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How Do You Say ‘Y’all Come Back Now’ in Bosnian?

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The Bosnian Olympic team, which is training in Pell City, Ala., visited Talladega Superspeedway on Friday and took turns taking rides in a NASCAR Pontiac Trans Am pace car with speedway public relations director Jim Freeman.

The 100-mph-plus taste of Southern sports culture thrilled the Olympians.

Kada Delic, a 10-kilometer walker, wanted another spin around the track. “Yes!” she shouted, pumping her fist in the air after her ride. “I want to do it again and again and again.”

Easy, Kada, easy.

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Trivia time: Who is the former USC athlete who won the 200 meters at the 1976 Olympic Games while competing for another country?

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Normal kid stuff: Peter Westbrook, who will be competing in his sixth Olympics, began his fencing career during the 1960s, trying to emulate his hero.

“This is going to sound strange, but I wanted to be Zorro all my life,” he said. “I went to a Catholic school, and I used to think about swinging on the chandeliers, saving the nuns and stuff like that. I used to dress every Halloween as Zorro.”

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Can Mike dance? Ron C. Judd in the Seattle Times: “Question actually asked of Michael Jordan at a media gathering: ‘Are you concerned that if you wear all four of your championships rings at once, people will think you’re Sammy Davis Jr.?’ ”

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Homer binge: Corey Parker homered in five consecutive at-bats Thursday night for Bangor (Maine) in a Northeast League doubleheader against Rhode Island.

He opened the first game with a run-scoring single, then homered in his next four at-bats. He hit a solo homer in the second game, his only hit of the game.

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Hunk factor: Actor Bill Murray is a part-owner with Mike Veeck, son of Bill Veeck, of minor league baseball’s St. Paul Saints.

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After hearing that Murray would portray the famed peg-legged baseball promoter in a new film, Bill Veeck’s widow, Mary Frances, joked of Murray: “He’s not enough of a hunk.”

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Catchy name? Todd Hundley of the New York Mets led major league catchers in home runs (20) and RBIs (59) through Saturday, but ranks eighth in All-Star votes behind, among others, Colorado’s Jayhawk Owens.

“Who’s that?” Hundley asked. “Is there really a guy named Jayhawk Owens?”

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FYI: Among the discontinued events in the Olympic Games are the standing high and long jumps, and two-handed shotput--cumulative distance with right and left hands.

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Looking back: On this day in 1972, Ben Crenshaw, representing the University of Texas, won his second consecutive NCAA golf championship.

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Trivia answer: Don Quarrie of Jamaica.

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And finally: Bob Richards, who won the pole vault in the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games:

“I think one reason for my dominance in the pole vault was that I drank milk. The rest of the world didn’t drink milk.

“Think about it. The whole world was starving.”

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