Questions Like That Drive Him Around the Bend

Bob McGowan of Waterbury, Conn., was loading his trailer for the trip to Daytona Beach, Fla., for NASCAR’s Speed Weeks when a Boston Globe reporter asked what he was doing.

“My friends ask me, ‘You go all the way down there to watch cars go 200 miles per hour and turn left?’ And I say, ‘Yep.’ It’s like riding a Harley. If I have to explain it, you won’t understand it.”

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Trivia time: If a boat owner suffers from cymophobia, he should probably get rid of the boat. What is his problem?

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Father knows best: Sophomores Isaac Gildea, 19, and Frank Gildea, 41, are teammates on the College of the Redwoods basketball team. They’re not brothers. They’re father and son.

“I knew it was going to happen sooner or later this season, but when I heard Isaac yell to Frank, ‘Gimme the ball, Dad,’ I just had to laugh,” Coach Bill Treglown said. “I never thought I’d hear that on a basketball court.”

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Too many punches? Former Playboy bunny Mia Rosales St. John, who will fight on the Oscar De La Hoya-Ike Quartey undercard Feb. 13, claims she got into boxing because she became bored with modeling.

‘My passion for boxing is so great that sometimes at the end of the fight I even forget to pick up my paycheck,” she says.

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What a pair: Peter Vecsey, writing in the New York Post, sees the possibility of Dennis Rodman playing for Pat Riley and the Miami Heat becoming a study in hair.

“One dyes it, the other freeze dries it.”

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Memorable: Indy Racing League driver Mark Dismore, on what it was like to hit the wall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

“It feels like someone hit me in the back with a baseball bat.”

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Strong move: According to Phil Collier of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the baseball commissioner’s office is cracking down on the influence of players’ agents by ordering teams not to issue them passes good for admission to clubhouses or the field.

Simple as that: Evander Holyfield’s trainer, Don Turner, was asked how his fighter will fare in his upcoming match with Lennox Lewis.

“I see Evander hitting him and him falling down,” he answered.

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Hard to convince: St. John’s Coach Mike Jarvis, after his Red Storm lost to No. 1-ranked Connecticut, 78-74: “We can play with them, and we can beat them. And they know it.”

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Silent treatment: When former Jacksonville offensive coordinator Chris Palmer was being interviewed for the Cleveland Browns’ coaching job, Brown owner Al Lerner and President Carmen Policy excused themselves and left Palmer sitting alone for about an hour.

“I felt like I was a kicker and they were trying to ice me with three timeouts,” Palmer said.

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Trivia answer: Fear of waves.

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And finally: New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter is a refreshing change of pace. He says he enjoys being a role model.

“A lot of athletes shy away from this role-model thing, but I’m all for it,” he said. “I was a kid not too long ago. I remember what it was like. Kids are going to look up to you.”