But They Do Expect to Make a Lot of Hay

Thoroughbred trainer Bob Baffert, speaking to college students from across the country at the recent Los Angeles Times Jim Murray Sports Journalism Workshop at Hollywood Park, pointed out one advantage of working with horses.

“They don’t talk, thank God,” Baffert said.

Jim Armstrong, in his AOL Sports column, pointed out a few other advantages of working with horses: “They don’t demand to renegotiate their contracts. They’ve never made a ‘roids run to Tijuana. They’ve never shoved a referee, been nabbed for drunken running, and they don’t believe the world revolves around them.”

Trivia time: What former USC football player served as the general manager of the L.A. Xtreme of the XFL in 2001?

Starring role for an extra: A Morning Briefing item about Elvis Presley’s playing touch football prompted an e-mail from film and television director Michael Preece, who recalled playing football several times against Presley at Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills in the early 1960s.

Presley was doing a film at MGM and Preece was working on the television show “Mr. Novak,” starring James Franciscus.

“I was our quarterback the first couple of games, but things got very intense, so we recruited an extra from our show,” Preece wrote.

The extra: former USC quarterback Pete Beathard.

Another Elvis sighting: Former boxing promoter Don Fraser recalls that actor Robert Conrad invited Presley to see his first live boxing match at the Forum on Nov. 4, 1968. Frankie Crawford, a featherweight managed by Conrad, was fighting in the main event.

Crawford was stopped in the eighth round by Dwight Hawkins ... but there’s no truth to the rumor that after the fight Elvis told Crawford, “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog.”

Bad for business: Maybe it’s a good thing for the barber business that the Phoenix Suns trail the San Antonio Spurs, 2-0, in the NBA’s Western Conference finals.

“Fashion trends being what they are,” wrote Bill Lankhof of the Toronto Sun, “the worst thing that could happen is a Detroit-Phoenix NBA Finals. Between Steve Nash and Ben Wallace, they could put half the barbers in America out of business.”

Looking back: On this day in 1959, Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched 12 perfect innings before losing to the Milwaukee Braves, 1-0, in the 13th. In that inning, Joe Adcock hit one out with Felix Mantilla and Hank Aaron on base, but because Adcock passed Aaron on the basepath, Adcock was called out (and officially credited with a double).

Trivia answer: J.K. McKay.

And finally: Some baseball historians call Haddix’s performance the greatest pitching performance in major league history.

Haddix wasn’t nearly as impressed. “My main aim was to win.... All I know is that we lost,” he said after the game. “What’s so historic about that?”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].