Second thoughts

— Fitzgerald traveling for a cause

A few days before the start of Arizona Cardinals training camp, Larry Fitzgerald made a quick trip - halfway around the world to Uganda for some charity work alongside former President Bill Clinton.

Probably no professional athlete travels more than the six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver. He says he’s been to “75 or 80 countries, somewhere around there. I haven’t counted in a while.”

Some of his journeys have been for pleasure. Many are for a cause. They include, most prominently, distributing hearing aids to the impoverished.

That’s what Fitzgerald was doing in Uganda in a visit in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative.

“I was on the ground all of nine hours,” Fitzgerald said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I landed, I went right to the site and we fit hearing aids right along with Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton and it was really cool. We fit for about six hours and as soon as we got done jumped on the plane and came home.”

Fitzgerald said he found Clinton to be remarkably intelligent and a surprisingly big sports fan.

One of the first things the former president wanted to know, Fitzgerald said, was who would be the Cardinals’ starting quarterback. The open competition between Kevin Kolb and John Skelton is the No. 1 topic of the Cardinals’ training camp, but hardly a common subject of discussion in eastern Africa.

“This guy, the day before I saw him, he was in South Africa for Nelson Mandella’s 94th birthday,” Fitzgerald said. “He was there with 100 people from all around the world, showing the work he’s doing in Africa. All his things, the foreign politics, the things that are going in his life, he still knows exactly what’s going on,not only in the NFL but what we have going on in Arizona. It was mind-boggling to me. The dude is unbelievable.” Twitter panic

Atlanta Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez is blaming his lack of sleep on Chipper Jones’ new Twitter account.

Gonzalez should have slept well after watching Mike Minor beat Philadelphia’s Joe Blanton 2-1 on Saturday night.

Gonzalez says his mood turned sour after reading Jones’ latest tweet on his @RealCJ10 feed: “Wow MikeyMinor! Hats off to Blanton too.

They were dealing. 4 game streak since I got on the twitta.

Got a date wit the Doc tmrw. Go Bravos.”

Gonzalez said Sunday he “tossed and turned all night” as he worried about Jones’ chronic knee problems.

The manager finally realized Jones was referring to Phillies ace Roy “Doc” Halladay, who is starting against Jones and the Braves on Sunday. A relieved Gonzalez says he has to learn more about “Twitter lingo.” Safety net

Boston Red Sox prospect Shaq Thompson has decided it’s time to reexamine his career choice.

Let’s just hope he’s better at tackling than hitting a baseball.

The 18th-round draft pick ended his stint in the Gulf Coast League last week and will report to the University of Washington campus in Seattle to begin preparing for football camp.

Thompson, also rated as one of the top high school prospects at safety, won’t have to worry anymore about hitting a baseball to earn a paycheck, which is a good thing because, as Deadspin.com’s Barry Petchesky put it, “Thompson has been truly, historically unsuccessful at hitting baseballs.”

In 13 games for the rookie league’s Gulf Coast Red Sox, Thompson went 0 for 39 with 37 strikeouts. He got the ball out of the infield just once, in his final at-bat, a line drive directly to the right fielder. He was greeted in the dugout with back slaps and high fives after the outstanding feat.

The Huskies’ football camp opens on Aug. 6.

Quote of the day

“I’m not sitting down right now, so there’s nothing hot.” Kentucky Coach Joker Phillips, who took a light-hearted approach responding to a hot seat question heading into this season

Sports, Pages 14 on 07/30/2012

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