He Said This on the Beach, No Doubt

They held the Honolulu Triathlon on Sunday despite concern over lingering pollution from the March 24 spill of 48 million gallons of raw sewage into Ala Wai Canal.

The race involved a swim off nearby Ala Moana Beach Park, and, beforehand, event director Bill Burke, who also runs the New York City Triathlon, told the Honolulu Advertiser that he was not concerned.

After all, he said, “We put 3,200 athletes in the Hudson River.”

Trivia time: On this day in 1948, Citation, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, won the Preakness and went on to claim the Triple Crown. Twenty-five years passed before another horse won the Triple Crown. Who was it?

A true sportsman: Said Pennsylvania resident Dennis Russian to the Associated Press after he reeled from Lake Erie a 54-pound 4-ounce carp: “It was an ugly, yellow-bellied thing. Makes good raccoon bait.”

Mom’s confession: Denver Post reader Gene Keith recalled in a Mother’s Day letter the many times his mom took him and his brother to New York Yankees games in the 1940s and ‘50s, arriving for batting practice and staying late to meet players leaving the ballpark.

Asked years later why she was so accommodating, she replied, “It was easy. I loved the Yankees and had a crush on Joe DiMaggio.”

The Earl factor: Those wondering whether Tiger Woods will be inspired during the U.S. Open need only to be reminded that it concludes on Father’s Day.

Cut Steve Nash? Of the Phoenix Suns point guard and league most valuable player, Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times complains, “I have come to loathe the way he flips those long tendrils of sweatiness behind their respective ears during each break.”

Chris Kaman too? Telander continues, “The surprisingly agile Los Angeles Clippers big man has a blond ‘do that looks like it belongs on a gold prospector, circa 1849.

“I don’t know if he’s going bald or blind, but Kaman can’t possibly look in the mirror when he sees that stringy stuff hanging down like wet straw from a pie pan and be happy.”

Feeling shut out: John Swartley of the San Jose Mercury News on missing two Sharks games because he doesn’t have OLN: “I can remember watching the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup as a kid back in Michigan, albeit on a really fuzzy black-and-white TV. Forty-five years later, in the heart of Silicon Valley, I’m forced to listen to the radio. This is progress?”

Sinking fast: Of the struggling, error-prone Chicago Cubs, Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune ponders a possible solution: “I’m not sure the Cubs need to fire [Dusty] Baker as manager so much as they need to see if he can play outfield.”

Trivia answer: Secretariat in 1973.

And finally: Alex Gordon’s baseball card sold for $7,500 recently on EBay, surprising even him, because he’s merely a double-A player with the Kansas City Royals organization. “I’m in shock at the price and still don’t believe it,” he said.