Kangaroo courts disaster

Maybe in Australia it’s about on par with a dog or a squirrel scampering across a football field here. But to American eyes, it was stunning.

During an auto race Sunday in Bathurst, Australia, a kangaroo bounded onto the course as cars roared by, with vehicles dodging the marsupial on both sides before the animal hopped away.

Neither the kangaroo nor any drivers were injured. (The video can be found on YouTube.)

Kangaroos aren’t always so lucky: A few years back, a kangaroo was struck and killed in the same race, the Bathurst 1000, an event staged on a stretch of public road about 2 1/2 hours from Sydney.

Trivia time

What Australian national team is nicknamed the Boomers, a nod to the slang for a mature male kangaroo?

The Great One’s rummage

Wayne Gretzky and his wife, Janet Jones Gretzky, are offering some of their unused home furnishings, expensive clothing, shoes, recreational items and toys at an Oct. 27 sale to raise funds for two private schools in Westlake Village, KNBC reported.

The sale -- which will include autographed jerseys and signed bottles of his new Wayne Gretzky Estate Wines -- will help build a new baseball stadium at Oaks Christian High and also will benefit Carden Conejo School.

Say it ain’t so

There’s a lot of hand-wringing over the prospect that Yankees Manager Joe Torre -- despite his four World Series rings -- will get the ax from owner George Steinbrenner after the team’s American League division series loss to Cleveland.

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, a Yankees fan and former New York City mayor, was asked Tuesday if Torre should keep his job.

His reply: “God willing.”

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said he would keep Torre too.

Even WCBS radio commentator Suzyn Waldman got teary on the air Monday night talking about Torre after the Yankees’ season-ending loss.

Amid all the reports and lamentations, the New York Daily News on Tuesday still had this ad on its website: “Buy Yankees Playoff Tickets: Click here.”

Ouch!

What’s that, some prank by a Red Sox fan?

USC’s bad day

Wouldn’t you know it, on the same weekend USC lost to Stanford, one of Oregon State’s most cherished teams gathered in Corvallis.

The 1967 “Giant Killers,” whose 3-0 upset of No. 1 USC handed the Trojans their only loss on the way to a national championship, were celebrating their 40th reunion.

Take a charter

A Southwest Airlines employee recently forced a passenger to change a T-shirt that bore an off-color pun before allowing him to fly.

Guess that will keep Cynthia Rodriguez away.

Chances are the wife of Yankees star Alex Rodriguez -- who showed up at Yankee Stadium last summer wearing a tank top with an obscene message -- never has to look for a low fare, anyway.

Trivia answer

The Australian national men’s basketball team.

And finally

Golfer Woody Austin was asked this week at the World Match Play Championship in England if he had been given any pictures of himself falling into the water after that shot during the Presidents Cup.

“I see it all over the place,” he said.

“I see it on the computer. I see it in the papers. Nice spread in the Golf World this week at home with it, on the PGA website -- with a nice little one, two, three, and then in. So it’s everywhere.”

robyn.norwood@latimes.com