This Marathon Event Would Impress Ripley

Where have you gone, “Ripley’s Believe It or Not?”

Wherever, this one’s for you:

Sue Olsen of Burnsville, Minn., an ultra-marathoner, recently ran 62.9 miles . . . and gave birth less than two days later.

Olsen, 38, who had covered 216.9 and 135 miles in previous events, and on June 17 had completed a Duluth marathon in four hours, ran last weekend in a 24-hour race around Lake Harriett in Minneapolis.

Last Monday, 30 hours later, she gave birth to 7-pound 3-ounce John Miles Olsen. (Note the middle name.) Not only were mother and son doing fine, they were sent home after 24 hours in the hospital.

Don’t try this at home, she cautioned.

“The doctor gave me a lecture about anyone who wants to exercise when they’re pregnant should not do so unless they consult their doctor,” Olsen said. She said she ran long distances throughout her pregnancy, undergoing weekly exams.

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Trivia time: Who were the first 300-game winners to face each other in a major league game?

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Say it ain’t so, Joe: There’s a reason Shoeless Joe Jackson autographs are scarce in the baseball memorabilia market.

He couldn’t read or write.

Eventually, the disgraced White Sox outfielder--kicked out of baseball for his involvement in the 1919 World Series fix--learned to sign his name for legal reasons.

A Jackson-autographed ball recently changed hands at a New York auction. Jackson signed his first name in neat script, but his last name is written sloppily, “like the work of a third-grader,” said auctioneer Herman Darvick.

Even so, the ball fetched $11,000.

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Does Delino know this?: From Peter Gammons in the Boston Globe:

“If Delino (Bop) DeShields is healthy, he would be an interesting sign for an East Coast team. The whole L.A./Tommy Lasorda scene is not Bop’s style.”

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No Nomomania: Does the season Hideo Nomo is having mean all the major league clubs are setting up scouting operations in Japan?

Not the Cubs.

“We’re still going to concentrate on our basics,” said President Andy McPhail. “There are still plenty of good players here, on our shores.”

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Godfatherly talk: The Washington Post’s Thomas Heath, describing the turnaround of Colorado’s Dante Bichette:

“About a month into the 1993 season, Bichette was hitting .260 and the Rockies were losing two-thirds of their games.

“Don Baylor took Bichette aside and in his Don Corleone whisper, Baylor told Bichette that pitchers knew they could blow juicy first pitches past him while he just stood and stared.

“ ‘Try swinging at the first pitch,’ Baylor said.”

“I went three for four that day and never looked back,” says Bichette, who began the weekend hitting .339.

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Trivia answer: Phil Niekro and Don Sutton, in 1986. Neither pitcher got a decision in the game, a 9-3 victory by the Angels over Cleveland.

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Quotebook: Basketball star Rebecca Lobo of the Connecticut women’s team, after a recent jogging session with President Clinton: “He was setting the pace. I wasn’t about to run away from the president.”