The Yankees and MLB will "serve as special producing partners with Kirmser Ponturo Group on the Broadway run early next year of BRONX BOMBERS." The show is FRAN KIRMSMER and TONY PONTURO's third collaboration with director ERIC SIMONSON and is "designed to bring sports fans to Broadway." Real-life husband and wife PETER SCOLARI and TRACY SHAYNE "will star as baseball couple YOGI and CARMEN BERRA in the play, which begins previews at Circle in the Square on Jan. 10, with the official opening set for Feb. 6" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 10/20).
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU? Agent LEIGH STEINBERG appeared on ESPN2’s “Highly Questionable” Friday afternoon where he discussed his career and life. Steinberg said Bengals Owner MIKE BROWN was one of the most difficult owners he dealt with and said, "If I represented astronauts, Mike Brown would be the commissioner of the moon.” Steinberg said he represented the Bengals' first-round pick four times over the years. Steinberg described first calling Brown in '76 about a player he represented. Steinberg: “I said, ‘I want to represent PAT MCINALLY, who’s this punter.’ And he said, ‘We don’t deal with agents.’ Click, and it never got all that much better” ("Highly Questionable," ESPN2, 10/18).
PIMPING HIS RIDE: ABC's Sarah Haines profiled the relationship between Redskins RB ALFRED MORRIS and his car, a '91 Mazda 626, the "first car he ever owned, the one he affectionately calls 'The Bentley.'" Morris bought the Mazda "for a whopping two dollars from his college pastor." When Mazda heard Morris' story, they gave the car a "much needed tune-up." Morris said, "They put a new radio in with navigation system, they put new tires, new wiring, new hoses, new alternator, transmission -- pretty much anything they can make new they made it new." But Haines added, "For Morris, refurbishing the car was never his priority. He loved everything about it, down to the dents." Morris said, "They didn’t take away from what the car was, what it meant to me" ("GMA," ABC, 10/20).
KICKSTART MY HEART: Houston filmmakers
CHIP RIVES and
DAVID KARABINAS have "created a Kickstarter account to solicit funds to finish their film" about the Astrodome. The fate of the building after Nov. 5 "will be known and it could be easier to fund the film." Production began in '09 and a trailer "has been circulating on the web since then" (
CHRON.com, 10/18).
NAMES:
PAUL TURNER, the "voice of many of WFAN’s promotional spots," recently signed a deal "with the CBS Sports Network, which sends his voice out to hundreds of cities" (
N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/20)....Career Advisor Daily listed four places every sports fan would want to work. Ticket search engine SeatGeek was ranked first, followed by the NFL, athlete/recruiter/coach video software firm Hudl and digital consulting company Omnigon (
CAREERADVISORDAILY.com, 10/16)....Nike CEO
MARK PARKER recently sold 120,000 shares of company stock for $8.8M (
OREGONLIVE.com, 10/20)….The family of late Baseball HOFer
STAN MUSIAL is “settling his estate by auctioning off items.” Dallas-based Heritage Auctions is “handling more than 400 lots for the Musial family, and bidding continues through Nov. 8” (
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/20)….Harvard Business School professor
ANITA ELBERSE celebrated the launch of her new book, “
BLOCKBUSTERS,” at Marquee in N.Y. The book examines “the rise of celebrities, athletes and nightclubs” (
N.Y. POST, 10/21)….Red Wings coach
MIKE BABCOCK will be featured on Outdoor Channel as he “heads to central Asia for a two-part TV special” beginning Oct. 27 (
FREEP.com, 10/20)….The Bills awarded the game ball from yesterday’s victory over the Dolphins to team Owner
RALPH WILSON, who turned 95 on Thursday (
BUFFALO NEWS, 10/21)….Former NFLer
BRAD MAYNARD sold his five-bedroom, 5,971-square-foot house in Long Grove, Ill., for $1.25M (
CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 10/17)….Magic radio play-by-play announcer
DENNIS NEUMANN on Sunday will run the Marine Corps Marathon through Northern Virginia and DC (
ORLANDO SENTINEL, 10/20).
