LITTLE ROCK — Heat start camp with boots on
Serious people have serious jobs at Hurlburt Field, a U.S. Air Force installation in Florida’s Panhandle that houses the 1st Special Operations Wing.
For them, the next few days will be more about fun and games than usual.
Taking training camp 650 miles from home, the Miami Heat will arrive at Eglin Air Force Base tonight, then get to work Tuesday when two-a-day practices begin at Hurlburt Field. And for airmen, the visit from LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Heat is a diversion that’s leaving them almost giddy.
“It’s been a morale booster,” Airman First Class Nickolas Fisher said. “Everybody’s talking about it on base. Everybody wants to go.”
Few, if any, will be attending.
Practices will be closed, although some events where the Heat interact with airmen a rescheduled.
Staff Sgt. Fatimat Bello is from Louisiana, partial to the New Orleans Hornets. She’s also a basketball player, competing in a women’s league at Eglin.
“My teammates and I have been trying to stalk a little bit,” Bello said. “It’s not working out too well.”
The Heat will stay at an on-base hotel at their expense, eating catered meals, even bringing in beds large enough to accommodate NBA-sized men.
Mona Noel, a front desk clerk at the lodge, said her cell phone has been busy nonstop with requests from friends and family who want to know about the special guests.
Don’t ask her to put you through to LeBron’s room. Not happening, Noel said.
Great balls of fire
As if dodgeball wasn’t awesome enough (or traumatic - results may vary), El Salvadorans have elevated it to a new level.
How? They set the balls on fire. And they’ve been doing it for a long time.
Every Aug. 31, in a tradition dating back to 1658, residents of Nejapa, El Salvador, celebrate their annual fire festival, known locally as “Las Bolas de Fuego” (balls of fire) to honor the town’s patron Saint Jeronimo, who, according to legend, fought off the devil with fireballs.
The highlight of the festival features two teams, complete with warpaint and water-soaked clothes, flinging gasoline-soaked cloth balls at each other.
According to BBC News, the local volcano El Playon erupted in November, 1658, and forced the villagers of the old Nejapa village to flee and settle at the current location. As they were leaving, locals saw great balls of fire spewing out of the volcano, giving rise to the legend.
Virtual sellout
Maybe the Tampa Bay Rays should take note.
According to the Wall Street Journal, an Italian soccer team has discovered a novel way to fill their stadium - the virtual crowd.
Fans of Triestina, a professional soccer team from the northern Italian city of Trieste, were recently greeted with an unusual sight. Nearly every seat on the side of the stadium that faces the television cameras appeared to be taken.
Not by people, it turned out, but by a giant sheet of vinyl stretched across the empty seats with the image of a crowd printed on it.
“We’d love to have a full stadium with real supporters,” said Triestina’s General Manager Marco Cernaz said. “And we’ve done everything we can to get people through the gates. But the reality is that we can’t. This way at least we create a bit of atmosphere, a bit of theater.”Quote of the day
“We’ve got a week to lick our wounds and come back strong from this.” Arkansas defensive end Jake Bequette
Sports, Pages 16 on 09/27/2010