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Humbling experience

At the press conference announcing his retirement from the NFL, Cowboys Charles Haley told about his first meeting with Rams tackle Jackie Slater, how he tried to bullrush the perennial All-Pro and received a headbutt “that dropped me to my knees and had me talking to Jesus.”

Hoops camp or prison camp?

Boys attending Wisconsin basketball coach Dick Bennett’s summer youth basketball camp were so unruly that the coach says he may never hold another camp for their age group.

Bennett said fights, vandalism and disobedience turned the four-day camp into a free-for-all.

Bennett said the experience was terrible and the behavior displayed by some of the boys was unacceptable. He said he was particularly disturbed by the fights and damage to the apartments where campers spent their nights.

Police were involved in one incident after a boy was spotted flashing a red laser light on the street below the apartments. Such lasers can be mistaken for aiming devices used on guns.

Don’t worry, coach, they’ll all grow up to be fine upstanding Packers fans.

Short hole, tall order

It’s called the “Postage Stamp Hole,” because its tiny green is hardly large enough for a family picnic. But the 126-yard 8th hole at Royal Troon, the site of this year’s British Open, has caused more than a few golfers to nearly go postal.

This little pipsqueak of a golf hole clings to the side of a sandhill and is surrounded by bunkers and scruff.

Maureen Madill, a former British amateur champion and Curtis Cup player, took 13 at the Postage Stamp in the prestigious Helen Holm Tournament a decade ago. Drilling her low, 6-iron approach through a gale and into a bunker behind the green, poor Madill found herself still in the bunker after four blows and dozens of frustrated footprints. “I launched myself at the next one,” recalls Maureen, who now helps with BBC golf telecasts, “and it came out like a rocket and struck a spectator who was halfway to the ninth tee.”

The following groups kept stacking up until 18 people, players and caddies, were huddled back on the eighth tee. “For God’s sake, pick the bloody thing up and come out of there,” shouted Maureen’s mother. “You’re holding up the whole course!”

Maureen persevered, completing her 13 - a mere 10 over par on the hole. She played the other 17 holes even par that day.

Quick, get the Angels on the phone

Oakland Athletics general manager Sandy Alderson may be the most relieved man in baseball, more so than even Mark McGwire, if the A’s are able to trade their Maris-chasing slugger.

The first words out of Alderson’s mouth to the daily gathering of media in the A’s dugout during a recent batting practice session were “nothing new on the McGwire front.”

Which prompted this question? “If there was, would you say something about it?”

Alderson thought and said, “Probably not.”

The last word …

“Phil Jackson is insulted by money - not a position that engenders great sympathy from those of us who take public transportation. It is hard to understand at what point $4.3 million becomes insulting. Is it the decimal point?”

- Bernie Lincicome, Chicago Tribune

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo