But can he plie, releve and saute?
Mike Piazza knows some people think it’s funny for a baseball player to take up ballet, but the former major league catcher hopes to turn whoever is jeering him now into dance fans when he takes the stage with Miami City Ballet next month.
“You got to sometimes have the courage to go out there and do something like this, and I think the overall effect will be positive,” Piazza said Tuesday after his costume fitting for the role of a gangster in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.
Piazza will walk on stage and say a few lines in the company’s May 3 production of the ballet George Balanchine choreographed as part of the 1930s musical On Your Toes.
“If I have to take a few good natured insults, you know, I’ve taken a lot of abuse before so, no question, I’ve got big shoulders,”he said.
In fact, his shoulders are so big, the ballet company’s costume department will have to tailor his taupe houndstooth suit, along with providing him with a larger-sized fedora.
Piazza, whose daughter is a student at Miami City Ballet School, said he’s eager to help boost the dancers’ image among sports fans.
“I remember back in the ’70s when [former Pittsburgh Steeler] Lynn Swann said he used to dance. Obviously his athletic prowess is unmatched, so I think it’s a cool thing,” he said. “It’s good to see that boys are participating as well.
It’s a very, very athletic activity.”On the beat
Jacksonville Jaguars Coach Gus Bradley seems to be hoping to turn the team around in his first year through music.
“We just believe that it really elevates the performance,” Bradley said Tuesday at the first day of a voluntary minicamp for veterans. “It’s not just to have music out there. We found out that music, without going into too much detail, how many beats there are in a song and things like that elevates everybody’s performance.
“We’re trying to compete. … We’ve got to do everything we can to get practice at the highest level, the highest level. And if that means play some music at the same time, we’re going to do that.”
Of course, unless the Jaguars, who were 2-14 last year, improve their quarterback play, Bradley might find himself between rock and a hard place.
Call a plumber
In case you don’t believe having people give voice to their every thought on Twitter is a bad thing, here’s Chicago White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers: “Adam Dunn just clogged the toilet in the clubhouse … this happens at least twice a week.” Enough
Brett Favre said last week that he dreamed as a kid of playing for the Dallas Cowboys, then found playing against them in the 1990s to be a nightmare.
Going into his 1996 Super Bowl season, Favre was 4-3 in playoff games with the Green Bay Packers. All three losses were to Dallas, and Favre completed 56 percent of his passes in those games, with five touchdowns and five interceptions.
The Packers avoided having to play the Cowboys in the playoffs that season, with Dallas being eliminated by the Carolina Panthers in the divisional round.
Favre admitted he was rooting for the Panthers to knock off the defending Super Bowl champs.
“I was thinking, ‘Please, please, beat them’ … ,” Favre said. “Other guys were saying, ‘I want them again.’ I’d had them enough.”Quote of the day “Pat never forgot Arkansas. He was
always there whenever we needed him.” Harold Horton, former executive director of the Razorback Foundation, on former Razorbacks and broadcasting legend Pat Summerall
Sports, Pages 24 on 04/17/2013