Journeyman

Perhaps 32-year-old Galaxy winger Christian Wilhelmsson hasn't seen it all in soccer. But he has come close. The journeyman Swede has played professionally in nine countries during his 15-year career. That includes stints in England, Spain and Italy - arguably the three best leagues in the world. He joined the Galaxy in September from Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal after wrapping up his third season for the Riyadh-based team. Wilhelmsson, preparing for the Galaxy's MLS knockout playoff game against Vancouver on Thursday, said he was pleasantly surprised by the quality of play he encountered in the Middle East.

Jeff Fischer doesn't have a vineyard or a winery. He has no formal training and zero employees. Yet in a short time he's managed to land his small-batch Habit wines in nearly 50 of L.A.'s top restaurants, including the Chateau Marmont, Spago, AOC, Ink, the Hungry Cat, Providence, Hatfield's and Bäco Mercat. "He's on the fast track, and it's kind of crazy," says Caroline Styne of AOC and Tavern, who was the first sommelier to champion Fischer's wines, even writing about them on her popular wine blog, Styne on Wine.

George Foreman, former heavyweight boxing champion, will continue his comeback with a scheduled 10-round fight in Phoenix tonight against journeyman Bert Cooper.

Perhaps 32-year-old Galaxy winger Christian Wilhelmsson hasn't seen it all in soccer. But he has come close. The journeyman Swede has played professionally in nine countries during his 15-year career. That includes stints in England, Spain and Italy - arguably the three best leagues in the world. He joined the Galaxy in September from Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal after wrapping up his third season for the Riyadh-based team. Wilhelmsson, preparing for the Galaxy's MLS knockout playoff game against Vancouver on Thursday, said he was pleasantly surprised by the quality of play he encountered in the Middle East.

It seems to me that UCLA would have a better team without Don MacLean, given his churlish behavior and inept defense. It's too bad that he can't flee to his inevitable journeyman role in the NBA before the NCAA tournament, rather than afterward. LLOYD KIFF Encino

Open letter to the networks: Have you guys run out of actors and actresses? Is that why there are so many insipid reality shows on TV? Amateurs singing and dancing in prime time? Have the writers run out of ideas? It amazes me that a good show like "Journeyman" was canceled, while all these stupid reality shows crop up like mushrooms. I'm still lamenting the cancellation of "Invasion," which I thought was terrific. The same with "Surface." Both were imaginative and thought-provoking, probably the reason they were canceled, leaving viewers to wonder what happened to characters they had come to care about.

Taking a page out of Grimm's Fairy Tales, a journeyman Celtic bench-warmer becomes the hero of Game 3 because he is an expert at holding, pushing and wrestling. The only reason Mr. Kite looked so good is that the invincible Lakers dogged it all the way and no amount of excuses can alter that fact. BILL RETCHIN La Quinta

In your article concerning the California Supreme Court (Sept. 8), you quoted "a liberal former Supreme Court justice," in attempting to denigrate the current court, as saying: "They are what we call journeyman judges. They do a good job, write the opinions in an understandable way, and I don't know we have the right to expect much more." Thank you, sir, I couldn't have complimented the court any better. DENNIS ERKEL Burbank

Tom Kane hates the ads for Mercedes-Benz. It's not the car. It's Jon Hamm. Mercedes uses the "Mad Men" star as the voice of its television and radio commercials. "Even if it is a terrific spot - which it isn't - people don't have a clue who that is," grumbled Kane, a professional voice actor who's done animation, movie trailers and commercials for two decades. QUIZ: Who's that voice? As brand-name advertisers fight for attention in a cluttered media landscape, they are turning increasingly to celebrities such as Robert Downey Jr. (Nissan)

"RAISED ON RADIO." Journey. Columbia. The first Journey album since 1983's multi-platinum "Frontiers" is safe as milk--nothing on it cuts even skin-deep. The writing, playing and production are predictably slick and contemporary, but also predictably empty. From the opening "Girl Can't Help It" ( not the Little Richard classic) through the closing "Why Can't the Night," there is nary a lick nor lyric that could possibly be construed as a challenge to either listener or performer.

"The Last Fall" is a modest, well-performed drama that asks, "What happens when a professional football player can no longer play football?" If, like the film's Kyle Bishop (a solid Lance Gross), he's a young, less-sought-after athlete short on savings, direction or career options, the situation can prove particularly crushing. But as they say, you can go home again, which is what Kyle, an undrafted free agent, does after being cut from his most recent team. Kyle's return to L.A., however, is a mixed bag: His divorced mother (Vanessa Bell Calloway)

PHILADELPHIA - Elian Herrera stepped into the batter's box to face Cliff Lee and the hostile crowd behind him. The fans at Citizens Bank Park smelled blood. More than 40,000 were on their feet and screaming. But Herrera was smiling inside. "Thank you, God, for this moment," he said. Seven pitches into the eighth-inning at-bat, Herrera drove a ball off the left-field wall for a two-out, two-run double that reversed a one-run deficit, lifting the Dodgers to a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.

The Dodgers signed left-hander Chris Capuano to a two-year deal Friday, giving him a place in the starting rotation and all but eliminating the possibility that they would bring back Hiroki Kuroda. Capuano, 33, was 11-12 with a 4.55 earned-run average for the New York Mets last season. His contract is guaranteed for $10 million, of which he will be paid $3 million next year and $6 million in 2013. The deal includes an $8 million mutual option for 2014 that the Dodgers can buy out for $1 million.

Reporting from Salt Lake City -- It is five hours before game time and Spring Mobile Ballpark, the picturesque home of the minor league Salt Lake Bees, is empty except for two figures on the field. Reggie Willits, wearing a gray T-shirt and black athletic shorts with No. 7 on one thigh, is at the plate, bat in hand, honing his craft with a hitting coach. For Willits, 30, an outfielder unassuming in character and undersized at 5 feet 9 and 185 pounds, this does not involve slugging baseballs over the fence; in 414 major league games, he has never hit a home run. Instead, he spends 45 minutes bunting balls toward third base and first, polishing one of the fundamental skills he used to carve out a niche as a valued Angels reserve from 2007 until this past June.

The anger of a day earlier was long gone in Tiger Woods by the time the final holes played out. Only resignation. And maybe an eagerness to just move on after a lost 2011 PGA Tour season was unceremoniously put to rest with an early exit from the PGA Championship. "It's a step backward in the sense that I didn't make the cut," Woods said after Friday's three-over-par 73 left him with an idle weekend for only the third time as a pro in a major championship. "But it's a giant leap forward in the fact that I played two straight weeks healthy.

Rocky Bridges never took himself too seriously. A major league journeyman, minor league manager and major league coach, he joked that he didn't like the national anthem because every time he heard it, he had a bad day. In truth, every day in baseball was a great day for Everett Lamar Bridges, whose infectious enthusiasm and proclivity for making people laugh superseded his playing ability. "I had fun playing baseball," he says. "Many of the players now, I'm not sure they have fun playing the game.

The Padres signed catcher Ronn Reynolds Friday to a one-year contract that will pay him $68,000 or the major league minimum if he makes the major league roster. Reynolds, who last played in the Milwaukee Brewer organization and also spent time in the majors with the Astros, Phillies and Mets, is among six non-roster players who have been invited to camp.

Call Rick Brunson a journeyman and he won't mind. He's proud of it. Undrafted out of Temple, the 6-foot-4 point guard and would-be Clipper has lasted seven seasons in the NBA, playing for five teams, including two stints each with the Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks. "To me, this is more gratifying than if I'd been drafted," he said. "This is my eighth year. I've never had a guaranteed contract -- ever. Played seven full years on non-guaranteeds, making the team.

After Thursday's practice, Chivas USA midfielder Nick LaBrocca trudged toward the stairs, sweating from a session that ran abnormally long. But before he could escape to the parking lot, a public relations director snatched him up. LaBrocca's morning was far from over. He had multiple reporters waiting to talk to him, and a radio spot to do after that. It's a change of pace for the journeyman turned All-Star prospect, who stopped short of admitting he's on a hot streak. LaBrocca has scored three goals in three games, and three of his team's four goals this month.

One of baseball's titanic institutions was bankrupt. Journeyman Trent Oeltjen nearly hit for the cycle. Rail-thin Dee Gordon hit for power. What was happening here? Monday might have been the oddest day of an already-strange season for the Dodgers, as their historic Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing was followed by an unprecedented outburst by their lineup in a 15-0 mauling of the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. What the Dodgers did on the field was more than a season first.