Back Pain? He Let His Fingers Do the Walking

Morning Briefing has used the Yellow Pages in unconventional ways -- as a doorstop, a chair-booster for small people at the dinner table and as a sure-fire insect killer.

Somehow pulling it out of the cabinet and using the pages as a medical device never made the short list. Who would do that?

Apparently, golfer Greg Owen of England, bedeviled by back pain, found out during a tournament in Johannesburg two years ago that his left leg was shorter than his right. His immediate solution involved temporary padding -- taking the Pages and taping them together inside his shoe, before turning to foam inserts. At the British Open on Thursday, Owen shot a 79.

Trivia time: Who was the last player to win the British Open leading wire-to-wire?

Inaction, reaction: There was raging discontent in the streets of Toronto on Wednesday. Well, just kidding.

Fans were summoned to protest the Maple Leafs’ inaction in the bustling free-agent market, and about 25 showed up.

“Some of us weren’t even born when the Leafs won their last Stanley Cup and all we have to do now is listen to our dads talk about 1967,” said 25-year-old Kulvinder Roschan of Oakville to the Toronto Star. “Where’s our Cup?”

Minnie-Me: Minnie Minoso was at it again.

The 77-year-old appeared as the St. Paul Saints’ designated hitter on Wednesday night and drew a full-count walk.

“I don’t think I could do anything else. Baseball is in my blood,” he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune after he became the only man to play pro baseball in seven decades.

This just in: There is Associated Press, Reuters and Sergio Garcia.

The Spanish golfer apparently broke the news when he revealed that his buddy Steve McManaman could be leaving Real Madrid.

“I think Steve is talking to Arsenal,” Garcia told reporters Thursday.

The Macca high-speed sports wire denied such a move back to England, telling the Spanish sports publication As, that he has no intention of leaving Real Madrid.

Tour de Florida: Orlando Sentinel columnist David Whitley attempted to copy (sort of) the 95.3-mile Tour de France route from Narbonne to Toulouse from his stationary bike at the local Y: “The Tour boys had only one notable advantage over me. They can pedal really fast.

“They also have soigneurs. My research showed that’s a personal assistant who does laundry, gives massages and shaves the athlete’s legs. The English word for him is ‘posse.’ I’d read where cyclists have to consume 7,000 calories a day, which is no problem for most sportswriters. So I carbo-loaded a bagel and started pedaling at 6:32 a.m. Then the first problem arose.

“Boredom.”

Trivia answer: Tom Weiskopf in 1973.

And finally: The Buccaneers’ Warren Sapp on the virtues of the Eagles’ home: “Philadelphia is one of those ignorant towns where it’s either we win or nobody wins. Either we beat you or we beat you. Either we beat you on the field or we’re going to fight you in the stands. That’s just what that city is.”