LITTLE ROCK — No joke, Carey raps Cup ref
Comedian Drew Carey is among the U.S. fans who thinks referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali has eyesight problems.
Carey addressed a crowd of 700 Americans at a barbecue at the U.S. embassy Wednesday before the Americans beat Algeria 1-0 in their first-round game to advance to the second round of the World Cup.
A board member of the USA Bid Committee trying to land the World Cup for the United States in 2018 or 2022, Carey laced into Coulibaly, who disallowed Maurice Edu’s 85th-minute goal that would have given the Americans a 3-2 victory over Slovenia last week.
Coulibaly would not tell American players why he called it off.
“I think the refs in the World Cup are doing an outstanding job.
They’re very fair. I have nothing but respect for everything they do,” Carey said, drawing boos from the crowd, which included American players’ families, U.S.
Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber and Donald Gips, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa.
“He’ll be flying home to meet his guide dog and everything is going to be fine,” added Carey, host of the game show The Price is Right.
The U.S. embassy, a few blocks from Loftus Versfeld, faces the Mali embassy directly across the street.
Carey made a pledge to the crowd before the United States advanced.
“If we get past the round of 16, I’m getting a tattoo,” he said.
Shot back Gulati: “And we’re going to auction off where that tattoo is and who places it on him.” Return of the pierogi
The pierogi is back, but the Pittsburgh Pirates say it’s not because anybody turned up the heat.
Pirates communications director Brian Warecki says the team has rehired 24-year-old Andrew Kurtz, who earns $25 per night to race around the stadium in a pierogi costume.
Kurtz was fired last week after using the Internet to criticize contract extensions given to General Manager Neal Huntington and Manager John Russell.
Warecki says Kurtz was rehired because he had not been dismissed in accordance with company procedures. Warecki says team management learned of the firing Friday and promptly offered Kurtz his job back because he shouldn’t have been terminated in the first place.
He says bad publicity played no part in the decision.
Quote marks
NASCAR co-founder Raymond Parks, 96, who died Sunday, revealing in the book Driving With the Devil how to make a small fortune: “You take a huge fortune, and then you go into racing.”
Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers, to The Associated Press, on his pitching prospects at age 63: “I throw just as hard, it just doesn’t get there as fast.”
BMX legend Tim “Fuzzy” Hall, to the Chicago Sun-Times, on his biggest fear while installing a race course on an old factory lot in Chicago: “Digging up a gangster that got buried back in the 1930s.”Quote of the day “This is one of the few times where I feel bad for the umpire.” John McEnroe on the first-round match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut Wednesday at Wimbledon
Sports, Pages 18 on 06/24/2010