Sometimes it pays to be all thumbs

After embarrassing 2006 performances in baseball, basketball, hockey, golf and soccer, Americans have finally found a sport that might again lift us to international prominence.

Text messaging.

Our brightest hope for the future is a 13-year-old girl named Morgan Pozgar, who defeated Los Angeles law student and defending champion Eli Tirosh in Saturday’s finals to become the 2007 U.S. Texting Champion.

Pozgar and Tirosh thumbed their way through a field of 250 competitors to reach the last round of the tournament, which was held in New York. With $25,000 in prize money at stake, Tirosh, 21, initially seemed to have held off the young challenger by putting down her phone first.

But on further review, judges ruled that Tirosh had made a decisive typo in the Mary Poppins song lyric, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” It can happen.

As a result, Agence France-Presse broke out the following headline for its tournament report:

“FYI, 13yo skool grl is nu US txt mssg chmpN”

In midseason form

Pozgar told AFP that she trained for the event by sending an average of 8,000 text messages a month to her friends.

To the over-40 crowd, that might seem like a lot. But they forget that Pozgar honed her skills in the highly competitive 13-year-old-girl circuit.

Trivia time

The NCAA Division I management council last week recommended a ban on what recruiting practice?

Comebacks R Us

Asked why he returned to competitive driving after a four-year layoff at age 62, NASCAR truck racer Joe Ruttman told the Associated Press, “To face the reality of working at my age, what would I be, a greeter at Sam’s or Wal-Mart?”

On a similar theme, Dallas Mavericks center Kevin Willis discussed with AP his return to the NBA at 44 after nearly a two-year hiatus.

“The door was closed,” he said. “I didn’t close it. Somebody closed it.

“But I knew it wasn’t locked.”

So, who finally opened that door for Willis?

Well, we know it wasn’t Ruttman.

Ask a simple question

Ex-Dodgers, ex-Angels pitcher Jeff Weaver might have sold his soul, or something of equal currency, to join in the St. Louis Cardinals’ World Series parade last year, but so far his start to the 2007 season has had the appearance of a deal-breaker.

Now a Seattle Mariner, Weaver lasted only three innings in Sunday’s 6-1 defeat by the Angels. He threw 68 pitches and gave up seven hits and three runs, yet actually lowered his ERA from 15.75 to 13.91.

Asked why he pulled Weaver so early from a game that, at that point, was still competitive, Mariners Manager Mike Hargrove quickly summarized his thought process.

“He’d given up seven hits and three runs in three innings,” Hargrove told the Seattle Times, “and I didn’t see it getting any better.”

Trivia answer

Coaches sending text messages to recruits.

And finally

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, to USA Today after learning that the Minnesota Twins’ new ballpark, scheduled to open in 2010, would not include a roof:

“What are they thinking? They’re kidding, right?”

mike.penner@latimes.com