Walker Takes Another Chop in Bid to Reach the Olympics

Herschel Walker said in a recent interview that he has an invitation to try out for the U.S. Olympic karate team for the Summer Olympics in Barcelona and he is considering it.

Think again, Herschel. There isn’t such a team.

Moreover, Walker is expected to be in an NFL training camp July 25 when the Olympic Games begin. He is with the Minnesota Vikings now, but it has been rumored that he will be traded.

Walker was a member of the U.S. bobsled team for the Winter Olympics in France but was dropped halfway through the competition.

Add Walker: Karate will not be part of the Olympic program, but taekwondo will be a demonstration sport. Taekwondo is a Korean style of self-defense similar to the Japanese karate.

Robert Fujimura, executive director of the U.S. Taekwondo Union, said he doubts that Walker, or any taekwondo athlete who has not trained full time for years, would make theteam.

Fujimura added that the sport’s bylaws prohibit any professional athlete from competing on the national team.

Trivia time: In the motion picture, “Pride of the Yankees,” Gary Cooper played the part of Lou Gehrig. Who played Babe Ruth?

Strike four: Chicago White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas opened the season with 12 strikeouts in his first 29 at-bats.

“They (umpires) are taking the bat right out of my hands,” Thomas said. “I led this league in walks last year. I deserve a better strike zone than that. I deserve a little more respect.”

Long voyage: USA Today’s Tom Weir, commenting on the best-of-13 defender series in the America’s Cup: “Best of 13? Magellan’s whole career was shorter.”

Wondering Warrior: The Golden State Warriors open the NBA playoffs at home tonight against the Seattle SuperSonics, and Warrior rookie Billy Owens said he has no idea what to expect.

“This is my first experience,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle, “and I want to see if it lives up to all the hype they say it is.”

Comeback? Bob Mathias is America’s only two-time Olympic decathlon gold medalist, winning in 1948 at London and 1952 at Helsinki.

Asked how he thought he would fare against today’s decathletes, Mathias said: “If I was was competing now, with the same sports medicine, technical training, conditioning programs, I think I could beat all of these guys.”

Diz-neyland: Dizzy Dean is remembered as a Hall of Fame pitcher who fractured the English language when he became a play-by-play announcer for the St. Louis Browns.

Some of Diz’s malaprops are recalled in Curt Smith’s “Voices of the Game,” such as: runners “slud,” batters “swang” and pitchers “throwed” the ball.

Or, a batter had an “unorsodock” stance, a play made casually was “nonchalloted” and when Cleveland loaded the bases it came out “That loads the Injuns full of bases.”

And, a manager “argyin’ with an umparr, is like argyin’ with a stump. Maybe you city folks don’t know what a stump is. Wal, it’s something a tree has been cut down off of.”

Trivia answer: Babe Ruth played himself.

Quotebook: Arnold Palmer on his career: “For years I was always asked if I thought I could win. Now, everybody asks me if I think I will be able to make the cut. I’m not too sure I like the latter.”