Pete Carroll surely would pick Carson Palmer over Matt Leinart

If Pete Carroll is reunited with a Heisman Trophy winner, he’d surely prefer Carson Palmer over Matt Leinart.…

Both should be available once the NFL lockout ends.…

After reaching the playoffs last season in the watered-down NFC West, Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks will set their sights on a more elusive goal: a winning record.…

Player agent Drew Rosenhaus, looking forward to a flurry of trades and signings after a labor accord is reached, anticipates the “most active two-week period in the history of the NFL.” …

“Splash hits” by the Dodgers in San Francisco are almost as rare a sight as the club’s appearing in Bankruptcy Court.…

Before Dioner Navarro connected Wednesday, the only other Dodger to launch a home run into McCovey Cove was another switch-hitting catcher: Todd Hundley.…

Hundley’s shot in 2000, at what was then known as Pacific Bell Park, was the first hit into the water by a visiting player.…

Barry Bonds by that time had already dunked four.…

“There were so few people on the 405 last weekend,” reader Doug Thomson of West Los Angeles notes, “I thought a Dodgers game had broken out.” …

Slumping Torii Hunter and the Angels, believe it or not, have been shut out more often than the Dodgers.…

An advertisement urging Angels fans to “arrive early” at Angel Stadium on Tuesday to “see Gene Autry inducted into the Angels Hall of Fame” was slightly misleading.…

Autry died in 1998.…

Lookalikes: Goaltender Hope Solo of the U.S. women’s soccer team and actress Jennifer Carpenter of “Dexter.” …

Japan’s victory in the Women’s World Cup final set a global Twitter record of 7,196 tweets a second, topping the royal wedding and news of Osama bin Laden’s death.…

A few surely addressed Team USA’s late-game failures.…

Tracy McGrady this week tweeted a picture of himself wearing a Lakers uniform, asking his followers “Yes or No.” …

What say you, Lakers fans? …

With NBA players threatening to take their talents overseas in the event of a prolonged lockout, ex-NBA star Stephon Marbury said of his playing days in China, “It ain’t the grandest of things. The talent, as far as basketball, it ain’t there.” …

Only one NFL game is scheduled for Christmas, which falls on a Sunday this year: Aaron Rodgers and the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers against the Chicago Bears.…

Three Christmas Day NBA games are scheduled, including the Lakers against the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center.…

Releasing the NBA schedule during a lockout, Sean Deveney of the Sporting News writes, “has a farcical feel to it, like scheduling a battle between Mermaids and Unicorns.” …

Jim Thome, on the verge of joining the 600-home run club, would be fifth player in 10 years to do so — following Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez.…

Back in the 20th century, only three players made the cut: Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.…

Manager Terry Francona, after the Boston Red Sox scored the game’s only run to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in a nearly six-hour marathon: “You can’t hold us down for 16 innings.” …

As part of Major League Soccer’s first “Equality Night,” the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles will perform the national anthem before Saturday night’s Chivas USA-Houston Dynamo match at Home Depot Center.…

“The solution to America’s golf problems has become obvious,” David Whitley of AOL Fanhouse suggests. “We must grant statehood to Northern Ireland.” …

Home to British Open champion Darren Clarke and two more of golf’s last six major-championship winners, Northern Ireland has roughly the same population as Nebraska.…

When Shaquille O’Neal refers to the Miami Heat’s “Big Two,” as he did the other night, it’s a veiled dig at Chris Bosh, once dismissed by Shaq as the “RuPaul of big men.” …

You’re in the minority if you follow the Tour de France.…

“The last time the Pittsburgh Pirates were this many games above .500,” reader Steve Fitzmaurice of Lomita emails to suggest, “Barry Bonds’ cap size was 5½.”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com