Young Mortimer got his start when a Salt Lake City TV news reporter overheard him doing impromptu play-byplay for his father, David, at a BYU football game last year. She taped him, aired the result, and away Sparky went. Now, in addition to doing math homework for his second-grade teacher, Mrs. Holbrook, he also memorizes lineups and statistics. "Of course," he says, practically indignant. But if this career doesn't pan out, the veteran of peewee soccer and softball hopes to play sports professionally. (He's got a teddy bear named after one on-field hero, Washington Redskins quarterback Mark Rypien.)
Sparky, who has a 5-year-old brother, Danny, "has no idea of the magnitude of all this," admits David, a paper-company salesman whose father, William James Mortimer, is publisher of Salt Lake City's Deseret News. (Sparky's mom, Shelley, is a housewife.) But with pro athletes asking Sparky how he's scoring, hey—as Chris Berman might say—the kid could go all the way! No rush, though. "I'm young," says Sparky, wise beyond his innings. "I like being young."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
