Names In The News

Pacers co-Owner HERB SIMON at an Indiana Historical Society event last month said his brother, Pacers co-Owner MEL SIMON, needs "a little prayer." U.S. District Judge SARAH EVANS BARKER, the emcee for the evening, added that Melvin "was in the hospital." Barker: "I have permission to say Mel is fighting a real fight now" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/6).

BEHIND THE MASK: SI's Kostya Kennedy writes former Yankees PR Dir MARTY APPEL's biography of former Yankees C THURMAN MUNSON, "MUNSON: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A YANKEE CAPTAIN," provides a "rich inside look into" Munson's career and "can at times make you feel as if you had a front-row seat to it all." However, the it "isn't a tell-all-book -- there's often a sense that Appel is holding back things he might at another time reveal" (SI, 8/10 issue).

Kerr (c) Attends Re-Enlistment Ceremony In Phoenix

names: Epiphanny Prince, “the guard who decided to skip her senior season with the Rutgers women’s basketball team to play professionally overseas,” has signed a representation deal with Wasserman Media Group (NYTIMES.com, 8/5)....Univ. of Alabama football coach NICK SABAN's third annual Nick's Kids Luncheon was held Tuesday at The Zone at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and more than $300,000 was "awarded to several local and state charities" (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, 8/5)....Suns President of Basketball Operations & GM Steve Kerr and the team's mascot, the Suns Gorilla, were among those in attendance at Air Force Sergeant BRIAN WILLIAMS' re-enlistment ceremony yesterday at halfcourt of US Airways Center. Williams, a nine-year veteran of the military, was sworn in for another six years of service (Suns).