Skydiving, the New Sport; Hot-Tempered Dodger, March 23, 1959

It looks like our early skydivers are wearing football helmets.

"Why should a man get married when he can get a woman to darn his socks, bake him apple pies, and even take him out to dinner when he is broke? New York bachelors have become extreme egoists because they are in such demand." Jack Cummings is trying to get Marilyn Monroe for "Can-Can." What cartoon detective besides Dick Tracy can dispose of a lion with a curtain rod?

Don Zimmer vs. Pedro Martinez, 2003 Don Zimmer, who as a senior citizen played a leading role in a memorable brawl between the Yankees and the Red Sox, was just as fiery as a player. Fighting for his job after playing shortstop in 1958, Zimmer made headlines by complaining about general manager Buzzie Bavasi and whether he'd make as much money starting as coming off the bench. Not a good idea. "From now on, Zimmer's just another ballplayer as far as I'm concerned," Bavasi said. "Jim Gilliam played second base on three pennant winners for us. Now, he's more or less utility but he's not complaining." Two days later, the story got better with the headline "I'd Be Cheap for Braves--Zimmer."  According to the UPI story carried by The Times, Zimmer said the Braves "could probably get me for a dozen baseball bats." Zimmer figured he could start at second for the Braves. But Bavasi had the last word. "Zimmer has assured me that he will stop popping off," Bavasi said after they talked. Bavasi probably thought Zimmer was really quiet in 1960, since he spent the season as a member of the Chicago Cubs. Bavasi sent him there in a deal that included relief pitcher Ron Perranoski. --Keith Thursby

Comments

[skydivers]

informative read.. The history of extreme sports is still evolving. Some extreme sports combine the techniques and physical skills of two or more sports, often mainstream sports that were once considered extreme. One of the best examples of this sort of transition is found with sky surfing, which first became popular in the 1990s. The sport combines skydiving and snowboarding. Experienced parachutists perform acrobatic stunts on boards similar to snowboards. Individually, skydiving and snowboarding were once considered extreme. And snowboarding's own development owed much to the sports of skateboarding and surfing, which were considered nontraditional when they were first popularized in the 1960s.

There is no doubt that as new techniques are tried and experimented with, the history of extreme sports will include many new and daring innovations.