The 49ers aren’t fooling around in the free-agent marketplace.

At the behest of new offensive coordinator Mike Martz, the 49ers lured wide receiver Isaac Bruce back to the West Coast with a two-year, $6 million offer. With Mad Mike and Rev. Ike reunited in San Francisco, the Rams-Niners rivalry regains its juice.

San Francisco landed defensive end Justin Smith, the former Mizzou star, with a $45 million deal – which includes a whopping $20 million in guaranteed cash.

“The contract offer was just part of an all-out blitz to keep Smith from leaving town, a courtship that included a helicopter ride over San Francisco attractions such as Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge,” the San Jose Mercury-News reported.

It worked. Smith canceled trips to Minnesota and Jacksonville and signed the deal. “I just felt right,” Smith told reporters during a conference call. “The city felt right, the situation, mainly, felt right. So I figured, why go on another visit if you’re going to be right back here.”

Fair enough. The team also added cornerback/returner Allen Rossum, halfback DeShaun Foster, quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan and linebacker Dontarrious Thomas shortly after the marketplace opened.

As for the Rams, well, they have shored up their kicking game. So there is that.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while waiting for somebody, anybody, to relocate their scoring touch for the Blues:

• Now that Bernard Berrian is a $42 million receiver, will he do something about those hands?
• And if Berrian can command $42 million, what is a fair price to pay Randy Moss?
• Who could have possibly guessed Jason Marquis would aggravate Lou Piniella in Chicago?
• Can Cardinal Nation rest easier about its pitching now that old friend Sidney Ponson is stopping by for a visit?

A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES

The Chicago Tribune notes that Randy Johnson skipped several Diamondbacks flights last season because of chronic back problems. But the Big Unit did feel good enough to take a private jet to and from New York to see an Eric Clapton-Steve Winwood concert.

“It hasn’t affected anything here,” Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. “I wish he would have let me know, I would have gone with him.”

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Donald Fehr has rejected any kind of blood testing of baseball players, citing invasion-of-privacy issues. Right. Fehr’s union members, scratching and adjusting themselves on national TV, are all about privacy.”

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “All those high-priced attorneys, all the congressional questioning, all the pages and pages in the voluminous Mitchell Report, and the great Roger Clemens could be brought down by a little kid and his camera. Hey, Rog, say cheese.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “The Tampa Bay Rays have discussed possibly signing Barry Bonds. Because, evidently, finishing in last place every year isn’t embarrassing enough.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Did you see Bob Knight is joining ESPN as a studio analyst? Obviously, the network is doing everything it can to keep its stranglehold on college basketball.”

Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN.com: “The good news is that Sam Zell is selling the Chicago Cubs. Believe me, you don’t want this goober within a foul pole of a major league baseball team. He’d be the first owner to insist on 12-man rosters and that the clubhouses go condo. Anything to save or make a buck. The bad news is that Sam Zell is selling Wrigley Field as a separate asset, but not before he also might sell the naming rights to baseball’s second-oldest ballpark.”

Mike Lupica, New York Daily News: “Tony La Russa still doesn’t believe Mark McGwire took anything and it makes you think that La Russa also still believes that George Bush won Florida in 2000.”

Bob Molinaro, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: “ESPN’s scrolling scores of MLB spring-training games might appeal to hardcore seamheads, but they just remind me that it’s almost time to sharpen the blades on my lawn mower.”

MEGAPHONE

“I’m not happy about it at all. The fact I’ve had to be renewed two years in a row, I’m not happy about it because there’s a lot of guys who have the same amount of time that I do who have done a lot less and are getting paid a lot more. But my time is going to come. It’s going to come quick, too.”

Brewers slugger Prince Fielder, campaigning in the Milwaukee media for a long-term deal.