Big Man in Middle Didn’t Have It Inside

In the September issue of Stuff magazine, Baltimore Raven linebacker Ray Lewis said that he tried to teach Laker center Shaquille O’Neal his infamous football dance but had some problems.

“I was at Shaq’s birthday party and he tried so hard. He focused, but he just couldn’t--he got the slide to the right, he got the slide to the left, but the middle part’s got to be straight emotion. The middle part can’t be taught. It needs to come from inside.”

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Trivia time: What do Arnold Palmer, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, John McEnroe, Willis Reed, Ken Stabler and Gale Sayers have in common?

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Good blood lines: Cheyenne Woods, Tiger’s niece, won the girls’ 12-year-old division at the U.S. Kids Golf World Championships in Williamsburg, Va., the second time she has won it. Cheyenne, daughter of Tiger’s half-brother, Earl Jr., has two holes-in-one and 30 tournament titles to her credit. Placing second in the girls’ 11 division was Isabelle Lendl, daughter of former tennis great Ivan.

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Heat check: Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the Rams’ training camp in Macomb, Ill.: “Out here amidst the corn and soy fields of this scalding, isolated western Illinois outpost, the practice fields of the defending NFC champion Rams have all the charm of a brick oven.”

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My home is my palace: Buffalo quarterback Drew Bledsoe recently put his home in Medfield, Mass., up for sale and the former New England Patriot’s asking price is $8,995,000. The house features 11,000 square feet on three levels, with 20 rooms, home theater, wine cellar, spa with hot tub, sauna, exercise room, billiard room, pool with waterfall, children’s playground, putting green and tennis court. Not too bad for a backup.

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Mike, did you hear this? Detroit’s Jerry Stackhouse told the Chicago Sun-Times that he would like to see Michael Jordan, whose Santa Barbara camp opens this weekend, return next season. “That would be great, because the fans obviously enjoyed it. And we players enjoyed it even more because we finally got a chance to beat up on him a little bit because his supporting cast in Washington was not as good as the one he had with the Bulls.”

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Lazy Leaf: From Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “One of Ryan Leaf’s friends says that Ryan probably won’t do much in his golden years. ‘The fact is, he doesn’t need to work.’ Wasn’t that Leaf’s problem all along?”

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Looking back: On this day in 1982, Doug DeCinces of the Angels hit three home runs in a game for the second time in one week. DeCinces hit solo homers in the first and third innings and connected for a two-run shot in the eighth of a 9-5 victory over Seattle. DeCinces also hit three against Minnesota on Aug. 3 that year.

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Trivia answer: They are all left-handed.

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And finally: At a New England Super Bowl ring ceremony this summer, five former Miami Dolphins on the Patriots’ roster--Larry Izzo, Grey Ruegamer, Damon Huard, Terrance Shaw and Terrell Buckley--decided to be funny. They posed for a picture with their Super Bowl rings affixed to a strategic finger and raised that finger for the camera.

The photo was sent to Dolphin middle linebacker Zach Thomas, a close friend of Izzo. Reportedly, Thomas was not amused.