Supershorts: Who needs a coach?

Baseball umpire John Hirschbeck regrets ordering extra chilli on his burrito. The alternative, but less likely, version is he was hit by a pitch. Photo / AP

Kiss of life

Who needs a coach? Not Michael Campbell. Seeking to break a slump in the majors, Campbell has turned to a logical source, the lead guitarist of glam-metallers Kiss, Tommy Thayer.

"[Tommy] is an absolute golf tragic and he was telling me that the last time that Merion hosted the US Open was when David Graham won in the 1980s so it was a long time ago," said Campbell from his home in Marbella, Spain. "He told me that it was a really tricky golf course and that you need to hit the ball straight and have a good short game. He was giving me some good tips. The strength of my game is my iron play and he said that is what you need to play Merion well. It is similar to Pinehurst in that regard."

Legless and grumpy

The first amputee soccer match between Holland and Belgium ended in a brawl after a player pulled another to the ground by his only working leg. With the score tied at 3-3, fighting broke out between the two teams and there was a pitch invasion as the game descended into chaos in Westerloo, Antwerp. Video of the match shot by Belgian news channel VTM Nieuws caught the scenes on camera as players hit each other with crutches and fans joined in the clash.

Scoring shots

A book titled The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football Is Wrong has debunked many of soccer's great cliches about the best time to score.

Some of the most interesting finds by authors Chris Anderson and David Sally include:

• Corner kicks have little effect in increasing a team's chances of scoring, and even having more shots on goal doesn't guarantee success.

• The team that has more shots on target wins only between 50 and 58 per cent of the time, depending on the country.

• That a team is most vulnerable immediately after they score has been a staple of TV commentary for decades, but the data shows it to be false. These minutes are when a team is least likely to concede.

However, the coup de grace is this observation: There is a relationship between a player's disciplinary record and civil conflict in his home country. "As the number of years a country has experienced of civil war goes up, so does the average number of yellow cards per player from the country."

Any time, anywhere

Random testing indeed. Skier Lindsey Vonn (Tiger Woods' new love interest) had to make an unexpected detour during her evening at an awards show - off the red carpet and into the women's bathroom for drug testing.

The Olympic gold medallist was at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards when testers from the US Anti-Doping Agency escorted her to the lavatory to collect a urine sample. The results weren't immediately available.

Vonn's spokesman, Lewis Kay, says the test wasn't a big deal to the skier, who wore a deep V-neck white gown designed by Cynthia Rowley, who accompanied Vonn to the event. "She understands it is part of the job," Kay told the Associated Press.

The anti-doping agency said Vonn had participated in its out-of-competition testing pool for more than 12 years. The testing programme requires athletes to make themselves available for tests at any time, regardless of location.

Hat-trick bonanza

One of the match highlights in the third ODI between the Black Caps and England at Trent Bridge came in the break between innings.

Set the challenge of bowling and hitting three stumps, then two stumps, and finally a single stump in successive balls, Chris Newell held his nerve to complete the task and win £50,000 ($97,000).

A delighted crowd roared more than at any stage in the match itself. Yorkshireman Newell said he hadn't played properly for 20 years but felt there was a bit of Fred Trueman lurking in his action.

A family holiday to the Boxing Day test in Melbourne is planned for the money, with a Caribbean trip as the back-up plan.