July 14, 2021 – davidbruceblog #2

Children

• Greg Maddux played for the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves, as well as for other teams. As a 12-year-old Little Leaguer, he was so gifted a pitcher that his coach would not allow him to pitch in a championship game, saying that allowing him to pitch would not be fair to the other team! (Greg played, but did not pitch, and his team won the championship.)

• In 1990, when tennis player Jennifer Capriati was 14 years old, she played against Martina Navratilova in the finals of the Family Circle Magazine Cup in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Ms. Navratilova won both the tournament and the Mazda Miata sports car that went to the champion, then said, “It’s just as well I won it — since Jennifer can’t drive.”

• When Canadian gymnast Elfi Schlegel was seven years old, she won her first competition. As a reward, she was given a trophy, while the second- and third-place competitors were given medals hanging from ribbons. Ms. Schlegel was so young that she was disappointed that she didn’t win a medal necklace like her friends had.

• Amy Chow, who won gold (team) and silver (uneven bars) at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, got into gymnastics by accident. When Amy was three years old, her mother wanted her to take dance lessons, but the dance studio thought she was too young for lessons, so her mother enrolled her in a gymnastics class instead.

• When Evonne Goolagong was a child in Australia, she entered what she thought was a tennis tournament for children in Narrandera. However, when she arrived at the tournament, she discovered that it was for adults. No problem. She played in the tournament anyway — and won!

• Shannon Martin was six years old when she won an age-12-and-under roping contest, for which she was written up in the Roping Sports News. Because she hadn’t learned to read yet, she kept saying to her father, “Come on, Dad. Read it again.”

Christmas

• As a youngster in an impoverished family, golfer Sam Snead suffered through some bleak Christmases. Sometimes, he found his Christmas presents under a plate — two or three nickels. Other times his Christmas present was a pair of socks. What was his best-ever Christmas present? A sled his father had made for him.

Clothing

• Track and field star Florence Griffith Joyner was known for her outrageous racing clothes and painted fingernails as well as for her wins and world records. For example, at the 1988 Olympic Trials at the Indiana University Track Stadium, she wore a one-legged, green bodysuit and a one-legged, turquoise-and-purple bodysuit. In addition, for one race, she painted her long fingernails mostly orange — at their ends she painted black and white stripes. At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea, she wore a fluorescent blue-and-white outfit as well as an all-lace bodysuit that resembled a negligee. At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, she painted nine fingernails red, white, and blue, and one fingernail gold — the color of the medal she hoped to win. Actually, in 1984 she won the silver medal in the 200-meter race, but in 1988 she won the gold.

• At Michelle Kwan’s first United States Nationals ice skating championship tournament, her coach, Frank Carroll, was shocked at the condition of her unshined skating boots. Immediately, he started shouting for boot polish to shine her boots because he was afraid that the skating judges would regard the unshined boots as an insult to them. While the other coaches were laughing, Mr. Carroll shined Michelle’s boots and blew on them to make them dry. When she skated in the competition, her boots were still wet. (Ms. Kwan hadn’t meant any disrespect. At that time, she believed in the superstition that you should not shine your boots while you are performing well.)

• Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini are a sexually charged pairs skating couple. Ms. Underhill is a beautiful woman, and Mr. Martini is a hunk. During one session to work out the pair’s choreography for “When a Man Loves a Woman,” an embarrassed Mr. Martini had to stand still while Ms. Underhill and choreographer Sandra Bezic had fun figuring out — and demonstrating — the best way for Ms. Underhill to grab his butt during the performance. In the finished program, Mr. Martini wore blue jeans, and Ms. Underhill stood in front of him, reached around him, and put her hands in his rear pockets.

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