It’s Amazin’ That Piazza Made This List

The New York Mets’ celebrated the 10 greatest moments in club history Sunday in pregame festivities. Among the former Mets on hand were Tom Seaver, Tug McGraw, Sid Fernandez, Lenny Dykstra, Bobby Ojeda and Willie Mays.

Current Mets Robin Ventura and Mike Piazza were honored too--Ventura for his winning hit in Game 5 of last year’s National League championship series.

And Piazza? His trade to the Mets in 1998 was listed as one of the 10 greatest moments.

“I was very flattered but a little embarrassed,” Piazza said.

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Trivia time: Nine times in NBA history a player has scored 70 points or more in a game. Wilt Chamberlain did it six times. Which three other players did it?

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Really lame: In the July 24 issue of Sports Illustrated, NASCAR did a 10-page advertising section on this weekend’s Brickyard 500. Nowhere in those 10 pages was it mentioned that qualifying and the race would be televised by lame-duck networks ESPN and ABC.

The omission could have been unintentional, but some wonder if it had anything to do with NASCAR having a new deal with Fox, NBC and Turner that takes effect next year.

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Good guy: Roy Jones Jr. says he will donate a portion of his purse for each pay-per-view buy for his TVKO fight against Eric Harding on Sept. 9 to Global Village, an organization endorsed by Muhammad Ali that helps feed children around the world.

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Online polls: Dennis Miller fared pretty well in an ESPN.com poll. Of 178,781 who participated, 15.8% gave him an A, 38.1% a B and only 11.3% an F for his debut on “Monday Night Football.”

He didn’t do as well on America Online. With more than 70,000 responding, 16.1% touted Miller as outstanding, 29.6% as fine, 28.3% as OK and 25.9% as bad.

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Racing nut: NASCAR driver Tony Stewart’s involvement in racing isn’t limited to cars. He’s also involved with greyhounds. He invested $45,000 in a West Palm Beach venture that trains, races and finds retirement homes for the dogs.

Stewart once had a racehorse too.

“I’m sure it’s glue now,” he says.

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Short memory: Howie Long, the former Raider who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last Saturday, told the Boston Globe that as a freshman at Boston’s Charlestown High he skipped school 45 days. Other published estimates have ranged from 40 to 60 days.

Says Long: “It’s like trying to figure out how many billions Bill Gates has.”

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Bad TV: Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel made this observation after watching Monday’s San Francisco 49er-New England Patriot game and then the GOP convention: “Both events were meaningless.”

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Costly clothing: Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle on Bobby Valentine’s winning $2,000 bid on eBay for his 1969 rookie Dodger uniform: “Wow, $2,000 just to buy back your old clothes.”

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Good excuse: Bill Scheft of ESPN the Magazine, on Kobe Bryant’s rejection of a spot on the U.S. Olympic team going to Sydney: “He’d be away for two weeks and couldn’t get a sitter for his fiancee.”

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Trivia answer: David Thompson, 73 in 1978; Elgin Baylor, 71 in 1960, and David Robinson, 71 in 1994. Michael Jordan’s high game was 69 in 1990.

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And finally: Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel notes that the Cleveland Browns are adding a large restroom in their stadium for the Dawg Pound:

“As I understand it, there will be 50 stalls and 25 fire hydrants.”