Motocross Star Gives It His All and Then Some

Freestyle motocross star Brian Deegan seemingly has more lives than a cat. During a recent taping of an MTV special in Philadelphia, he endured a wipeout that cost him a kidney.

“I’ll take some time off but look forward to being back on my bike for Summer X Games” in early August, he told his fans as he was preparing to leave the hospital a week later.

As they say, if you fall off your bike it’s best to climb right back on.

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Add Deegan: At the Winter X Games in 2004, he fell while attempting a 360-degree rotation off a 90-foot jump. Aside from internal bleeding, he sustained a broken femur and two broken wrists. He returned to Winter X last January and won the gold medal -- with the same trick.

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Trivia time: Which was the last team to pass on Amare Stoudemire in the 2002 NBA draft?

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Debatable: Dan Patrick asks Houston Astro Brad Lidge in ESPN the Magazine whether it’s “right” that snowboarding -- the pitcher is an enthusiast -- is an Olympic sport.

Lidge’s reply: “Oh, yeah. There’s things that take a lot less athleticism in the Olympics than snowboarding, that’s for sure.”

Things such as baseball, some may claim.

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Storybook ending: Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova didn’t lose sleep over her quarterfinal loss to Justine Henin-Hardenne in the French Open, having escaped inside her Pippi Longstocking novels.

“When I go to bed I love to read those books,” she told Associated Press. “Then I have good dreams.”

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Yabba-dabba-do: Ralph Villabrille won the George “Flintstone” Andrade Memorial Day Weekend drag races at Maui Raceway Park with a top speed of 153.57 mph in an 8.818-second run.

Fred Flintstone, who got his car rolling pretty swiftly with those big bare feet of his, would have been proud.

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Money player: Driving a beverage cart on a golf course may seem a mindless job, but if done properly it can be lucrative. Nicole Kallis of Lakeside, Calif., told Golf Digest that she has made as much as $350 a day in tips.

Her secret? Flirtation.

“I was told once: ‘The cart girl is every man’s fiancee before he takes a wife,’ ” she said.

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Macabre: Thoroughbred owner Garret Redmond is fighting to name a 2-year-old filly Sally Hemings, after the slave who was the reputed mistress of Thomas Jefferson.

He was told initially by the Jockey Club that he would have to get Hemings’ written permission first.

Redmond wrote back, “I will gladly get her permission if you can dig her up. Don’t be silly.”

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Trivia answer: The Clippers, who took Chris Wilcox with the eighth pick. Stoudemire was taken ninth by the Phoenix Suns and became rookie of the year.

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And finally: Football player-turned-pro wrestler Bill Goldberg views his appearance in “The Longest Yard” as the beginning of a greater purpose in life.

“I’d love to be Hollywood’s next superhero,” he said. “I’d love to be Hollywood’s most violent villain ever.”