LEFTOVERS: Bullet can’t stop Bosnia soccer goalie
San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker has gotten quite a bit of credit for playing through pain as he has competed with an injured hamstring in the NBA Finals.
But Parker has nothing on Dusko Krtalica, an amateur soccer goalkeeper from Bosnia.
According to Sarajevo newspaper Dnevni Avaz, Krtalica was competing in a recent game when he complained of a headache. He thought it was from hitting his head on the post while making a save, so he completed the game.
After the game, he complained of stiffness in his arm and had trouble speaking, and he was rushed to a hospital.
There doctors discovered the source of his headache. Krtalica had a 9mm bullet lodged in his skull.
The bullet was removed, and Krtalica is in stable condition.
According to the newspaper report, there was a wedding nearby the field that day, and one of the attendees had fired a handgun in celebration. One of the stray bullets apparently struck Krtalica.
A local man was arrested, and police found 12 more bullets near the field.
Somehow Krtalica managed to allow just one goal while playing with a “headache.”
■ MARKETING GENIUS — The city of Bakersfield, Calif., often has been the butt of jokes here at Leftovers, but the city’s hockey fans might have reason to rejoice as its ECHL franchise has come up with a brilliant marketing plan.
The Condors are guaranteeing they will put a playoff team on the ice next season, or fans will get free tickets.
“Purchase a Condors ticket plan, Pick-6 or larger, for the 2013-14 season, and if we do not qualify for the 2014 Kelly Cup Playoffs, your six games in 2014-15 will be free,” it says on the team’s website.
That’s quite a guarantee, especially for a team that notes on its website that, “Since 2011-12, the Condors have the fewest wins of any team in the ECHL.”
Bakersfield won 22 games last season and missed the playoffs for the second straight season.
No word if the Wranglers’ front office is going to match this marketing scheme.
For the record, the Wranglers have made the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons. Las Vegas has missed the playoffs only once since the franchise was founded in 2003.
■ HEISMAN TICKET — Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M recently made news when he set to Twitter to complain about life in College Station, Texas.
“(Expletive) like tonight is a reason why I can’t wait to leave college station ... whenever it may be,” Manziel tweeted early Sunday.
It turns out the source of Manziel’s frustration with the city was a parking ticket.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, Manziel was on a fishing trip Saturday in Port Aranas, Texas, when he spoke to a police officer on the phone who ticketed Manziel for having his car parked the wrong way in front of his house and for having his windows tinted too dark.
Manziel almost had left College Station months earlier. According to a Dallas Morning News report, Manziel was prepared to transfer to a junior college after he was handed a seasonlong suspension following an arrest in June 2012.
Manziel eventually won an appeal of the suspension and became the first freshman to win the Heisman.
COMPILED BY DAMON SEITERS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
