Sideline chatter 8/23/03

Shucks, Tom, aim higher!

Congressman Tom Osborne lit up his electorate when he told the Lincoln Journal-Star that he is considering a run at Nebraska's highest office in 2006.

Residents' euphoria quickly evaporated, however, when they learned that Osborne was referring merely to the position of governor -- not Cornhuskers football coach.

Rehab homework

Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel has been idled with a knee injury since June 12, but he hasn't been idle.

"I've been making stone sculptures in my backyard," he told The Plain Dealer. "One of my friends showed me how to juggle three balls at once.

"And I went to a herb-and-vegetable farm in Huron with some friends. They showed us how to grow vegetables."

Later, dude

Attention, Bud Selig: Your trade deadline has a loophole in it.

"The St. Louis Cardinals and Seattle Mariners pulled off a major trade, or perhaps a minor one, minutes before (the July 31) trade deadline," reported SportsPickle.com, "when St. Louis dealt a player to be named later to Seattle for a player to be named later.

" 'We needed to get pitching for the playoff chase, and this trade may or may not have gotten it for us,' said Walt Jocketty, St. Louis general manager. 'We're potentially very excited.' "

Hindsight is 8-20

Brian Kingman is the last big-league pitcher to lose 20 games in a season, going 8-20 for the 1980 Oakland Athletics.

"My dream as a kid was to get to the big leagues," he told ESPN Radio. "I guess I wasn't specific enough. I should have said my dream was to get to the big leagues and be successful."

They wear white on the road

We don't want to imply that Dave Bliss' employment prospects look bleak, but word has it that the former Baylor basketball coach just received a rejection letter from the University of Chernobyl.

They said it

Richard Burkard of laughline.com, on swinging NASCAR driver Jimmy Spencer: "The good news is his car soon will have a new sponsor: Hawaiian Punch."

CBS' David Letterman, with a financial tip for financially KO'd Mike Tyson: "You have got to develop a grill."

Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune, on Mongo, the 1,294-pound bovine that got disqualified from the Illinois state fair because he flunked a drug test: "The good news is, the steer made the U.S. Olympic team."

No Wie in team

"Our high-school golf team isn't that good," says links prodigy Michelle Wie, 13, an incoming freshman at Punahou High School in Hawaii. "But we'll win the state championship."

Who says there's no Wie in "team"?

-- Dwight Perry, The Seattle Times