Nothing Should Stand in Way of Golf

Van Chancellor got a taste of humility last week while coaching the U.S. women’s basketball team to an Olympic gold medal.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Chancellor, coach of the WNBA Houston Comets, got a call on his cellphone from a friend asking if he wanted to play golf.

Chancellor informed his friend he was in Athens, prompting the friend to ask: “What are you doing in Athens?”

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Trivia time: Who was the last major league catcher to win a batting title?

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Move over Yogi: Pittsburgh Steeler backup cornerback Ike Taylor, after being tabbed to start an exhibition game, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “You only get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so many times.”

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Heisman talk already: “It’s August and we’ve already got a Heisman Trophy favorite,” wrote Jim Armstrong in his aol.com column. Of Reggie Bush’s performance in USC’s victory over Virginia Tech, Armstrong said Bush “caught touchdown passes [on plays] of 35, 53 and 29 yards. He also returned punts and kickoffs and played the tuba in the USC band.”

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It’s fun playing governor: Today is “New York Yankee Day” -- in Hawaii, of all places. The state’s attorney general, Mark Bennett, a Brooklyn native who has lived on the islands for 25 years, took advantage of being acting governor this week and Monday signed a proclamation honoring his favorite baseball team.

Gov. Linda Lingle and Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona are in New York for the Republican National Convention.

Maybe they can declare it “Hawaii Islanders Day” in New York.

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Debate this: A documentary on the National Collegiate Debate Championship, held in April in the nation’s capital, will be televised a number of times by College Sports Television (CSTV) beginning tonight.

But is debating a sport? One competitor calls it “Top Gun for dorks.”

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Fatherly support: Before finishing eighth in last weekend’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Bristol, Tenn., Kurt Busch said on TNT that his dad had told him he wouldn’t win.

Said Busch, “My dad is the biggest superstitious guy in the world. He said, ‘You know in how many races you’ve done well, and you know in how many races you haven’t done well.’ And he said, ‘I don’t think it is your time this year.’

“And I said, ‘Thanks, Dad.’ ”

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Trivia answer: Ernie Lombardi, who won two National League batting titles -- one in 1938 when he batted .342 for the Cincinnati Reds and the other in 1942 when he batted .330 for the Boston Braves.

Note: Lombardi, the National League’s MVP in 1938, caught Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters that year.

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And finally: Atlanta Braves’ announcer Don Sutton said Harmon Killebrew once told him why it’s not a good idea to chew gum when batting.

“It’ll make your eyeballs bounce up and down,” Sutton quoted Killebrew as saying.

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.