Clemens’ Trade Rings Hollow With Ex-Yankee

After going 18-4 last year, with a perfect game, David Wells was traded by the New York Yankees to Toronto so the Yankees could get Roger Clemens. Wells has a few words on the subject in Playboy:

“He’s not the savior, I’ll guarantee that. He’s not a team player, he’s an individualist. He’s a desperate man now, dying to win a championship.

“Two years ago, he said he didn’t even like New York, he wanted his family to be in a better place. That was a slap in the face to New York.

“Well, Roger Clemens is going to go into the Hall of Fame, but he’s going to go in empty, without a ring.”

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Trivia time: Pinehurst No. 2, the site of next week’s U.S. Open golf tournament, has traditionally been listed among the top five courses in the country. How many times has it played host to the Open?

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Movie critic: Bernie Lincicome in the Chicago Tribune: “The new ‘Star Wars’ is so bad Dennis Rodman would have made it better.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1978, Nancy Lopez shot a record 13 under par to win the LPGA championship by six strokes over Amy Alcott.

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Perfect spot: Jose Canseco is reveling in his role as designated hitter with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“If I played all of my career in the outfield, I’d have 500 homers and 600 errors,” he said.

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Name game: How many soccer fans can identify Wanderley Luxemburgo?

He is the coach of Brazil’s national team.

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Belle market: Albert Belle, the silent Baltimore Oriole slugger, is offering financial advice on his Athlete Direct Web site.

ESPN producer Geoff Reiss is not impressed.

“I’m not sure that Albert Belle would be the person I’d be going to for financial advice,” he said. “I’m not about to go to Kramer from ‘Seinfeld’ to learn how to hit a curveball.”

Belle, who won’t talk with reporters about baseball, also won’t talk about his Web site offerings.

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First things first: When NBC’s Hannah Storm introduced basketball legend Bill Russell on a TV show recently, she said, “We have with us Hall of Famer Bill Russell.”

To which he said, “No, Hannah, make that Boston Celtic Bill Russell.”

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New NBA tune: The play of Karl Malone in the NBA playoffs caught the attention of the New York Post’s Peter Vecsey, who wrote:

“In view of his past playoff performances--missed free throws, ball being stolen by Michael Jordan--no wonder kids in the playground are humming, ‘I don’t wanna be like Karl.’ ”

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Promoter too: Tiger Woods will play in the “Showdown at Sherwood” with David Duval on Aug. 2 at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

He is also said to be planning another venture that may become known as “The Rumble at Rio Secco.” It will be an end-of-the-year tournament at Rio Secco Golf Club in Las Vegas, featuring the top 10 players and two wild-card picks by Woods to compete for a purse that is said to be in excess of $2 million.

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What price fame: Mississippi’s Department of Economic and Community Development boasted, “There are courses in the area credited to that famous designer and architect Jack Nicholas.”

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Trivia answer: Never. The PGA was played there in 1936.

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And finally: If you wonder why it’s so difficult to get a starting time at your favorite course, the National Golf Foundation may have the answer.

Nearly 3 million people took up the game last year, about 40% of them women. That’s up from the 2 million-a-year average for the last 10 years.