Hey, Let’s Take Another Look and See if We Like the Place

The experience for a team of teen-age baseball players from Venezuela while in Davie, Fla., for a tournament: travel, sports, naked people. And not necessarily in that order.

For the second year in a row, the 14- and 15-year-olds are staying at the Seminole Health Club, a nudist camp. It was more out of necessity in 1994, when the team’s original lodging reservations fell through and every other hotel in the area was booked, prompting a member of the colony who works for the tournament host to arrange for free housing. This year, the Venezuelans came back for a deal at $8.50 a night per boy, including three meals a day.

“When the bus would pull into the camp each day, someone on one side of the bus would yell, ‘There’s one!’ and everyone would lunge toward that side of the bus,” said one player, Carlos Lovera. “And then, ‘There’s another one!’ and we’d all end up on the other side of the bus.”

Is this what they mean about the naked truth in sports?

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Add skins game: The parents of the 15 players, some of whom are chaperons, don’t seem too fazed by the surroundings.

“Hey, I was a little concerned last year,” said Mary Busato, who made both trips. “He’s my son, and being around--well, you know--had me worried. But everyone here is really nice, and no one is doing anything.”

Lovera’s father, also named Carlos, stayed at a hotel last year. This year, he’s a chaperon.

“Someone has to do it,” he explained.

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Trivia time: Which member of the Laker front office is a former baseball player who was in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ dugout when the New York Giants’ Bobby Thomson hit the shot heard ‘round the world in 1951?

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Revving up the attitudes: At the recent PPG Indy Car race in Cleveland, Robby Gordon dueled with his fellow drivers on the Lakefront Airport course. Some more than others.

He touched wheels with eventual winner Jacques Villeneuve fighting for position in a turn. He slammed into the side of Michael Andretti’s car in a cool-down lap at the end of the race as pay-back for Andretti having clipped the rear wheels of Gordon’s car.

“If he wants to race like that, he should go back to Baja racing,” Villeneuve said. “Something should be done about that. Of course, I’m going to have a word with him and tell him he’s a total idiot.”

Of course.

“Jacques is too small to say that to my face,” Gordon replied, “and you can quote me on that. . . . Everybody thinks Jacques Villeneuve is golden right now, and he’s not that special.”

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Road sweet road: Think John Stockton of the Utah Jazz keeps winning the NBA assist title every year because of hometown scoring? Last season, he averaged 12 assists a game at the Delta Center and 12.7 on the road.

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Trivia answer: Bill Sharman, who never appeared in a major league game.

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Quotebook: The Good Doctor question-and-answer column in Inside Sports, when asked for the real reason security has been tightened at the White House: “They’re afraid the University of Miami will win the national title and come visit.”