Totally Random

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There were reams of stories about Barack Obama’s technically challenged golf game during his recent vacation in Hawaii. But the nation’s first left-hander also wanted to spend some time on the basketball court, and decided to get together with some of his former teammates at Punahou High for a few pickup games.

One of the players Obama went against was professional golfer Parker McLachlin, whose father, Chris, was Obama’s coach at Punahou and had invited his son to the gathering.

The younger McLachlin ended up guarding the next president of the United States in one game ... at Obama’s choice.

Parker told PGATour.com about the matchup: ‘My team had the ball first and he said, ‘OK, I’ll guard the golfer.’ He was making fun of me because I didn’t have any basketball shoes. All I had were tennis shoes....

‘He looks over at my dad and he’s, like, ‘Coach, what’s the deal? You can’t afford to buy your son some basketball shoes?’ ‘

Obama’s team won that game, 21-17, though he made only one basket while guarded by the guy in the tennis shoes.

‘He liked to drive,’ McLachlin said. ‘But when you’re the president-elect, nobody’s going to get in your way. The seas kind of part a little bit.’

Trivia time

The Arizona Cardinals (Chicago to St. Louis to Arizona) are trying to become only the second franchise that has relocated two times to win a Super Bowl. What is the one franchise that won a Super Bowl after relocating twice?

Chief merchandiser-elect

There’s a new king of collectibles on the national scene. No, not Tiger, not MJ, not LeBron. But it’s another guy who needs only one name to be identified: Barack.

According to some estimates, sales of Barack Obama merchandise and collectibles have gone past $200 million in the last two months. Plates, baseball caps for the inauguration, golf balls with his mug....

‘Everybody’s just Obama crazy. It’s madness right now,’ Johndell McLean, who works at a shop on Capitol Hill selling Obama products, told CNBC.com.

‘Whatever it is that has Obama on it, they like it. Everything is selling.’

Of course, as an elected official, Obama isn’t the beneficiary of all the sales, only the inspiration.

Money shots

One way UCLA is trying to promote its women’s basketball program is with a halftime shooting contest. All a fan needs to do is make four baskets, one from half court, in 25 seconds to collect a bonus that started at $100,000 and has been bumped $10,000 for every game when no one collected. The prize for the Jan. 22 game at Pauley Pavilion against Washington State will now be a whopping $200,000.

Trivia answer

The Cleveland-Los Angeles-St. Louis Rams, who won the Super Bowl in 2000 ... quarterbacked by Kurt Warner, who’s now the Cardinals’ signal caller.

And finally

Michael Strahan appeared on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and was introduced as ‘Sack-O-Lantern,’ a reference to the gap in his front teeth. Strahan said that was perhaps the worst of the many gap-tooth jokes he had heard, but he said he liked this one: ‘There’s a sign on the left tooth that points to the right tooth that says, ‘Next tooth one mile.’ ‘

-- Mike James

Photo (top): Barack Obama merchandise. Credit: Mandel Ngan / AFP

Photo (inset): Presidential hot sauce. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images