From The Daily News of Saturday, Nov. 24, 2007 . . .
The London Telegraph reports that David Beckham has cut a three-year deal
with Giorgio Armani worth $41.43 million. And what could Beckham do for
Armani that would be worth that kind of dough? According to the Telegraph,
Beckham “will front Armani’s Emporio SS08 underwear campaign that is to
begin in January.” . . . Oh, goodie, something to look forward to in the
new year. . . . According to leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “Hillary Clinton
recently celebrated her 60th birthday. When asked about it, she reportedly
said ‘I feel like a 30 year old.’ And Bill said, ‘Me, too!’ ”
Ian Hamilton, in the Regina Leader-Post: “On Sunday in Toronto, the
Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers will tangle in the Grey
Cup ‑ or, as Toronto residents call it, ‘The what?’ ”. . . One more from
Hamilton: “Notre Dame has lost games this season to the Naval Academy and
the Air Force Academy. Next up . . . is the gang from Police Academy.” . . .
Hmm, wonder if the Police Academy’s starting 11 includes Janet Gretzky? . .
. After Navy and then Air Force beat the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame, the
headline at TheOnion.com read: U.S. Military Wasting All Its Victories On
Notre Dame. . . . Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “Alex Rodriguez’s new deal
with the Yankees will top $300 million if he breaks the career home run
record in pinstripes. (Dear Alex: You’re a Miami guy. How about building the
Marlins a new stadium?)”
One day last week, The Score ran a soccer transaction across the bottom of
the TV screen noting that Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun would miss
three weeks due to an “abduction.” Turns out he had suffered a torn abductor
muscle. . . . Jack Todd, in the Montreal Gazette: “I was going to write a
limerick today about my least favourite Toronto Maple Leaf -- but I couldn’t
think of a word that rhymes with ‘Tucker.’ ” . . . Thomas Bonk of the Los
Angeles Times tells us that when Jack Norworth (words) and Albert Von Tilzer
(music) wrote Take Me Out to the Ballgame neither man had ever been to a big
league baseball game. . . . Major League Baseball will celebrate 100 years
of that song in 2008.
Mike Bianchi, of the Orlando Sentinel: “The three slowest-moving objects in
the world: 1. The Malaspina Glacier on Yakutat Bay in Alaska; 2. The garden
snail; 3. Shaq in the fourth quarter.” . . . There really aren’t teenage
athletes in our town who will initiate a teammate by taping a bottle of hard
liquor to a wrist and leaving it there until it’s empty, are there? . . .
Ray Allen, the Boston Celtics’ starry guard, says he takes about 250
practice shots before games. And how many does he make? “Probably about
247,” he tells the Boston Herald. “Those three I missed were when the
cheerleaders walked out.” . . . Confidentially, just between you and me, do
you have any idea which WHL owner has had employees sign confidentiality
agreements in an attempt to plug a leak? Again, confidentially, between you
and me, just asking.
Michael Jordan is to pay $150 million to make his ex-wife go away. Charles
Barkley, on Dan Patrick’s syndicated radio show, had this reaction: “I agree
with Donald Trump. Everybody who’s got money or thinks they’re going to have
money should have a pre-nup. . . . If she don’t sign it, you don’t marry
her.” . . . Here’s Hall of Fame defenceman Al MacInnis on the subject of
composite hockey sticks: “Forwards, when they’re in front of the net, they
can’t handle passes with them. I told Keith (Tkachuk), ‘Go back to that wood
stick, you’ll be scoring 50 goals again.’ ” . . . As for Guy Lafleur, who
scored a goal or two back in the day, he said one-piece sticks are “crap”
and added: “What does an extra 20 miles an hour matter when the puck goes 50
feet wide of the net?”
No one is a bigger fan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders than Kamloops Blazers
trainer Colin (Toledo) Robinson. And how does he see Sunday¹s game? “They
will rename the Grey Cup the Green Cup after the game,” he says, a
Roughriders cap perched jauntily atop his cranium. . . . “It’s a big deal,”
Saskatchewan defensive tackle Scott Schultz says of playing in tomorrow’s
game. “Other than getting married and the birth of my daughter, this is the
biggest thing that’s ever happened to me.” Schultz, it should be pointed
out, is from Moose Jaw. . . . Chris Long, a 280-pound defensive end at
Virginia, is likely to be a top-10 selection in the NFL’s 2008 draft. You
may have heard of his father, former Oakland Raiders defensive star Howie
Long, now a talking head on Fox-TV’s NFL studio show.
”I realized it’s a giant black hole,” Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff
says about what once was a habit he had of complaining about and to
referees. “Now I have to tell my assistants to stop yelling at the refs.” .
. . From the Baltimore Sun’s Flip Side column: “When Mr. Flip last noted
Serena Williams’ love interest, the interest in question was actor Jackie
Long. Well, apparently it’s so long for Long. The New York Post reports that
the tennis star was snuggling with rapper Common at a party for sister Venus
in New York. A Post ‘spy’ was quoted as saying that they ‘were keeping it
cool, but you could tell Common likes himself some Serena.’ ” . . .
Manitoba’s under-18 men¹s soccer team once included Troy Westwood, Mike
Keane and John Ferguson Jr. “Fergie was real good in the air,” Westwood, the
Blue Bombers’ placement kicker, told the National Post’s Joe O’Connor. “He’d
get those elbows going, and nobody would want to mess with him. He and
Keaner, they brought a nice Canadian way of playing soccer -- a nice mix of
tough-nosed hockey etiquette -- to the soccer field.”
A University of Texas study funded by the National Institute of Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism, reported “college students drink larger amounts of
alcohol on football game days.” To which Peter Yoon of the Los Angeles Times
noted: “The study also revealed that the sun sets in the West, rush hour
traffic is worse than at other times of the day, and toast is made from
bread.” . . . A spy tells me that there will be a four-team senior baseball
tournament in our town in the spring. It’ll feature the Black Sox and Prince
George Panago Axemen, along with teams from Tacoma and likely Seattle. Mark
it down for the last weekend in April. . . . Toby Harrah, who was a pretty
decent third baseman a while back, spent 1984 with the New York Yankees. As
he told Coach and Athletic Director magazine: “Everybody should play for the
Yankees one time just so they get an idea of what it¹s really like to be
hated by everybody.”
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