And Now She Is Just One of the Guys

Life has not been the same for Miranda McOsker since her star performance earlier this month as varsity quarterback for Torrance Bishop Montgomery High.

McOsker, who passed for 175 yards and three touchdowns after coming in to start the second half in a rout of Ribet Academy, told Associated Press that “the real heroes of this are my coaches and my teammates for accepting me.”

Nonetheless, talk show hosts want her, even if she is only a starting junior varsity quarterback and third-stringer on the varsity squad. Her father has received calls from shows such as Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman and Ellen DeGeneres, but his daughter declined. “I don’t think I really deserve it. It’s just because I’m a girl,” she said.

Trivia time: When Bill Russell was their center, what was the Boston Celtics’ record in Game 7 of playoff series and Game 5 of best-of-five series?

New lease on life: Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell has come out of retirement as the new spokesman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. He’s 87.

“We signed a 10-year contract with a 10-year option, so I have to live to be 106,” he told the Denver Post. “And I’m going to do it or die trying.”

Sacked: Pittsburgh-area resident Brian Jackson was sentenced this week to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay $300 after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct. The charge: passing himself off as Steeler quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Brian St. Pierre in order to meet women.

In one scam, Jackson gave a woman an autographed football and pretended to be Roethlisberger on their date. When she got home that night, a neighbor told her it wasn’t Roethlisberger.

Writes Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Inquirer: “A better penalty would be to let him line up against the Steelers’ defense for a couple of days in practice. That probably would stop him forever.”

National chumpionship: Writes Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: “It will be 1 versus 2 [today] when Oklahoma and Nebraska get it on in Lincoln. As in the combined number of points for the two teams in the ‘also receiving votes’ section of the AP and coaches’ polls: OU 1, Nebraska 2.”

A lot of bull: The retirement of this bull is hardly Jordanesque in the headline department, but cowboys will be sad to see Little Yellow Jacket be put to pasture.

On the other hand, they may rejoice. The 1,750-pound dynamo will be competing for the last time this weekend and next in the Professional Bull Riders’ 2005 World Finals in Las Vegas. How good is he? Well, he has stormed out of the chute 86 times and only 12 people have completed the eight-second ride.

Little Yellow Jacket, who has been chosen PBR Bull of the Year three times, is co-owned by songwriter Bernie Taupin.

Trivia answer: 11-0. Ten were Game 7 situations and three of those were against the Lakers.

And finally: On the sudden realization that there will be no baseball until spring, Times reader Janice Hough writes, “It is times like this that fans in Los Angeles and San Francisco really wish [they] had a professional football team.”