Equipment Manager

So now, all of a sudden, after virtually destroying the Dodger spring, Gary Sheffield would like to stay and is rescinding his trade request? So now, having ripped everyone from Chairman Bob Daly to equipment manager Dave Wright, he claims to have suddenly awakened to how much his cherished teammates want him in the clubhouse and need him on the field?

Richard Wilson Carey, a retired telephone equipment manager, died Monday in Thousand Oaks. He was 87. Carey was born March 3, 1913, in Hinckley, Utah. He went to school there and in Lone Pine, Calif., where he later graduated high school in a class with four students. Carey married Elaine Smith on Oct. 23, 1937, in Salt Lake City, and they had two sons. He worked for Western Electric, then AT & T before retiring after 35 years of service as a central equipment manager.

The bald, goateed, man who sits behind Larry Bird during Pacer games is Joe Qatato. "Quirky," the Pacers call him, because Bird does, and has for more than two decades. Qatato met Bird in 1979. He was a student at Emerson College in Boston and a public relations intern with the Boston Celtics. Bird had just left Indiana State and in many circles was a basketball legend already.

Team President Tony Tavares played misty for them and the Angels won again Wednesday, giving him an assist for their ninth victory in 11 games. Tavares rented some mist fans that provided welcome relief from temperatures that reached 114 degrees on the field, according to equipment manager Ken Higdon. "I wanted to cheat and just put them in our dugout, but Milwaukee wanted a couple of them too," Tavares said, smiling. "Hey, anything I can do to help."

As he stood in 3 inches of slush on the tarmac at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in the wee hours of the night, Mark O'Neill's day was winding down. Or had just begun. The distinction is rarely clear. Wherever the Mighty Ducks go, 1 1/4 tons of equipment must follow, and two men, O'Neill and assistant equipment manager John Allaway, are responsible for all of it. There are skates, of course, two pairs for every player. Helmets, gloves, hockey pants.

Bud Fassel, the equipment manager at Anaheim High School for more than 25 years, died in a traffic accident this week, family members and school officials said Thursday. He was 73. Fassel, who was responsible for outfitting and providing equipment for all the high school's teams before he retired in 1980, was well-known for his unofficial role as a counselor to the athletes when they were having problems, said Dan Miller, school athletic director.

There are two battered football helmets sitting in Otho Davis' home, grim reminders of what can happen when a high school athlete plays this often violent game without the proper care or equipment. The helmets came from two prep players who died after suffering head injuries. Davis, head trainer for the Philadelphia Eagles and executive director of the National Athletic Trainers Assn., read about the cases and called the coaches, asking for the equipment.

Ten years ago today, the lights went out on a short, sad little chapter in the history of pro football in America. After 27 months and $30 million, the World Football League died. On that day, on a football practice field at the Los Alamitos Naval Air Station, about 45 young men, players for the Southern California Sun, were finishing practice. They were scheduled to play Birmingham the next Sunday. Everyone was uneasy. There had been rumors.

Those mustard and ketchup Padre uniforms that have been subjected to so much ridicule are in demand. "We've gotten hundreds of letters from people who want one of the old uniforms," said Ray Peralta, the equipment manager. "I thought no one liked them." However, they were the uniforms the Padres wore in the National League Championship Series and the World Series last fall. Baseball buffs are notorious hunters of such souvenirs.