LITTLE ROCK — Ryan a hit with ring, not at plate
Brendan Ryan took advantage of his trip to Japan this week.
The Seattle Mariners shortstop proposed to his longtime girlfriend Sharyn on Tuesday on the Sky Deck on the 54th floor of the Mori Tower, one of Tokyo’s largest buildings.
“I had this planned for quite a while,” Ryan, 30, told MLB.com.
“Once I heard we were going to Japan, I figured it was a pretty cool opportunity. Then MLB heard about it and stepped in and rolled out the red carpet for us and it was just awesome.”
Ryan told Sharyn that they were going on a tour and needed to get dressed up. MLB provided a fake “tour guide” who took the couple to the tower, where Ryan waited for the right moment.
“We got up there at sunset so it was starting to get dark and you could see the lights of the city and the Tokyo tower was lit up,” he said. “It was perfect.”
The former St. Louis Cardinal asked Ichiro Suzuki’s interpreter, Anthony Suzuki, how to say “Will you marry me?” in Japanese.
“So I dropped that on her,” Ryan said. “When she asked me what that meant I got down on a knee. It was kind of cool.
“She didn’t answer at first. I’d instilled in her that we’d be close to 40 when that would happen, so she was pretty shocked. But after 5-10 seconds, she finally gave mean answer, which of course was yes.”
Ryan said that he made pitcher Felix Hernandez carry the ring through airport security and on to Japan because he figured the Mariners’ ace could afford to replace the ring if he lost it.
(Hernandez signed a five-year, $78 million extension in 2010.)
In the Mariners’ two games in Japan against the Oakland Athletics, Ryan went 1 for 7 with a double. The Mariners beat the A’s 3-1 in 11 innings on Wednesday, but lost 4-1 Thursday.
Father and son act
Charlotte Bobcats Coach Paul Silas has recently allowed his son Stephen to take over head coaching duties forseveral games.
Paul Silas, 68, is leaning toward spending one more year on the sideline, but his contract expires at the end of the season. Stephen Silas will coach one game a weekfor the remainder of the season, but according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, the NBA wants to know which gamesexactly those are going to be.
“I, for one, wish the league wouldn’t have made this request,”wrote Dan Devine of Yahoo!
Sports. “The prospect of two Silases standing and yelling at Bill Spooner for calling a foul on Bismack Biyombo, followed by Spooner issuing a technical foul thatleads to father and son pulling a “Who’s on first?” routine over who should get the T is exactly the kind of thing that might make me watch a 7-41 team that just became the first team of this NBA season officially eliminated from postseason contention.
“Why do you have to ruin our fun, NBA? Bits like these don’t come around all that often.” Headlines
From the satirical sports website sportspickle.com:
“Person named ‘Chipper’ somehow old enough to retire”
“Brittney Griner dunks like a girl”
“Scotch-taped upper deck falls off Dodger Stadium minutes after team is sold”Quote of the day “Everybody gets
knocked down. It just happens.” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn on why he’s sticking with pitcher DJ Baxendale as his No. 1 starter despite the righthander’s recent struggles
Sports, Pages 18 on 03/30/2012