Sideline chatter 9/16/03

Whippersnappers get Triplett talk

Kirk Triplett looked at his age (41) and his career PGA Tour winnings ($10 million-plus) and suddenly realized he's no longer one of golf's youth brigade.

As the Pullman product told The Associated Press: "I feel like the old geezer out here now talking to some of these guys."

So he regales the kiddies with tales of the good old days, such as: "'You know, when we played, it was a $700,000 purse, not $700,000 for the winner.'

"'We didn't have courtesy cars. We drove uphill both ways.' That sort of thing."

Yogi on ice

Jean Perron, the former Montreal Canadiens coach and hockey commentator, filed a $60,000 defamation suit after two authors published "Les Perronismes," a satirical look at Perron's on-air gaffes such as:

"You took the air right out of my mouth."

"There's too much intestinal fighting among the Senators."

"They rolled out the silver platter for him."

The suit was tossed out, Canadian Press reported, because as a public figure Perron "could be subject to wisecracks, satire, good-natured ridicule and may be caricatured without his consent."

Perron wasn't available for comment, but we assume he's resigned to the fact it's just spilt milk under the bridge.

Political infighting

Martin Schanche, a former rally-cross champion who is running for city council in Frogn, Norway, got mad during a recent candidates debate and started heading for the door. He got even madder when opponent Torgeir Micaelsen called his walkout "cowardly."

So Schanche came back, made like Jimmy Spencer and punched Micaelsen in the snoot.

"Nobody calls Martin Schanche a coward," he told AP. "My whole adult life has been lived based on controlled courage."

Talking the talk

Nikole Pilkington, 26, a lineman on the Indiana Speed semipro women's football team, telling the Indianapolis Star why she plays the game: "We don't make the big bucks, so it's obviously for the love ... besides hitting each other."

Bill Scheft of Sports Illustrated, on reports that tennis player Mark Philippoussis is dating actress Tara Reid: "Which means he's advanced to Tara's round of 16 boyfriends."

Mets reliever David Weathers, to the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, on how he pitches to Barry Bonds: "Chuck and duck. I want only single guys playing the infield behind me. I don't want anyone losing a husband or a father."

Bob Bellard, Central High (Texas) football coach, giving the new turf at San Angelo Stadium a thumbs-up to the local Standard-Times: "It's a very natural, unnatural grass."

Inscribed on a plaque, according to The New Yorker, in the office of Big Bill France, the billionaire founder of NASCAR: "Money isn't everything, but it tends to keep the children in touch."

Patty Berg, 85, LPGA Hall of Famer, to a man who said he had gotten a new driver for his wife: "Great trade."

Envisioning Mass profits

A group of Massachusetts House Republicans, looking to tap into new revenue streams, suggests selling naming rights to 600 parks, forests and recreation areas in the state, the Boston Globe reported.

No truth to the rumor that deals are in the works for Chrysler-Plymouth Rock, Martha Stewart's Vineyard and Fen-Phen Fenway Park.

-- Dwight Perry, The Seattle Times