Four Bobsledders Take New Route To Winter Olympics

Jean Pierre Renzi figured if four men from Jamaica could make it to the Winter Olympics on a bobsled, so could he and his friends.

So next month four men from Rochester Hills, Mich., who possess dual citizenships in the tiny republic of San Marino, will travel to Norway for their chance.

The four are Dino Crescentini, 46; Marcello Crescentini, 41; Renzi, 42; and Mike Crocenzi, the only one still in prime bobsled age at 24.

Their chance is about as unlikely as that of the Jamaican bobsled team that competed in 1992, a feat that prompted the movie "Cool Runnings."

San Marino, the world's smallest republic with 24 square miles and about 23,000 people, is allowing the Michigan four to represent the country that sits within eastern Italy.

The quartet overcame doubts by officials in San Marino - where the Crescentinis were born and Renzi's and Crocenzi's parents are from - during trials last month in Lake Placid, N.Y., finishing third in one race and fourth in another. That gave them enough points for an Olympic berth.

TURNAROUND TIME

Dallas, Detroit, Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers played in the NBA conference finals in 1988.

After last night's games, those four have a combined record this season of 41-115.

MAYS MIFFED

Willie Mays wasn't thrilled to be accepting the National League Most Valuable Player award for his godson, Barry Bonds, whom he said was "too busy" to show up in New York.

"We gave him $47 million," Mays, a special assistant to San Francisco Giants president Peter Magowan, said Sunday night. "He can pick up his award."

Bonds, who signed a record $43.75 million, six-year deal in December 1992, won the NL MVP for the third time in four seasons.

Mays said he would leave a written message for Bonds with the award, saying, " `It's not for you, Barry, it's for the team and the San Francisco Giants.' "

KNIGHT EXPLAINS SUSPENSION

Indiana Coach Bob Knight said he kicked a chair, not his son, last month in an incident at a Hoosier basketball game and said the kick was not what earned him a one-game suspension.

Hoosier fans seated behind the team booed the coach after his kick, and he turned around and yelled at them.

Shouting at the fans was what earned him the university-imposed one-game suspension, Knight said.

GO SOUTH, YOUNG MAN

Where is Iowa lining up football recruits with names such as Chris Zdzienicki, Anthony Stratikopoulos and Trevor Bollers?

In Canadian cities.

Zdzienicki is a 6-foot, 295-pound defensive lineman from Toronto, Stratikopoulos a linebacker from Montreal and Bollers a fullback from Edmonton.

"It used to be a kid would go to a big school in the U.S. once every five years," said Ron Dias, a national high-school talent scout in Canada. "Now 15 or 20 kids go each year. When they find out they have a chance . . . they set down their hockey stick."

HE SAID IT

-- Anthony Bonner, New York Knicks, on Dennis Rodman's hair-color switch to blue: "I think it's a nice touch - if he has a blue suit with it."

Compiled by Chuck Ashmun, Seattle Times