WILD WING, the Mighty Ducks' mascot, narrowly avoided
incineration at last night's Ducks-Canucks game. While
attempting a leap through a "hellish wall of flames," the mascot
stumbled on the trampoline that was supposed to propel him
through the hoop and landed face first on the bed of flames. The
gas jets were extinguished before any serious damage occurred
(L.A. TIMES, 10/19)....Cleveland's OREL HERSHISER was interviewed
on "Good Morning America." On the importance of the World Series
to the state of the game: "We think it's very, very important to
have a great Series and get some great p.r. and get people
thinking baseball again -- finding out that they can't live
without baseball" (ABC, 10/19)....Dolphins DT TIM BOWENS is
seeking more than $2M in actual and punitive damages in a suit
filed yesterday against Option Plus, Inc., an investment advisory
firm. Bowens claims he gave the company $389,000 to invest but
has not received any statements, reports or other info (MIAMI
HERALD, 10/19)....VERNON BELLECOURT, President of the Nat'l
Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media, on those who say the
Indians and Braves names and logos honor Native Americans: "They
always say they're honoring us. That's the same as if the Nazis
had won the war and years later had 'honored' their victims by
naming a soccer team the Berlin Jews" (N.Y. POST,
10/19)....HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH will perform a benefit concert
for the BOOMER ESIASON HEROES FOUNDATION (Esiason
Foundation)....CAL RIPKEN JR. and HANK AARON will throw out the
first pitches of Games One and Two respectively of the World
Series. DARIUS RUCKER of Hootie and TRISHA YEARWOOD will perform
the Anthem before Games 1 and 2 respectively (MLB)...."Sports
View" profiled Indians GM JOHN (CNBC, 10/18)...."ET" profiled JOE
MONTANA signing copies of his auotobiography in New York ("ET,"
10/18).
