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If They Want an Angle With a Little Bite . . .

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Charlie Hough, the Dodgers’ new pitching coach, has never been considered a good interview by writers. However, when a reporter told Hough that talking to him was as difficult as pulling teeth, Hough had an answer.

He pulled out his false teeth and said, “That wasn’t so hard.”

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Trivia time: What player holds the major league record for hits in a game?

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Tough life: Fans sometimes wonder why athletes aren’t always willing to sign autographs. Well, Colin Montgomerie will tell them that it’s dangerous. The Scottish golfer stopped for some fans at the Irish Open last weekend, signed a few times and as he was walking through the crowd, stumbled over a rock--tearing a ligament in his ankle.

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Fight talk: The Boston Globe’s Ron Borges is not impressed with Julio Cesar Chavez’s chances in his Sept. 18 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya.

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“Chavez has grown old gracelessly,” Borges wrote, “turning from a once-fearsome fighter into a constant complainer . . . and worse, he has turned into an old man whose reflexes are gone and whose face simply cannot take being hit any longer.”

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One to remember: One of Philadelphia Phillie pitcher Curt Schilling’s favorite mementos is a broken bat he got from St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire after a game in which Schilling pitched.

“He homered when he broke it,” Schilling told Phil Collier of the San Diego Union- Tribune. “After the game, I found the bat in my locker. It was signed by Mark and he’d put a Band-Aid across the broken part.”

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Following Dad: Jeri Unser, the youngest daughter of 13-time Pikes Peak and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser, made her debut in the Pikes Peak hill climb last weekend, finishing sixth in mini sprint.

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How about Paris? It’s still called the Tour de France, but when the cycling extravaganza starts Saturday, the prologue will be on the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and the defending champion will be a German, Jan Ullrich.

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Looking back: On this day in 1966, Jack Nicklaus won the British Open at Muirfield to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player as the only men to win all four major golf championships.

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On the tee: Jockey Corey Nakatani, winner of three Breeders’ Cup championship races, is branching out into golf. A six-handicapper at San Gabriel Country Club, the 5-foot-1 jockey will be one of the favorites in this weekend’s $500,000 Isuzu Celebrity tournament at the Edgewood Tahoe course at Stateline, Nev.

Nakatani, who came into the final 11 days of the Hollywood Park meeting with a six-win advantage over Chris McCarron in the jockey standings, didn’t ride Wednesday and won’t for the remainder of the week because of his participation in the event.

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Trivia answer: Johnny Burnett of Cleveland, 9, in an 18-inning game on July 10, 1932.

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And finally: Tennis guru Bud Collins’ spin on Mary Pierce, the Canadian-born player who represents France on tour: “She’s about as French as an Edsel.”

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