Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Stuntmen

Former Hollywood stuntman Stanton Barrett, discussing the difference between doing a stunt and driving a race car:

“I’ve hit the wall [racing] at Talladega and it’s not a lot of fun. But I have also tied a 100-foot chain to a motorcycle and took off as fast as I could, waiting for the chain to catch and send me flying across the asphalt with no padding or protection.

“The advantage Talladega has is no movie director walks over while you’re wiping the blood off your face and wondering if your teeth are all there saying, ‘Ah, we didn’t quite get that one. Let’s try it again.’ ”

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Trivia time: The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Angels have each had two players hit home runs in their first major league at-bat. Who were they?

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Only in soccer: Can you imagine, say, George Steinbrenner, owning not only the New York Yankees, but also the Dodgers and perhaps the Arizona Diamondbacks. Idiotic?

Not in Major League Soccer, where Philip Anschutz operates the Galaxy, Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire, and Lamar Hunt the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards.

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Another chance: Lawrence Phillips, whose troubled past stalled his NFL career, is finding new life with the Barcelona Dragons of the NFL European League. After three games, the ex-Baldwin Park High and Nebraska running back had a league-leading 382 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

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No place to hide: During a caution period in a race at Daytona Beach, Fla., with all the cars lined up behind the pace car, Joe Cooksey slammed his Chevrolet into the back of the pace car.

“It was a pretty good lick, square in the butt,” said pace-car driver Jack Wallace, who was hospitalized but not seriously hurt from the hit.

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Roll call: Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News says no NFL team’s draft list can match the Cowboys’ for first names:

Ebenezer Ekuban, Solomon Page, Mar Tay Jenkins and Dat Nguyen.

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Little chance: Grant Hill, who gives superstar performances with the Detroit Pistons, is also something of a dreamer.

After losing two consecutive playoff games to Atlanta, he said, “I’d love to sweep somebody, someday. I’m sure that would be nice.”

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New blood: Coming soon to the Senior PGA Tour--Tom Watson, 50 on Sept. 4; Lanny Wadkins on Dec. 5 and Tom Kite on Dec. 9.

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For the record: David Duval did not miss the cut in his last two PGA Tour events, as reported Wednesday. He finished tied for 64th at Houston, then missed the cut at New Orleans.

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Trivia answer: The Dodgers’ Jose Offerman, 1990, and Garey Ingram, 1994, and the Angels’ Don Rose, 1972, and David Machemer, 1978.

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And finally: Sports stars get strange requests from fans, but few as strange as seven-time Winston Cup stock car champion Dale Earnhardt, who was asked to attend the funeral of one of his fans--and drive the hearse.