No One Calls Him Shoeless Phil--Yet

Is Laker Coach Phil Jackson one of the luckiest men in the world? Right up there with Ringo Starr and George W. Bush? Skip Bayless of the Chicago Tribune pondered that first question.

“You wonder if Phil Jackson made a ‘Damn Yankees’ deal, selling his soul to coach one dynasty after another.

“Throw in the beach-side estate, the midnight-blue Porsche Carrera and the company of the owner’s daughter who posed nude in Playboy and you wonder if the devil got the worst of it.”

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Trivia time: Who’s the only Hall of Fame pitcher to hit a home run in the World Series?

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Fore! Norman Chad, in his column for America Online, considering the prospect of a U.S. Open playoff: “I’d rather watch a group of Franciscan monks playing bagpipes at high noon in the Mojave Desert than watch Retief Goosen and Mark Brooks playing another entire round of championship golf in my living room.”

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Joint effort: More than 100 marijuana plants were found growing on the Monterey Peninsula Country Club course in Pebble Beach.

“It was an area that only mountain goats could get to,” club general manager Mike Bowhay told GolfWorld magazine. “It was in an area that is unplayable and impassable.”

Police, however, said the 4-foot high patch, which had an estimated value of more than $500,000 if harvested in a couple of months, had a watering system and was “obviously being manicured.”

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Cheap shot: It must have been a slow news day in New York because Peter Vecsey of the Post was picking on Isaiah “J.R.” Rider:

“Rider, bless his perennially flat tires, did absolutely nothing to derail the Lakermotive. In fact, since he was inactive the entire postseason, he did absolutely nothing at all. . . .

“So, say what you want about Shaq and Kobe, Horry and Fisher, Grant, Lue, Shaw, Harper and Mr. Vanessa Williams, they had to play to earn my props. . . . He [Rider] should be voted a full playoff share [Colombian currency preferred].”

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The Big Chauffeur: From Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Look, Shaq, you are a marvel, and a heck of a fun guy. But don’t try to enlist our sympathy when the refs call charges on those low-block battering-ram moves. I bet when you park your car, you don’t bother to open the garage door.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1917, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retired all 26 batters he faced in a 4-0 victory over the Washington Senators.

Shore had relieved Babe Ruth, who was ejected for arguing after walking the game’s first batter. The runner was caught stealing and Shore went on his streak.

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Trivia answer: Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals against the Boston Red Sox in 1967.

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And finally: On the advice of a Tibetan holy man, a lifelong Red Sox fan put a team cap on the top of Mt. Everest.

Paul Giorgio figured he had to try something. His team has been without a World Series title since 1918, and Giorgio sought to break the Curse of the Bambino that has shadowed the Red Sox since they traded Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920. For good measure, Giorgio also burned a Yankee cap on the summit last month.

Before climbing to the summit in May, Giorgio sought advice from a Tibetan lama, explaining the Curse of the Bambino.

“The lama smiled and seemed to nod, as if he understood what I was talking about,” Giorgio said. “Although who knows?”

The lama told Giorgio to place the Red Sox cap next to a stone altar where each climbing team burns juniper branches as an offering to the gods. Then he told Giorgio to carry the Red Sox cap to the summit and plant it at 29,028 feet to reverse the curse.

So the Red Sox have that going for them, which is nice.