THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 20, 1995 TAG: 9512200556
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
I intended to summarize the year in sports today, using broad strokes to remind everyone of the big events of 1995.
Instead, I fell to thinking about the light, little moments, quirky stories and amusing asides that might provide relief from the tedium of a year-end review.
For example, did you realize that a survey released in '95 indicated that bowlers are the world's smartest athletes? But if that's the case, why are the sizes written on the outside of their shoes?
Speaking of footwear, the year started to feel a little light in the loafer when ballroom dancing was added to the Summer Games in Atlanta.
It seemed like an absurd idea. Then again, Vince Lombardi, no proponent of the soft shoe, once complained: ``Football isn't a contact sport, it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.''
Arthur Murray couldn't have said it better.
There is barely time to recall the big games, famous fights and controversial stories from the past 12 months when more of the same is fed daily through the pipeline.
But it isn't every year that a cross-country runner is run over by a deer and knocked unconscious during a meet.
It happened to Peter Ianacone, a freshman at Loyola College in Baltimore.
Ianacone recovered nicely, except, perhaps, from the ribbing he took. It was reported in the dispatch I saw that his favorite movies are now ``The Deer Hunter'' and ``Bambi.''
Speaking of the cinema, who can forget Newt Gingrich suggesting to players and owners that they could end the baseball strike by sitting down together to watch ``Field of Dreams''?
Another knucklehead made the news when CBS golf commentator Ben Wright reportedly bashed the LPGA. Wright was quoted as saying that women's breasts hinder the golf swing.
This inspired somebody to say, ``Funny, but it doesn't seem to bother John Daly.''
Comebacks were big in 1995. Michael Jordan. Mike Tyson. Monica Seles. Major league baseball. James Bond. The Beatles.
To this list, let's not forget to add grass. We can all be glad that the grass field, for both baseball and football, is enjoying a resurgence.
Some of these unexceptional stories stay with me longer than the stuff of traditional year-end roundups.
Browns owner Art Modell may be the '95 poster boy for sports villainy, but I can't seem to forget the two writers - Dumb and Dumber - who left Maryland's Joe Smith off their All-ACC ballots.
Likewise, I'd be forced to look up the name of the Indy 500 winner, yet I haven't forgotten that driver Scott Goodyear raced on Firestone tires.
Or that the most publicized forehand stroke in tennis was the one delivered by Benedicte Tarango to an umpire's face.
Or that, in '95, Merv Griffin's ``Jeopardy'' and ``Wheel of Fortune'' were named the official game shows of the Atlanta Olympics.
In keeping with the spirit of this non-review revue, here's one more item that won't make most year-end summations.
Officials in Cooperstown, N.Y., turned down an offer for a minor league baseball franchise, arguing that the city is ``really not a baseball town, per se.''
So much for '95. I look forward to 1996, and to Merv lighting the Olympic torch. ILLUSTRATION: JANET SHAUGHNESSY/Staff
by CNB