He was always money
In honor of his last appearance as a professional golfer in the British Open, Jack Nicklaus will be featured on a five-pound note issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
He is only the third living person to have an image on the bank’s five-pound note, joining the Queen Mother and the Queen of England.
Nicklaus, on HBO’s “Costas Now,” said it was a pretty nice compliment. But he wondered about “people walking into a pub and saying, ‘Hey, give me four beers and hand me a Jack Nicklaus.’ “
Comedian Alex Kaseberg, in an e-mail, said, “In a related story, they are going to put John Daly on the 336-pound note.”
Dad drops the ball – twice
Rob Marchese, 41, of Queens, had been attending Yankee games for more than 30 years, and had caught only one ball, a foul, before Thursday night.
That night, sitting on a folding chair in the first row of the right-field stands, he got two chances in the Yankees’ 7-2 victory over Cleveland, one inning apart. And he muffed both.
He missed Alex Rodriguez’s two-run homer in the first and then Jason Giambi’s solo shot in the second.
Marchese said, “My son is going to kill me because I’m always telling him to keep his eye on the ball. He’s 9 years old and plays Little League.”
On his best behavior
Bernard Hopkins, profiled on tonight’s edition of “Beyond the Glory” on FSN, talks about doing time for armed robbery in Philadelphia’s Graterford Penitentiary in the early 1980s.
“I wasn’t near the baddest guy in Graterford out of 3,000-4,000 inmates,” Hopkins says. “Compared to the guys that were in there, I was a church mouse.”
Also from Hopkins: “Never cry. It’s a sign of weakness. You can’t cry in jail. There’s no crying in baseball and there’s damn sure no crying in the penitentiary.”
How does she figure?
In honor of the Fourth of July, SI.com named 25 “American Revolutionary Athletes” who changed sports. At the top of the list, in order, are Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Billie Jean King, Babe Ruth and Arthur Ashe. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are an entry at No. 20.
Oddly enough, the Los Angeles Times observed, Tonya Harding didn’t make the list. Apparently, the folks at SI.com haven’t seen Harding’s Web site, which declares: “For good or bad, Tonya Harding has been the most influential person in figure skating history, and in all sports history, second only to Mohammad (sic) Ali.”
Way cool
Skateboarder Danny Way rolled down a massive ramp at nearly 50 mph and jumped across the Great Wall of China on Saturday, becoming the first person to clear the wall without motorized aid.
Way botched the landing on his first attempt but then successfully completed the jump across the 61-foot gap four times, adding 360 degree spins on his last three tries, according to sponsor Quiksilver Inc.
Way made the jump on an adaptation of the so-called mega ramp, a gigantic structure that he helped create near his home in the Southern California desert.
A desperate housewife
The lockout of NHL players appears near an end – just in time for at least one hockey wife. Kerry-Anne Walz, who is married to Minnesota Wild center Wes Walz, told the Hockey News:
“I want to say the last year was great, and that it was fantastic having Wes home every day, but it wasn’t. In the beginning, when it was rough, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, do I really want him home with me all the time? I might have to go and find a job myself.’ “
Hot topic
Former boxing great Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, 46, said he plans a comeback, explaining to the Detroit News, “There’s a lot of fire built up inside of me.”
Wrote Bernard Fernandez in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “I would tell Tommy, who was one of the most exciting fighters ever, that the fire is probably heartburn and he should pop a couple of antacid tablets and lie down with a damp washcloth across his forehead.”