He’s in No Danger of Being Called Objective

Seve Ballesteros, a three-time British Open winner and two-time Masters winner, was clear in an interview in Sunday’s London Telegraph:

“A lot of people think Tiger Woods is the best player of all time

“Nicklaus beat everybody. Tiger hasn’t beaten anybody.”

Ernie Els, David Duval and Phil Mickelson, to name a few of today’s best golfers, are in the “anybody” category, Seve.

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Trivia time: Who holds the Pacific 10 Conference men’s basketball record for the highest free-throw percentage in a game with a minimum of 10 attempts?

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Go figure: Steve Hummer in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Let’s see if I have this straight: Mike Tyson can get a license to drive, risking road rage at every turn. He can get a license to marry, even though he’s a convicted rapist.

“But he can’t get a license to do the only thing anyone wants to see him do--get jabbed into next week by Lennox Lewis?”

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Ho, ho, ho: Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated writes that, two hours before Sarah Hughes won the 2002 Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating, she made a cell-phone call to her brother, Matt, to ask him to tell her a joke to calm her down.

Reilly says Matt said: “Grasshopper walks into a bar. Bartender says, ‘Hey, we’ve got a drink named after you.’ And the grasshopper says, ‘You’ve got a drink named Irving?’”

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Mind blower: Digger Phelps, former Notre Dame basketball coach and now an analyst for ESPN, commenting on Bob Knight’s 21-7 regular-season record at Texas Tech in USA Today: “[He] is a genius. Mozart was different at times. Van Gogh was different at times. And Knight was different at times.

“But what he has done this year blows me out of my mind.”

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No Surprise Dept.: From Peter May in the Boston Globe:

“Portland’s Paul Allen is the NBA’s wealthiest owner, according to Forbes’ latest list of the world’s billionaires. There were 455 fortunate souls on that list, including at least nine with NBA ties. Allen was listed at No. 4 with a net worth estimated at $25.2 billion.

“(In other words, the luxury tax doesn’t bother him).”

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Good riddance: From comedy writer Jerry Perisho: “ABC’s new game show ‘The Chair’ has been temporarily pulled from the network’s schedule due to very poor ratings.

“I’m not at all surprised. Watching John McEnroe trying to emcee that show was about as exciting as watching an old wooden racket getting restrung.”

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Trivia answer: John Block of USC, 1.000, 21 of 21 against Washington on Feb. 11, 1966.

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And finally: In his upcoming book “Barry Bonds: Baseball’s Superman,” Bay Area writer Steve Travers mentions some interesting athletes, one of them former big league pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee, who says: “I live on Rural Route 1 in Vermont. The state came to me and told me they were naming the roads, and I could name mine.

“I told ‘em I didn’t want to name it because I didn’t want anyone to know where I live. They said, ‘You name it, or we’ll name if for you.’ I told them to call it the Ted Kaczynski Memorial Highway.”

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Mal Florence