It Doesn’t Get Much Higher in Climbing

Anne Inglis said her husband was “over the moon,” and he was pretty darn close.

Mark Inglis, 47, a New Zealand mountaineer who years ago lost both legs to frostbite, recently became the first double amputee to climb Mt. Everest.

“He’s dreamed of this all his life,” Anne Inglis told the New Zealand Herald, adding that her husband had phoned home to say he was standing proudly atop the world’s tallest summit.

On carbon-fiber legs, no less.

Trivia time: Who was the last major league pitcher to throw a perfect game?

All aboard: Nearly 300 surfers paddled out last week off western Ireland to try to break the record for most surfers on one wave, 42, set last year in Brazil.

Finally, after two hours of trying, 44 of them rode the same wave for more than five seconds, earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Said the emcee before the record was official: “Someone get some pints of Guinness for the woman from Guinness. She’ll be seeing double. She’ll think there were 690 people riding the same wave for four years -- on one surfboard.”

Lost in translation: Barry Bonds may be public enemy No. 1 to U.S. sports fans, but in Japan he is revered, say many Japanese reporters here to chronicle the slugger’s quest to make home run history. Those not accustomed to booing -- which is virtually nonexistent in Japanese ballparks -- are astonished by verbal abuse showered upon Bonds.

Ryusuke Shiraishi of the Kyodo News was quoted in the San Jose Mercury News as saying, “It’s like how you would treat a murderer.”

Halfway there: Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning, who turned 30 in March, need only chat with rookies to be reminded he’s one of the Colts’ oldest players.

“A couple of them called me ‘Sir’ or ‘Mr. Manning,’ which makes me feel really, really old,” he told the Indianapolis Star.

Nonetheless, he said, he plans to stick around eight more seasons to give him 16 in the league -- the same number as John Elway.

Wizard of words: With a weekend series between the Cubs and White Sox underway, the Chicago Sun-Times recalled some of the famous quotes by their colorful managers, including Ozzie Guillen’s take in February on heaven and hell:

“Are you going to heaven, are you going to hell? All I know is they put you in the ground and cover your [rear end] with dirt.”

No miracle maker: Then there was this from the Cubs’ Dusty Baker, when asked in 2002 about taking over a team that hadn’t won a World Series since 1908: “My name is Dusty, not Messiah.”

Last chance: Pete Rose told the Calgary Sun that during his days as a gambler, “I used to think that Monday night football was just to get even [for] Sunday.”

Trivia answer: Randy Johnson, then an Arizona Diamondback, in a 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves on May 18, 2004.

And finally: From Jennifer Floyd Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Can somebody please wake me up when King Roger quits this drama-queen routine and finally decides where he is going to play baseball?”