Vaughn Isn’t Going to Sing Mo Bitter Blues

Mo Vaughn hasn’t forgotten his old Boston Red Sox teammate, Roger Clemens.

When Clemens won his 20th game for the Toronto Blue Jays, Vaughn told Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe:

“I was looking at the scoreboard the whole game. That’s great for the Rocket Man. Shoot, we could use 20 wins right now. People can say what they want, but the man is 20-4 with a 1-something ERA, headed for the Cy Young.

“Whenever he pitches, I’m looking at the scoreboard.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for home runs in one season in organized baseball?

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Shock treatment: When New York Yankee Manager Joe Torre called on infielder Wade Boggs to pitch an inning against the Angels, Yankee coach Don Zimmer was at a nearby hospital picking up some medication.

“If he looked up and saw Boggs pitching,” Torre said of Zimmer, “he probably thought he was hallucinating.”

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Pocket change: Two-time NFL most valuable player Brett Favre will donate $250 to the University of Southern Mississippi every time he throws a touchdown pass this season.

Favre, who recently signed a seven-year contract extension with the Green Bay Packers worth more than $42 million, passed for an NFC-record 39 touchdowns last season.

For those of you scoring at home, that would have been worth $9,250.

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No 3Com there: The Packers turned down a $750,000 offer to have commercial names on their practice fields. Instead, they are Clarke Hinkle Field and Ray Nitschke Field.

“You’ve got to have some purity in life,” Packer President Bob Harlan said. “The tradition was more important than money in this instance. This kind of goes with Lombardi Avenue, Lambeau Field and the Don Hutson Center. I think it just kind of adds to the aura of this place.”

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Early lesson: When the NFL sent questionnaires to its 11 new coaches, asking what was the best advice they were given by a former coach, the New York Giants’ Jim Fassel recalled something told him by Hal Sherbeck, for whom he played at Fullerton College:

“Don’t rate potential over performance.”

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Price of success: Randy Moss, the record-setting wide receiver for Division I-AA champion Marshall, isn’t so sure he welcomes all the publicity he has received with Marshall moving up to Division I-A this season.

“Since my name has been in the limelight, people are going to be out to shoot to kill,” he said. “Teams now know that in order to stop Marshall . . . [they must] double-cover Moss.”

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Trivia answer: Outfielder Joe Baumann, who hit 72 home runs in 1954 for Roswell, N.M., of the Longhorn League. Baumann, who also hit .400, never made it to the major leagues.

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And finally: Detroit Tiger pitcher Todd Jones recently was given a contract extension for $2.25-million in 1998 and $2.95 million in 1999.

Jones reaction: “Am I worth it? No. Is anybody?”