She Finished in Time for Film at 11

Oprah Winfrey didn’t want anyone to know she would be running in a half marathon in San Diego, so she entered under the pseudonym of Bobbi Jo Jenkins and swore the race director to secrecy.

But when she showed up with a video crew, bodyguard and trainer, her cover was blown. She was obviously the most famous of the 5,019 entrants.

Winfrey finished the 13-mile 192 1/2-yard event in 2 hours 16 minutes 3 seconds, about an hour behind the women’s winner, but she was pleased.

“People told me running would be fun,” she said. “When I first started training, I said, ‘What’s fun about this?’ But today was a lot of fun.”

And, Winfrey said, she lost 50 pounds in training.

Trivia time: The Yankees recently retired No. 44 in honor of Reggie Jackson. Who was the last player to wear that number?

Student-athlete: Colorado wide receiver Charles Johnson had a good excuse for missing practice last Saturday. He was taking part in summer commencement ceremony after earning his degree in marketing in three years.

“This wasn’t planned,” Johnson said. “But I really liked school, and I wanted to stay busy. I’m very organized, and whatever I set my mind to do, I do it.”

Daily double: Hank Lammens rushed home to Brockville, Ontario, for an evening hockey workout Sunday after winning the gold medal earlier in the day in the North American Finn sailing championships in Quebec.

“I didn’t sail really well, but I sailed smart,” said Lammens, who will attend training camp with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators next month.

Looking back: On this day in 1939, the first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS--a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the first game, 5-2, the Dodgers the second, 6-1.

Sounds logical: Cleveland’s Albert Belle, when asked why he does a stutter-step at each base during his home run trot, said, “That’s just the way it is.”

Quiet, please: Would an automobile race be the same without the sound?

A single-seat electric race car was recently tested at Monte Carlo at speeds exceeding 100 m.p.h. and no one in the casino apparently knew anything was going on.

Friendly advice: From Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News: “What the NYMets need more than solid pitching and dependable hitting is a solid, dependable exorcist.”

On a summer day: Cammy Myler knows how to beat the August heat. She slides indoors. America’s foremost female luger is training inside the million-dollar York International Luge Start Facility in Lake Placid--the site of the most technologically advanced luge starting track in the world.

In a sport where medals are won and lost in the blink of an eye, she hopes it will make the difference for her at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

Trivia answer: Deion Sanders.

Quotebook: The late Casey Stengel, after being fired as Yankee manager because he was “too old”: “I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 again.”