'sign Here ... Or The Bear's Dead'
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday January 25, 1997
OUR Olympic thought police are on the ball. During yesterday's launch of the three mascots for Sydney 2000, journalists were given a printed list of quotes from varied officials and sports people, along with some of their children, about how much they really, really liked the trio of stuffed animals. Included in the list were the offspring of former Australian basketballer Damian Keogh: five-year-old Sam ("I like Syd, he's my favourite, because he's got a funny beak!") and six-year-old Maddison ("I like the platypus and Millie. They look cuddly!"). They were shown the mascots on Wednesday, but only after they had signed a contract of confidentiality and sworn on the head of their favourite teddy vowing not to disclose the mascots' identity ahead of yesterday's official launch.
SHANE Heal has had a rough time of it over in Minnesota for the past month, having become a half-million-dollar professional bench warmer. Worse, the man keeping him benched, rookie point guard Stephon Marbury, continues to impress basketball watchers, and was featured in Sports Illustrated amid claims he is the next Michael Jordan. Heal was warming his regular bit of pine earlier this month when just a metre away, Dennis Rodman took the wind out of a local television cameraman with his infamous $A240,000 foot to the groin. While no-one would wish such a blow from a size 16 sneaker, Inside Running would be prepared to cop it sweet for the considerable pain relief of the ensuing financial compensation.
DEAN Jones was in Port Moresby this week as a special guest to launch a junior development program in Papua New Guinea called Liklik cricket. But not all the locals appeared impressed by the presence of our Deano. Port Moresby's The National newspaper described Jones as the "Victorian Sheffield Shield team skipper and reputed former Australian batsman".
THE old "How do you feel" campaign was extremely popular in television entertainment terms and also sold millions of litres of beer for Tooheys from 1976-87. During this week's launch of a renewal of the "How do you feel" campaign, two new ads were shown, plus some highlights from the glory days. The latter proved so popular among the throng, many thought a "best of" retrospective was part of the official campaign. Not so, said Tooheys. The new jackaroo and basketball themes bring to 30 the total in the "How do you feel" series, which began with Steve Rixon hitting Dennis Lillee for six, and also included two appearances from Mike Whitney, plus Rex "Moose" Mossop marlin fishing, two on the old Manly versus Parramatta rugby league rivalries, soccer's Craig Johnston, surfing's Mark Richards, the old Sydney Swans, along with surfboats, sailing, baseball, cycling and even ice hockey.
THE Johnnie Walker golf event up in the Queensland sun has a reported budget of more than $8 million. And it seems no potential for exposure is being spared. The Johnnie Walker men were out in force talking to the players' caddies before the opening day on Thursday, offering them $150 a day to wear the scotch maker's yellow hat. Around half of the field of 156 golf club carriers are believed to have taken up the offer, with most of those who knocked it back already having deals to wear headgear bearing the insignia of the sponsor of the players for whom they are caddying.
FOR lovers of women's tennis, a piece of trivia. The longest point in the history of the women's game was played in 1984, between Vicki Nelson-Dunbar and Jean Hepner at a tournament in Virginia. Adding a touch of realism to the current commercial featuring John McEnroe dying of boredom during a marathon exchange, one point of a tiebreak lasted 29 minutes, with the ball crossing the net what must have been an enthralling 643 times. Nelson-Dunbar won the point, tiebreak and the match 6-4 7-6 (13-11), with the tiebreak also a record-breaker as the longest ever in women's tennis - 1 hour and 47 minutes.
ONE of the first people Australian fast bowling recruit Andrew Bichel thanked - both publicly and privately - upon getting the call from the national selectors was the big daddy of Australian fast bowlers, Dennis Lillee. Lillee had helped the Queenslander over the years in his travelling brief to help the nation's pacemen. While Lillee was chuffed, he said Bichel would still have got there without his help. "He's a good kid with a great heart," Lillee said. "He'll make it." Lillee also liked Bichel's ability to give the ball a bit of an old-fashioned thump down the batting order.
COMPUTER fraud consultants are warning companies in New England and Wisconsin to avoid using Super Bowl-related passwords that would make it easy for hackers to break into their computer systems. During a computer security audit for a large client in Chicago, a consultant said he was able to break into more than 40 files by using the NBA champion "Bulls" as a password.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald