Beer Won’t Be the Only Thing Watered Down

It’s not unusual for baseball teams to go into the tank, and now some spectators in Phoenix will follow in a more pleasurable fashion.

Executives for the expansion Arizona Diamondback are planning to put a swimming pool and heated spa into Bank One Ballpark, just beyond the outfield wall in right field.

A suite containing the pool and spa will be leased to businesses and groups on a game-by-game basis. It will accommodate about 35 people and will include a pool with a swim-up bar, a heated spa, five waterfalls, a catered barbecue area, a tanning deck and lounge chairs.

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Add pool: Plans also call for an “exploding” water fountain that will shoot water 25 feet in the air whenever a Diamondback player knocks a ball into the drink.

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Trivia time: Who was the last UCLA or USC player to win the Pacific 10 Conference golf championship?

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Glove secrets: Andy Van Slyke, former major leaguer, now an ESPN analyst, on trying to explain what goes through a player’s mind to Paul Meyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“For example, how do you get across to the viewer what the glove smells like? Did you know a lot of players smell their gloves after they make a good play? They do. But never after a bad play.

“I guess they know their glove smells like a litter box.”

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Worm regrets: San Antonio Coach Bob Hill, on Dennis Rodman, traded by the Spurs to the Chicago Bulls before the season:

“I’ll always feel a void that I couldn’t quite get to him. I’ll always wonder about it. I’ll always feel kind of sorry for him, really, and I’ll always like him.”

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Whip-cracking: British soccer referee David Elleray said his job is “a balance between tolerance and neo-fascism. I tend to lean toward the latter.”

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Wait a minute: Dave Kindred, writing in the Sporting News on former USC and Raider quarterback Todd Marinovich: “Marinovich did little of consequence in college and quickly disappeared from the NFL in a fog of confusion.”

He’s only half right. Marinovich led USC to memorable comeback victories over Washington State and UCLA in 1989 and 1990, completed 22 of 31 passes and scored a touchdown in USC’s 17-10 victory over Michigan in the 1990 Rose Bowl game and holds the school record with 33 completions against Notre Dame in 1989.

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Not so great: Oakland Athletic Manager Art Howe on whether he had ever seen anything like the wall the A’s are calling “the Jagged Edge” in the newly configured Oakland-Alameda Coliseum: “Maybe in China.”

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Trivia answer: Duffy Waldorf of UCLA in 1985. Note: This year’s tournament begins Monday at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach.

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Quotebook: Here’s an old one from the Yogi Berra file. When someone asked him what time it was, he replied: “You mean now?”