
“Rough justice,” read an editorial in the Daily Telegraph. “On the scale of human wickedness, John Collinson’s crime registers barely a blip.”
If that.
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Trivia time: Who holds the record for scoring average in one NBA playoff series?
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That’s hockey: Hubert Mizell in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times: “Let’s ease off baseball’s Bud Selig, with Gary Bettman of the NHL becoming ‘least courageous’ among commissioners, refusing to adequately hammer a sickening array of playoff thugs.”
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More Mizell: “You may argue, but I think the top fight songs, in order, belong to Michigan, Notre Dame, Southern California and Wisconsin.”
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Up to date: Peter Clark in the Gallery column in the San Diego Union-Tribune: “About 45 minutes after the Kentucky Derby was over, the DJ on B94.9FM read the race results--from last year’s race.
“OK, Gallery realizes it’s an oldies San Diego station, but that’s going too far.
(Note: The DJ corrected himself about 10 minutes later).”
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Ever vigilant: Steve Hummer in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Reading about the Falcons’ Chris Draft [a former Stanford player] and his rescue of a motorist from a burning car, it is good to know that if you ever run into trouble on the highway at 3:30 in the morning, there are many brave professional athletes out at that hour, on patrol.”
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Intimidated: Jerry Greene in the Orlando Sentinel: “Everybody hates seeing the Florida Marlins play in an NFL stadium in Miami--including Marlin slugger Cliff Floyd, who says, ‘I hate hitting at home. Just the park itself. It’s huge and you feel like you’ve got to crush everything you hit.’”
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He won’t go away: Bob Molinaro in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: “Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your TV, Mel Kiper Jr. releases his top 15 picks for next year’s draft.”
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Beneath him: Mike Bianchi in the Orlando Sentinel: “Jerry West taking over the Memphis Grizzlies? Isn’t that sort of like Bruce Springsteen taking over the Monkees?”
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Trivia answer: Jerry West of the Lakers, 46.3 points against Baltimore in 1965, six games.
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And finally: On HBO’s “On the Record With Bob Costas,” fight promoter Don King said that after prevailing a few years ago in a federal tax trial, he took the jury to London to attend a heavyweight title fight and put the group up at a luxury hotel.
Added King, “I not only took that jury to London, I took the next jury to the Bahamas.”
Replied Costas, “Normally, people try to get out of jury duty, but in your case they’re lined up around the block.”
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Mal Florence