Cheap Seats

If Michael Jordan can try it…

Country singer Garth Brooks will join the San Diego Padres at their training camp in Peoria, Ariz. To entertain? No, presumably to play.

Brooks, 37, appeared as a pinch-runner for the Padres last March during an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs.

Brooks says he’s serious about playing for the Padres.

No kidding - a singing cowboy whose athletic credentials are playing on his high school baseball team and throwing the javelin at Oklahoma State.

“I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m scared, and it’s going to be neat,” the 37-year-old rookie said in a conference call from Los Angeles. “Make no mistake about it, I’m out there to play baseball.”

Not in the bigs. At least, not right away.

“There’s no chance of him being on the major league club, but we’re excited to have him because I think he’s going to bring a lot of enthusiasm and hard work into camp, because that’s how he goes about his business,” said Padres manager Bruce Bochy.

Brooks is the latest entertainer to try his luck in the big leagues of one sport or another:

Musician Bruce Hornsby once pinch-ran for the Angels during a spring training game.

Tom Selleck struck out for the Detroit Tigers in an exhibition game.

Rapper Master P, whose real name is Percy Miller, played for the Charlotte Hornets in exhibition games this year but didn’t make the team.

“Melrose Place” actor Andrew Shue played on the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.

At least we know the Padres have a reliable singer for the national anthem. See ya never again, Roseanne.

Wonder what the answer was

True story: A reporter to Don Larsen, who had just pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series: “Is that the best game you ever pitched?”

America’s team

Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune, on the “new” Bulls: “Anyone who has ever missed a layup, dribbled off his foot, thrown a pass to an empty space, had position and still been outrebounded, shot an airball, played defense like a parking meter, been dunked on, shot over, dribble-drove around, this is your team.”

When are you trying out, Bernie?

That would be difficult

Padres star Tony Gwynn in ESPN the Magazine on former teammate Kevin Brown, now a Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher:

“It’s like someone throwing a chain saw to the plate, and I’m supposed to hit it with my bat.”

The last word …

“Earth to tennis. Isn’t it time you people joined reality? This is 1999, not 1899. As Barry McKay, director of the tournament, pointed out, `If they had this rule in the NFL, NHL, NBA, or baseball, they’d never complete a game.”’

- Art Spander in the Oakland Tribune on Andre Agassi’s ejection from a tennis tournament in San Jose for muttering obscenities.