You can't get inside his head, but you can get inside his hip

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 30, 2000

When Shark.com launched in August, it was touted as an inside look at all things Greg Norman, with features on everything from travel to correcting your swing to buying the best Palm Pilot. It always has been a hip site, but never more so than Wednesday night when Norman had arthroscopic surgery to treat torn tissue in his right hip.

By Tuesday night, hours after the surgery was announced, Shark.com was previewing it with a Q&A with the surgical staff, a page for fans to e-mail get-well messages to Norman and a link to a three-minute video of Norman's arthroscopic shoulder surgery in 1998.

Norman's hip surgery was a state-of-the-art procedure, one that wasn't even possible until new technologies this year. Innovative probes, roughly the diameter of a pencil, were used to visually inspect the injury and trim the torn portion of Norman's labrum, a piece of fibrocartilage that lines the hip socket.

"The hip is the largest joint in the body, but it's also the last one to be explored medically," said John Story, communications director for Great White Shark Enterprises. "Greg was bothered by this injury as much as five or six years ago, but until recently, there wasn't the technology that made this possible."

For a better understanding of the surgery, Shark.com has photos and a two-minute video of the procedure, including footage from inside Norman's hip. It's not a download for the squeamish, but Story found the experience of watching the surgery a memorable one.

"It's incredibly fascinating," he said. "The surgeons make it look so routine, like anybody could do it, but the other surgeons watching were amazed."

Norman has received more than 500 online get-well cards, and Wednesday's traffic made it one of the site's 10 busiest days in its 11 months. The site's great-gifts-to-buy stories are always intriguing: Father's Day suggestions ranged from the I Gotcha Ball Retriever ($30), which expands from 10 inches to 14 feet, to the Dynamis Remote-Control Caddy ($1,049), a battery-powered three-wheeled contraption. Expensive? Yes, but think of the money you'd save on tips.

ROCKER LINKS: With John Rocker making his much-anticipated visit to Shea Stadium, there are a few Rocker sites worth a look. In case you've somehow missed the now-famous Sports Illustrated article, you still can find it at cnnsi.com/features/cover/news/1999/12/22/rocker.

It's refreshing to see that rockers--ks.com, the site mentioned in the original article, has become a more tolerant, Rocker-friendly site, "redesigned ... to discuss his comments in a healthy and fun format." Its front page has a message to fans, asking all to control themselves in their conduct during the four-game series.

"So go to the ballpark, ride the 7 train, cheer or boo like crazy," the site writes. "Remember there are probably children next to you, so please behave responsibly. Keep your batteries in your radio ... above all do not forget to be good New Yorkers, good Americans and good people."

On a lighter note, Rocker detractors will appreciate listening to the John Rocker Theme Song, penned by Atlanta's Christopher Alan Cook. The lyrics aren't particularly kind to Rocker, with a chorus that chants, "He's the most closed-minded closer in the world to be found ... we've got the grand wizard on the mound." The song can be found at artists.mp3s.com/artists/62/

christopher_alan_cook.html.

Another T206 Wagner, in far worse condition, was posted on eBay Thursday morning with a minimum bid of $300,000. The seller, identified as being from British Columbia, posted a scan of the card, adding that it is a "little scuffy and has a tear in the upper right corner. In overall good condition! ... *Cash Please*" The auction ends July9. Let the bidder beware

TID-BYTES: Online voting for baseball's All-Star Game ends at 11:59 p.m. Saturday at seasonticket.com ... Lycos.com, one of the Internet's top search engines, gave Anna Kournikova a special award at Wimbledon this week in honor of her being the athlete whose name is punched into search engines most often. A complete list of the 50 most-searched topics is updated weekly at 50.lycos.com -- Kournikova is 22nd overall, just ahead of the Bible and four spots behind CBS-TV's Survivor. The sports world's ever-so-eclectic top five this week are Kournikova, Michael Jordan, Brandi Chastain, Vince Carter and Muhammad Ali. ... CNN/SI's NFL Preview show begins its season at 10 a.m. Sunday, boasting a streaming ticker -- not with updated scores, but with a continuous chat from visitors at CNNSI.com. The show's hosts will participate in the chat for 30 minutes before and after the show and during commercial breaks, and selected questions from the chat will be answered during the show. ... CNNSI.com is redirecting users to the URL sportsillustrated.cnn.com, which takes much longer to type, but apparently casts the Sports Illustrated side of things in a more prominent position. Here's hoping that CNN.com isn't merging with Encyclopedia Britannica any time soon.

If you have a question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest, send an e-mail to staff writer Greg Auman at aumanac1@aol.com.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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