He Can Coach, but Thanks for the Visual

Things you might not know about Utah basketball Coach Rick Majerus, as told by Mike Lucas of the Capital Times in Madison, Wis.:

Majerus has traveled to six of the seven continents, stepped in all 50 states at least three or four times each and “might be the first Final Four coach to go sunbathing on a nude beach in Hawaii.”

Majerus has lived in a hotel suite in Salt Lake City for 12 years, and he said that during that time, “I’ve gone through three Stairmasters, four university presidents, three BYU coaches, more than 6,000 mints, 2,000 bars of soap, 730 bottles of lotion and 4,000 bottles of mouthwash. Those are the hotel’s figures, not mine.”

Majerus has no pretenses about who he is. But he definitely knows what he isn’t: “Lute Olson looks like a coach. John Thompson looks like a coach. Pat Riley looks like a coach. I’m just the guy in the XXXL Reebok sweater who likes Italian food.”

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Trivia time: Besides the obvious, what do Hall of Fame slugger Ted Williams and Albert Belle have in common?

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Priorities: Golfer Billy Mayfair says that even if he was to win the Players Championship today, it wouldn’t be his greatest moment on a TPC course.

The former Nissan Open champion married his wife, Tammie, seven years ago on the 18th green of TPC at Las Colinas before that year’s Byron Nelson Classic.

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Fashion note: Britons have fallen in love with baseball caps. No longer is the United Kingdom the land of bowler hats and cloth caps, says Bill Glauber of the Baltimore Sun.

In the latest retail prices index released by Britain’s Office for National Statistics, there were no top hats, no cricket caps, not even bonnets for the royal races at Ascot on the list of 650 goods and services that serve as a theoretical national shopping basket.

Instead, there were New York Yankee, Atlanta Brave, New York Met and Dodger headgear among the best sellers.

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Some difference: Sporting News columnist The Fly notes that, “As a player, Michael Jordan had guts, but as a company suit, he has a gut.”

In the groove: The Detroit Tigers are broadcasting every exhibition game on radio this spring. Hall of Fame announcer Ernie Harwell, who has been doing major league games since 1948, said, “They tell me I need the practice.”

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Home sweet home: The way quarterback Jim Harbaugh looks at it, going to the Detroit Lions this year will complete the circle of his football career, even as a backup to Charlie Batch.

“That’s where it all started,” he told Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune. “Where I played football in Ann Arbor when I was in third grade, played high school, college and now to have a chance to come back is a big thrill to me.”

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Trivia answer: Both hit home runs in their final major league at-bats.

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And finally: The UCLA women’s swimming team media guide states that Pete Dalis is in his 176th year as athletic director.

Could a Steve Lavin supporter have written that?