It’s the Little Things That Get You Down

While San Francisco 49er Coach George Seifert tries to get his team to the Super Bowl, his wife, Linda, 50, achieves loftier goals.

She recently scaled 19,340-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. Her other conquests include Mt. Whitney, 14,495 feet; Japan’s Mt. Fuji, 12,388 feet, and Yosemite’s Half Dome, which she has climbed many times.

John Crumpacker of the San Francisco Examiner reported that Linda made the Kilimanjaro ascent without so much as a blister. However, when she came home to Los Altos she “promptly bashed her toe on the brick step in the back yard.”

Trivia time: When did Oregon first play in the Rose Bowl?

Accommodating: In a book “A Kind of Grace” on women sportswriters, editor Ron Rapoport of the Daily News recalled the time Lesley Visser, writing for the Boston Globe, stood outside a dressing room waiting to interview quarterback Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“When he finally emerged and saw her holding a notebook, Bradshaw did the natural thing: He took it from her and signed it.”

Please, hurry up: Mike Flanagan, new pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles, describing one of his former pitching coaches, Toronto’s Al Widmar:

“It took him so long to get to the mound that when he asked me how I was doing, I would tell him, ‘I was doing fine when you started coming out here, but I got tired waiting for you.’ ”

Gangway: John Steigerald in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “It’s nice that the NBA has decided to enforce the rules against hand checking. Now it would be nice if they enforced some of the more fundamental rules, like traveling and palming the ball. If they’re going to let players cradle the ball like a football and charge the hoop, defenders should be allowed to tackle them.”

Comparison: Tom Weir in USA Today: “A lot of people say Grant Hill is the next Michael Jordan, but I dunno. To me, Hill looks more like a first baseman than an outfielder.”

Big East Trojans?ESPN’s Beano Cook said Saturday that No. 1 ranked Penn State has benefited from an “easy non-conference schedule.”

If so, USC would fall in that category along with Rutgers and Temple, having lost to Penn State, 38-14, on Sept. 10.

Believe it or . . .: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “You think times have changed? In 1925, Babe Ruth’s basic salary was $52,000, matched in sports only by that of Grantland Rice, the sportswriter.

“That’s right, the sportswriter!”

Looking back: On this day in 1987 jockey Chris Antley became the first rider to win nine races in a day. He rode four winners in six mounts at Aqueduct and five winners in eight tries during the Meadowlands’ evening program.

Trivia answer: Oregon defeated Pennsylvania, 14-0, in 1917, when the Rose Game was held in Pasadena’s Tournament Park.

Quotebook: Washington running back Napoleon Kaufman on his chances of winning the Heisman: “I’m sick and tired of talking about some trophy.”