Suddenly, He Had a Theismann Flashback

Golfers aren’t known as tough guys and Phil Mickelson is no exception. In his new book, “One Magical Sunday,” he recalled a time he was playing with Lawrence Taylor, Mike Ditka and Joe Pesci.

The Masters champion was the only one to reach the green on No. 18 in regulation and the group needed his birdie putt, which was headed for the hole until a practice putt by Taylor, the former NFL linebacker, struck it only a few feet from the hole.

“I was really hacked off and started walking toward him to give him a piece of my mind,” Mickelson wrote. “But he got bigger and bigger as I got closer and closer -- and all I could get out of my mouth was: ‘No problem, L.T.’ ”

Now had it been Pesci ...

Trivia time: Nick Price and Greg Norman share what distinction in regards to the Masters tournament?

Eternal optimists: Greg Cote of the Miami Herald writes that hope springs eternal on baseball opening day, “especially a player’s hope that he doesn’t get caught like Alex Sanchez.”

Sanchez, a singles hitter, was recently suspended 10 days for failing baseball’s steroid policy.

Hooray for the “B” team: What first appeared to be an erratic version of “the wave” turned out to be sheer panic during a recent World Cup soccer qualifier between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zambia had taken the lead on a deflected free kick and the ensuing applause apparently brought about a swarm of bees.

Said one spectator: “One guy was laying on his back by the [field] waving his arms as if he was celebrating the goal, but really he was trying to deal with the pain of being stung. All the supporters in the stands were just swatting wildly with their hands.”

Zambia won the game, 2-0.

Not missing a beat: It could be said that softball pitcher Kayleigh Lotti played with a lot of heart this week for Rhode Island’s St. Raphael Academy against rival La Salle.

In her first game since undergoing heart surgery to repair a vessel that supplies blood to the lower body, she pitched a 17-strikeout no-hitter in the Saints’ 5-0 win.

Scorpion vision: Major league teams want new stadiums. The Yuma (Ariz.) Scorpions of the Golden Baseball League are happy simply to have their first video scoreboard.

The GBL bought the team a 12-foot-by-16-foot Diamond Vision unit previously used in Denver’s McNichols Arena, saying it will give the ballpark a major league feel.

League Commissioner Kevin Outcalt told the Yuma Sun, “Scorpions fever is really catching on,” but, really, what else is there to do in the desert but watch scorpions?

Let’s get physical: Temple basketball player Nehemiah Ingram, who broke an opponent’s arm when ordered to play rough by Coach John Chaney, is trying to make the Owls’ football team as a defensive lineman.

The 6-foot-8, 275-pound Ingram last played competitive football in the ninth grade as a junior varsity tight end.

Trivia answer: Each shot a 63 to tie the record for lowest 18-hole round. Price set the record in 1986; Norman tied it in 1996.

And finally: Chuck Carlson of the Reno Gazette-Journal, on the dominance of Annika Sorenstam: “At least [Tiger] Woods ran into challengers during his run through the PGA in 2000. But Sorenstam’s biggest problem in taking command of the LPGA is trying to hit her seven-irons without stifling a yawn.”