Monday, Aug. 4, 2003 | 8:56 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
Notes today, leading off with a question: Do you know the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?
Well, we in the West might not but if you live in Florida, work for the University of Florida and have the responsibility of designing the cover of the Florida Gators football media guide, you ought to know. Nonetheless, that person -- and probably a succession of others -- embarrassingly OK'd the new book despite the fact there's a menacing crocodile, rather than an alligator, pictured on the cover. (Both are amphibious reptiles but the gator has a broader snout and the croc larger jaws.) SEC rivals hope it's a mistake with a bad omen for Ron Zook's team. ... Hard to believe that Tiger Woods is using a club that is so outdated it is no longer manufactured, but that became the case when he took a 3-year-old Titleist driver out of his closet to replace the Nike model that didn't seem to suit him.
Evander Holyfield Jr., the oldest of nine children fathered by the former heavyweight champion, is going to try to walk on as a wide receiver at Auburn this month. He's 6-foot-3 and 160 pounds. ... Rancho High alum Steve Kazor checked in from Detroit to say he's eager to get his Wayne State football team on the field, which will happen after physicals on Tuesday. But Kazor, who also has been an NFL assistant in Dallas, Chicago and Detroit, wishes a promise made to him when he was hired three years ago had been kept. "One of the reasons I took the job was the president said we'd move into (the Lions') Ford Field, but it hasn't happened yet," he said. Wayne State is a Division II school with an enrollment of 32,000.
The Lions, by the way, may or may not have to pay the $200,000 fine the NFL gave them last week for not interviewing minority candidates for their head coaching position, but the league did it to make a point: Every team has been put on notice that it needs to diligently pursue minority coaching candidates, even if it's a forgone conclusion as to who is going to be hired. ... To the racist caller who didn't care for my Friday piece on Kobe Bryant: Same to you. ... To clarify something I thought was obvious in that Bryant column: If he pays off the girl, she won't testify. Hence, the prosecution's case becomes moot even in a criminal proceeding, or at least in this already shaky one.
Las Vegas 51s manager John Shoemaker said local fans can look forward to a wave of outstanding pitching prospects arriving here by next year. "What we do have (at the AA level) are some great, young starting pitchers," he said, albeit before the parent Los Angeles Dodgers dealt one of those arms to Milwaukee in the Jeromy Burnitz deal. ... While watching a recent Little League game I gained new appreciation for the simple act of throwing the ball around the infield after an out when the bases are empty. It's simple, yet intricate in a way, and the manager had his hands full in trying to explain the proper way to do it -- or even why to do it -- to his young team.
"Seabiscuit" may be a fine movie with underlying emotional ties, yet the horse I'd like to see portrayed in Hollywood is Secretariat. ... The fact that the New York Yankees acquired 30-year-old third baseman Aaron Boone from the Reds last week means, among other things, that heralded prospect Drew Henson is not developing as expected in the minors. Henson chose baseball over football despite playing quarterback for Michigan and looking as if he could have had a career in the NFL. Imagine the disappointment he'll feel if he doesn't make it in baseball after passing up a sure thing in football.
The Willow Creek Executive Golf Course in Pahrump has closed, for good by the looks of it despite a sign on a clubhouse door that says it will reopen Oct. 1. Everything -- the course, the clubhouse -- is in complete neglect and apparently has been for some time. ... The Mountain Falls course in Pahrump has nine holes open for play (after several delays) and will open the other nine Nov. 1. The holes in existence are challenging enough as they wind around a couple of ponds, and it's a far better layout than the only other full-length course in the city, Willow Creek. That said, some yardage markers (and a sign or two on the road to give directions to the course) are still needed. ... For those who don't mind the heat, the summer golf rates in Las Vegas have certainly been reasonable this year and they've made some courses -- the Revere, Dragon Ridge and Rio Secco among them -- affordable for those who ordinarily find their greens fees suffocating.
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