If that fellow mowing the grass and trimming the palm trees at the Florida Marlins’ training facility in Melbourne, Fla., seems familiar, he should.
Because, until a week or so ago, he was one of the team’s coaches.
Rusty Kuntz was one of 60 employees fired by the Marlins when new ownership took over.
“It’s a way to get out of the house,” Kuntz said of the gardening chores he has been doing voluntarily each off-season since 1993. “I’m not a hobby guy or a golfer or a fisherman. I just prune trees, and I like being outside watching grass grow.”
Type casting
Controversial relief pitcher John Rocker will be flinging bodies instead of baseballs after making his big-screen debut as–guess what?–a homicidal maniac in a slasher flick filmed last fall called “The Greenskeeper.”
It follows a 20-year-old assistant greenskeeper who gathers friends for a country-club birthday party, according to the movie’s Web site. A killer dressed as a greenskeeper and armed with golf-course tools crashes the party and disposes of naughty teens.
Rocker was chosen for the part, according to producer Kevin Greene, because “he has a crazy persona and the character needed a wild streak.”
Say what?
`He’s Mr. NBA, but this summer he belongs to the Oklahoma Storm.’
– James Sears Bryant, owner of the U.S. Basketball League franchise that named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar its coach this week.
