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Giant turns "spiderman" on Shea scoreboard

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Hey, Jeff Kent, you wheelie-popping, bow-hunting, monster-truck- washing son of Evel Knievel: You've got nothing on Scott Eyre, who climbed to the rim of the skyscraping scoreboard at Shea Stadium on Aug. 14 as the Giants tried to figure out how to get to Montreal.

Assistant general manager Ned Colletti turned ashen when he learned about Eyre's Spiderman act the other day, saying, "I guess that's another thing I'll have to put in his contract: No scoreboard-climbing, especially during blackouts."

Somebody had to do something for laughs during a very unfunny situation. At 4:10 that afternoon, as the Giants were settling into the dank visitors' clubhouse at Shea, the lights went out in what would be the worst blackout in U.S. history, affecting much of the Northeast as well as parts of the Midwest and Canada.

As they cooled their heels in the parking lot at Shea, the Giants got a dinner with their show from Eyre. They munched on a Costco-size bag of cheese- puff balls he had appropriated from the clubhouse lunchroom.

The 175-foot-high scoreboard he climbs looks quite imposing, but Eyre confessed it was not that dangerous to climb because it contains a series of unseen ladders and platforms that can help prevent a death plunge.

"Somebody said, 'See what's up there,' " Eyre said. "Lot of cobwebs, a lot of dirt, a lot of rust, maybe some rats."

Good thing he had cheese-puff balls.