Bol-ing for SportsCenter®
Publicity stunt with NBA star Manute Bol sells seats, tarnish league.

 

Opinion

There was a time in minor league sports where baseball teams had the midget whose head they would rub for good luck.

The Indianapolis Ice, known for stunts like hockey games with elephants, found a freak-of-the-week that is good enough to land them airtime on shows around the country, and a probable shot at SportsCenter.

And that, after all, was the point, wasn't it?

The press release, sent out by the Indy Ice yesterday was an embarrassment.

At 7'7" Bol had more business in boxing gloves (It's hard to K.O. a guy whose face you can't reach.) than on ice skates.

There are a lot of hockey players who worked hard even to get to the AA. Minor hockey's greatest problem is credibility. The Central Hockey League has worked long and hard to prove itself to the cities and towns that it appears in. It claims to put on a quality product of the sport, not Globetrotte- style exhibitions.

Have a sense of humor, you say? Sure. When the El Paso Buzzards changed their names to the Cow Pies for two nights, and coughed up uniforms to boot, we all got a great laugh. It was a brilliant stunt, because it was just enough to get the media's attention, without going too far. When fans thought this might be on the level, the team came out in its home town colors, and the guy selling gold-plated cow poop outside the arena was back on the streets bumming quarters.

That stunt didn't degrade the players or the sport. If you picked someone like Deon Sanders to pull off this prank, at least the media would be speculating about its legitimacy, and the fans would come out to check out the potential. Sanders is an unparalleled athlete in many respects. He may not be a great hockey player, but you would sure like to see what it looks like if he gave it a shot.

"Bol On Ice" happened either because the Hanson Brothers cancelled a booking, or his contract with Circque du Soleil fell through. At least when the Hanson brothers do their schtick, all of them are seasoned hockey players who can still go toe-to-toe on the boards with the teams that they are appearing with.

You'll notice that, unlike other media outlets, we are not carrying a news story on Bol today. We have more respect for the sport, and for the hard work of the Central Hockey League's main office, than to provide much legitimacy to such an obvious cry for thirty seconds on SportsCenter.

The G.M. at Indy will fill up seats at the Field House with this one, to be sure. He has also reaffirmed to the mainstream media that his team, and others in minor hockey, are freak shows with pucks and sticks.

What a shame.

BMR