He’s Ready to Give This Idea the Boot

Eric Wynalda, a former Major League Soccer star and national team member, is upset that Mexican-owned Chivas USA will share the Home Depot Center with the Galaxy next season.

Wynalda, the ESPN color analyst for MLS broadcasts, told the Kansas City Star that he wasn’t in favor of Mexican ownership in the league because he was under the impression that MLS was for developing American players.

“Before the year 2010, we’ll have a Celtic in Boston, we’ll have a Real Miami, we’ll have a Manchester Seattle,” Wynalda said. “You watch, and it won’t be ours anymore if we’re not careful. It sets a bad precedent.”

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Trivia time: San Diego Charger quarterback Philip Rivers, the fourth pick in April’s draft, recently agreed to a six-year deal worth about $40.5 million, leaving only one 2004 draft pick unsigned. Who is the holdout?

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Get the floaties: Mexico has only three Olympic medals so far this year, all silver, after having won six in 2000. That has caused some concern in that country, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.

The paper quoted the head of Mexico’s national sports commission calling its Olympic performance “a fiasco,” and also cited a Mexico City newspaper columnist who wrote, “At this point in the Olympics, my greatest hope is that none of our swimmers drown.”

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Pucker up: Tina Thompson, the second-leading scorer for the U.S. women’s basketball team in the Olympics, not only wants to play well but also wants to look good doing it.

The last thing she does before each game is apply maroon lipstick. She said the tradition began when she accidentally left her lipstick on before a game as a USC freshman in 1993.

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Sun drained: Beach volleyball may have created a buzz at the Olympics, but David Hops of London’s Guardian newspaper doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.

He called beach volleyball “the biggest con in town,” and noted that whereas “the Olympics were traditionally about faster, fitter, stronger ... in women’s beach volleyball, it was all about browner, scantier, skimpier.”

The men’s game is worse, he wrote.

“For a man, beach volleyball is what you do between hangovers. It is the sport for men who can’t windsurf.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1982, Rickey Henderson of Oakland broke Lou Brock’s 1974 record of 118 stolen bases in a season.

Henderson stole four bases in the Athletics’ 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, giving him 122 thefts in 127 games.

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Trivia answer: Safety Bob Sanders, a second-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts.

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And finally: Reader Joseph Brummell of Long Beach thought he was having deja vu all over again while watching the telecast of the Angel-Kansas City Royal game Tuesday night.

When Scot Shields struck out a Royal batter looking, color commentator Rex Hudler came up with the type of pearl that made Yogi Berra famous: “He got him looking for something he wasn’t looking for,” Hudler said.