Luck of 49ers LB just stinks

You've heard that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck.

Imagine how San Francisco 49ers linebacker Manny Lawson must feel. His luck has been awful since he injured his knee last season. This season, he missed games Oct. 5 and Oct. 12 because of a strained hamstring. (He returned to action Sunday against the New York Giants, who won, 29-17.)

His omen isn't a cat; it's a skunk. One recently accosted him as he was leaving the playing facility.

Before that, a baby skunk stepped out and started chasing him as he was leaving his house.

"I've never run so fast in my life," he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

• GET HIM A JERSEY -- Stuart Tanner is not an NBA star, but the British amateur basketball player has become a YouTube sensation since beating New Jersey Nets guard Devin Harris in a game of one-on-one.

More than 3.5 million viewers have watched a clip of the contest this month in south London. Afterward, Harris said he'd been hustled and added, "We need to sign him up tonight."

• FAMILY MONEY -- Clemson fired football coach Tommy Bowden last week, but he will be paid $3.5 million. Jeff Bowden, fired two years ago by Florida State from his post as offensive coordinator, still is getting paid.

Bobby Bowden, the current Florida State coach, makes $2.5 million a year.

Writes Mike Bianchi of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel: "Wow, that makes three Bowdens getting paid, but none of them is actually coaching."

• NO FITNESS ANGEL -- Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero, 65, says he's lost his only incentive to work out.

"The only thing I ever liked about going to the gym was looking at the girls," he told the Los Angeles Times. "And none of them are looking at me anymore."

• WAYBACK MACHINE -- "A gritty Phillies team is in the World Series, quarterback Brad Johnson took snaps on Sunday, and the New Kids on the Block are playing at the AT&T Center," Lorne Chan of the San Antonio Express-News noted. "It's 1993 again."

• CAUGHT RED-HANDED -- From Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: "Game wardens near San Diego busted Binh Quang Chau for poaching six live lobsters -- in his pants.

"But no, he won't plead insanity: Lobsters there don't have pincers."

• WET AND WEIRD -- WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko says he wraps his fists in his infant son's urine-filled diapers to keep the swelling down.

"Baby wee is good," he told Germany's Bild magazine, "because it's pure, doesn't contain toxins and doesn't smell."

Can't wait to see his next puffy nose.

• MONKEY BUSINESS -- Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune, on humiliation in the wake of the Cubs' quick exit from postseason play:

"Humiliation would be Tampa Bay winning a World Series instead of you. It would be a used Ford Pinto winning the Indy 500. It would be a chimpanzee on a tricycle winning the Tour de France."

• MANNY MORE INTERESTING -- Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic on Manny Ramirez: "He is Barry Bonds with personality."

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