Other officials were invited to fashion shows, Olympic balls and receptions, concerts and tourist events, including dinner at the British Hospitality Association.
Dame Tessa Jowell, above, should also be credited for the success of the London 2012 Olympic Games, says Balls.
The script is predictably Sorkinian, with rapid fire dialogue batted around like Olympic ping pong balls, rarely stopping, and never allowing for any of the characters to have any of the inevitable lapses in eloquence that plague most humans.
Her discipline is rhythmic gymnastics, twirling a ribbon, dancing with a ball, an Olympic sport that is obscure just about everywhere except the old Soviet bloc.
Three times in the top of the first inning Sunday, Clint Zavaras, the starting pitcher for the ragtag Greek Olympic baseball team, threw ball one.
On the grounds and runways of the old airport -- the Hellenikon Olympic Complex -- are ball fields, indoor facilities for fencing and handball, plus a kayak and canoe course, complete with rapids.
There, he participated in the opening ceremonies as well as a game of floor volleyball in which he spiked the ball on Olympic volleyball champ Misty May-Treanor.
They underscore how different stick-and-ball and Olympic audiences are.
Even "best practices" programs with beautiful facilities -- gyms, ball fields, Olympic-size swimming pools -- used them infrequently.
No one who loved what this island once was would dream of despoiling it with steroidal, 10,000-square-foot palaces, private ball fields and Olympic-size swimming pools.
