LITTLE ROCK — Dennis, a bull like no other
Even Dennis Rodman laughs at the idea.
“Kind of funny, huh?” he said.
It’s true, though. One of basketball’s most outrageous personalities has written a book for kids.
The Hall of Famer’s book, Dennis The Wild Bull, came out last week, and fans will immediately recognize Rodman’s influence. The large red bull on the cover has flowing red hair, two nose rings, a tattoo and red stubble under his chin.
“They’ll see me, literally see me. They’ll say, ‘Wow, this is just like him,’” Rodman said.
And he deals with the same issues.
Rodman, known as much for his wacky looks and lifestyle off the court (Dennis in a wedding dress anyone?) as his considerable success on it, said the purpose of the book is simple.
“More than anything, I just want little kids today just to understand: Ain’t no matter what you do in life - be different, rich or poor, man - guess what?
It’s OK to be who you are pretty much and you’ll be accepted,” Rodman said.
Rodman already wrote books about his personal life - the wild nights as a player, relationships with Madonna and Carmen Electra and everything that allowed him to be famous long after he finished his NBA career.
He said even now, he is recognized by children who never saw him play, and those are the ones he wanted to reach.
“For a guy like me to be very eccentric, to even go to extremes to write a children’s book with all the wild things I do and make it believable was pretty much incredible,” Rodman said.
Co-written with Dustin Warburton, the book tells the story of Dennis, a bull who is taken away from his family and forced to live with other bulls in a rodeo. Though he looks nothing like them, they come to accept him and they all become friends.
“Once I got to know the other bulls, I liked them,” Rodman said.
“I enjoyed their company and stuff like that, and they accepted me for who I am no matter how I look.”
And then he won five championships, seven rebounding titles and co-starred in a movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme, who fights a tiger.
Bo smash!
Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, after receiver Dominic Walker, who switched his commitment from Nebraska to Auburn, told media that Bo Pelini was “mad”: “Come on, Walker, Nebraskans know Bo too well to believe - nah, I’m just kidding.
“What we don’t know was which level of mad Pelini was.
Was it John McEnroe throwing his racket mad, or was it Bruce Banner turning into the Incredible Hulk mad?”
Geeks rule?
California Institute of Technology, a school never known for its athletic prowess, won its first baseball game in nearly 10 years Saturday, ending a 228-game losing streak with a 9-7 victory over Pacifica.
After dropping the first game of its season-opening doubleheader 5-0, Caltech won the second behind a complete game seven-inning effort by freshman Daniel Chou. Caltech hadn’t won since Feb. 15, 2003.
“It was almost as if they had been there before,” first-year Coach Matthew Mark said.
Not very often, though.
Caltech’s men’s basketball team ended a 310-game conference losing streak in 2011, while the women’s volleyball team ended a 56-match losing streak last year.
They said it ...
Syndicated columnist Norman Chad, after Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco beat Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in successive playoff games on the road: “Which is like out acting Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in back-to-back mob films.”
NBC’s Jimmy Fallon, after San Francisco 49ers receiver Randy Moss told his teammates they’re in New Orleans on a business trip, not to have fun: “Then he went back to his job: catching a ball for money.”
Quote of the day
“Sometimes you have to tip your hat and say, ‘Phil played unbelievable and deserved to win.’
That’s kind of what this week was all about.” Brandt Snedeker on Phil Mickelson, who won the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Sunday
Sports, Pages 14 on 02/04/2013