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But Think of All the Free Golf Balls He’d Collect

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Times Staff Writer

Routinely hitting 300-yard drives is just one of Tiger Woods’ talents.

In a two-part interview to be shown on the Golf Channel’s “Golf Central” program the next two Wednesday nights, Woods discusses others. Among them is an ability to hold his breath under water for four minutes.

That’s nice, but it still probably wouldn’t help him much if he ever decided to play a shot out of a water hazard.

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Trivia time: Woods’ official PGA profile on the web, under special interests, says he is a fan of all sports and lists two in particular. One is basketball. What is the other?

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Talking a blue streak: Syndicated columnist Norman Chad is not a fan of Boston Red Sox fans.

“They lay low, lull you into a false sense of security,” he wrote, “then just when you are most relaxed -- bang.” Then, according to Chad, comes the same old routine: “Woe is me and the curse of the Bambino and don’t get me started on Bill Buckner and sure now we’ve got our first World Series title since 1918 but we’re still 20 championships behind the Bronx Bombers.”

Chad added: “It takes a nickel to get a Red Sox fan started, and maybe 50 bucks to shut him up.”

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A depressed area: Reportedly during the Red Sox’s World Series run last year, there were fewer emergency room visits than normal at six Boston hospitals.

Now that the Red Sox have been eliminated by the Chicago White Sox, Boston’s ER activity is probably up, with fans coming in with bad cases of depression.

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Ouch: Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is not a fan of Yankee radio announcer John Sterling.

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“To be stuck in a car with John Sterling during a Yankee game,” he wrote of listening to the play-by-play, “is to travel a futile course, like selling solar-powered tools to coal miners.”

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There’s a pattern here: Of the Baltimore Ravens’ committing 21 penalties Sunday, reader Bill Littlejohn says, “When the team plane circled to land in Baltimore, it was called for holding.”

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Last word on twinbills: A number of readers pointed out that USC was among college teams to play football doubleheaders in the 1920s and ‘30s. Dilan Esper of Los Angeles said the Trojans played teams from the battleships Arizona and New York in back-to-back games in 1921. In 1925, they played Whittier and Caltech, and twice in the 1930s played Occidental and Whittier.

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Looking back: On this day in 1991, Chip Beck shot the second sub-60 round in PGA Tour history with a 59 in the Las Vegas Invitational. Beck carded a 29-30, 13 under par, to match Al Geiberger’s second round at the 1977 Memphis Classic.

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Trivia answer: Fishing.

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And finally: In a Sports Illustrated survey of 450 major leaguers, Oakland A’s pitcher Barry Zito was the runaway choice for best curveball.

“To the relief of Dodger Milton Bradley,” wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, “the survey chose not to uncover baseball’s No. 1 screwball.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.

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