Josh Hamilton woke up the day after his prodigious performance in the All-Star Home Run Derby and turned on the TV in his hotel room in midtown Manhattan and found the end of the movie “The Natural” playing.

Just then he received a visitor. It was time for a random drug test.

“Right when (Robert Redford's character, Roy Hobbs ) was about to hit the home run, the (urine) guy came in,” Hamilton told The Associated Press yesterday. “I said, 'Hold on. I've got to watch this.' ”

TRIVIA TIME

On today's date in 1985, he became the first manager to lose an All-Star Game in both leagues when his AL squad was whupped 6-1 by the NL. Name him.

A GRISLY WAY WITH WORDS

The Fresno Grizzlies, the Giants' Triple-A team, are holding Second Amendment Night on Friday at their ballyard.

The club will celebrate the right “to bear arms” by giving away 500 foam bear claws, and the right “to bare arms” by offering a ticket-price discount to anyone who shows up at the box office in a sleeveless shirt, reports Benjamin Hill of milb.com.

THE FRENCH CHEF

Tour de France chef Willy Balmat says he enjoyed cooking for banned rider Alexandre Vinokourov, but not for seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong.

Balmat has cooked for Tour teams for more than 20 years, which has meant preparing well-balanced meals for some, and gourmet dishes for others.

“It was easier with Vinokourov. He appreciated good cooking, especially when I prepared a deer's liver flambeed with cognac,” Balmat told the sports daily L'Equipe.

As for Armstrong, “he was incredibly demanding” and “left nothing to chance,” said Balmat, who cooked for Armstrong when he was with the Motorola team (1992-96). “It was not easy with Armstrong,” Balmat said. “Actually, he was annoying.”

DRIVING AT THE BRITISH

Golfer Jim Furyk, Over There for this week's British Open, said he doesn't mind driving on the left side of the road, but he's still trying to figure out the car-rental business in Britain.

“Renting a car here could be the most difficult thing of the entire trip,” Furyk told AP. “It sounds like it's going to cost like 200 to 300 pounds, and by the time you're done it's like half the mortgage on your house. And then you get a call like six months later that you still owe them money.

“I try to avoid renting cars at all costs over here.”

IS IT AT LEAST A WEST EXIT?

The Great West Conference, growing from a football-only league, last week added six schools, including New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, AP reports.

PARTING SHOT

Columnist Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Ind.), on the Dodgers ending their 61-year spring training relationship with Vero Beach, Fla.:

“Local residents mourned the news by leaving their turn signals on all day and going to a 4:30 p.m. dinner buffet.”

TRIVIA ANSWER

Sparky Anderson.

– COMPILED BY BILL SUDA FROM NEWS SERVICES AND ONLINE REPORTS