Bengals Have Really Sharpened Their Clause

Tired of being criticized by everyone, the Cincinnati Bengals have put a “loyalty” clause in contracts, forbidding their players from joining in, on pain of forfeiting the unpaid portions of their signing bonuses.

In Cincinnati, they’re also calling it “the Carl Pickens clause,” named for the star receiver who blasted the organization and is expected to be traded.

Had Pickens’ contract included the Pickens clause, he would have lost $2.8 million of his $3.5-million signing bonus.

“It isn’t a device to restrict normal discourse between players and the media,” said team President Mike Brown. “It’s aimed at deterring what we consider way-out behavior by a player who is trying to force the club’s hand with outrageous comments.”

Said player agent Wesley Spencer, “If it is upheld in Cincinnati, then everyone may come on to that. But it’s interesting [that] Cincinnati is the only one doing this. You have to wonder, what is so wrong there that they have to do this?”

Try nine consecutive losing seasons and a 43-101 record over that span.

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Trivia time: Who was the youngest player to win a major league batting title?

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Modern marvel: Matt Muehlebach says he’s the first agent to have used a CD-ROM to promote his client, Eduardo Najera of Oklahoma, before the NBA draft.

Included were action clips, interviews with coaches and teammates and links to articles about Najera.

“We sent one out to every single team in the NBA,” Muehlebach told the Arizona Daily Star. “We’re hoping this type of thing helps with the promotion of him.”

Najera went in the second round, the 38th pick overall, to Houston.

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Hard nose: Frustrated by his team’s swoon, Cleveland Indian Manager Charlie Manuel barred pingpong and card games in the clubhouse and took out a leather couch players used to sleep on.

Of course, that stuff all came in a few years ago, when the Indians were winning division titles. Albert Belle brought the pingpong table. There were tournaments and player rankings. Rap music blared. Carlos Baerga went home by limo.

“I didn’t like some of that stuff back then,” Manuel told the Akron Beacon-Journal’s Terry Pluto. “But I was just a coach and we were winning. And when you have a guy hitting 45 or 50 homers and about six guys hitting .300 and you’re in front by 10 or 15 games . . .”

In one game last week, you had to go five hitters into the Indian lineup before you got to one hitting better than .270.

On the other hand, Manuel didn’t have the clubhouse big-screen TV carted out.

“That stays,” said the manager.

The players say they learned their lesson. Asked Russell Branyan after hitting two home runs in a 15-7 victory over Toronto two days after Manuel’s edict:

“Can we get our couch back now?”

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Trivia answer: Detroit’s Al Kaline, who was 20 when he won in 1955.

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And finally: “Entertainment Tonight’s” Julie Moran reported Dunknet.com threw a party for Shaquille O’Neal at the local Planet Hollywood, where O’Neal issued this warning to former restaurant co-owner Arnold Schwarzenegger:

“I heard Arnold was doing ‘Terminator III’ and if he doesn’t call me for ‘Terminator III,’ I’m going to beat his rear end in real life. All right, Arnold? So, you better call me for ‘Terminator III.’ ”