Shaq Can’t Pin Hopes on Career in This Sport

A familiar fellow clogged the lane at Orlando’s Dowdy Pavilion World Bowling Center the other day: Shaquille O’Neal.

He was there with Grant Hill, Vince Carter and other NBA stars for the Tracy McGrady Foundation’s T-MAC BOWL benefiting Special Olympics.

Shaq, bowling with his three children, rolled a 42.

“It was 342, something must have happened with the scoreboard,” O’Neal told the Orlando Sentinel. “I’m just a great bowler. Dart-throwing, free-throw shooting competitions, I’ll win it all.”

He even has his own bowling shoes--size 22.

“My form is a little unorthodox,” he said. “I have a little twist at the end that is not taught in most bowling academies.”

*

Trivia time: Who holds the record for tournament titles on the Professional Bowlers Assn. tour?

*

Another whistle stop: Paul Hackett, fired at USC after last season and now the New York Jet offensive coordinator, has had a peripatetic career, leading the New York Times’ William C. Rhoden to wonder what keeps a coach going after so many college and NFL stops.

“Hackett’s journey raises two questions: Why does he keep getting hired, and why does he keep trying?” Rhoden wrote.

“‘The answer to the first is that he knows football. The answer to the second is less clear.”’

Hackett basically said his passion for the game outweighed the necessity of keeping United Van Lines on speed dial.

“I think nowadays when you think of longevity, you think of five years, maybe 10 max,” he said. “Ever since I left Division II to begin this journey in big-time football, I’ve been fascinated by the pressure of it. I love it. . . . I thrive on it. The pressure comes with the territory.”

Rhoden’s response: “The only territory the Jets are interested in is the end zone. If the offense can rack up half as many yards as Hackett has accumulated going job-to-job during a 32-year coaching career, they will reach the Super Bowl. That’s a guarantee.”

*

Safety officer: Colorado safety Robbie Robinson recognizes the uncomfortable dynamic sometimes existing between a college-town police force and the school’s athletes.

So the aspiring lawyer from Oceanside spent a semester as a Boulder police intern, writing a 56-page report and earning six political science credits.

“[I thought] maybe it could form some kind of relationship, because I know for a while there, our team was getting in a lot of incidents and stuff that involved police,” he told the Denver Post. “I thought it would be a good way to help the situation. The only way they see us is on the field and when they’re busting us. I thought, let them see us in a different element and it will maybe give them a more positive outlook on the players.”

*

Trivia answer: Earl Anthony, with 41.

*

And finally: Nolan Ryan, after talking with the Cubs’ Kerry Wood about the art of pitching earlier this season, recalled what he learned from the greats, among them Satchel Paige.

“He asked me if I knew what the best pitch was,” Ryan told the Houston Chronicle. “I said, ‘Fastball?’ He said, ‘No, the bow tie.’

“I asked him what it was. He said, ‘Fastball, right here,’ and drew his hand across his neck. That was my lesson from Satchel--the bow-tie pitch.”