For Lynn Swann, this Hall is right down his alley

Eight years after being inducted at Canton, Lynn Swann is Hall of Fame-bound again.

Today at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Swann will be inducted into the Bowling Hall of Fame. Swann has done promotional work for the game and bowls with his family about twice a month.

“I’m just an all-right bowler,” Swann says. “Never had a 300 game. I’m usually in the mid-to-upper 100s.”

Swann is the third recipient to make the Hall’s Celebrity Wing -- and surprisingly, not the first football player. Swann was preceded by fellow former Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis.

Swann has played host to the NFL Super Bowl Celebrity Bowling Classic for the last three years and served as a lane-side reporter for CBS’ “Clash of the Champions” in 2008.

Trivia time

Who is the last switch-hitter to be named American League most valuable player?

All in the Griffin family

Barring an all-time record for outbreak of Clippers’ Brain-Cramping Syndrome, Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin will be the Clippers’ No. 1 selection, and the No. 1 pick overall, in Thursday’s NBA draft.

But he won’t be the first Griffin drafted by a professional basketball team. Blake’s older brother Taylor was the first player selected in the Harlem Globetrotters’ third annual draft.

A publicity ploy or a serious basketball move? You be the judge: Later selections by the Globetrotters included 2009 college slam dunk champion Tony Danridge of the University of Mexico and U.S. national soccer team goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Wanted: One more season

Aging veteran with Hall of Fame credentials is cut loose by his team, does not want to retire, says he wants to play one more season.

No, this is not another item about Brett Favre. The athlete in question is 47-year-old Chris Chelios, handed his walking papers from the Detroit Red Wings.

Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland says Chelios wants to play another season and believes the veteran can still play. Still, it might be difficult finding a taker. Last season, Chelios had no points and a plus-1 rating in 28 games.

Trivia answer

Vida Blue in 1971. The Oakland A’s pitcher finished 24-8, but he was also a switch-hitter -- not a good one, with a .104 career batting average.

(Question and answer provided by reader C.B. Reed of Rancho Penasquitos.)

And finally

NASCAR truck driver Ron Hornaday Jr., to the Associated Press, on why he didn’t do a victory burnout after Saturday’s triumph at the Milwaukee Mile: “We’re saving dimes right now.”

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