A whole new ball game

New York — Bob Dylan will tour minor-league ballparks across the country this summer, beginning Aug. 6 in Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Willie Nelson and The Hot Club of Cowtown will join Dylan on the 22-date concert tour, which is scheduled to run through Sept. 4, Columbia Records announced .

“What we aim to do with this tour is hit the ball out of the park, touch all the bases and get home safely,” Dylan said in a statement.

The Bob Dylan Show will conclude Sept. 4 at Community America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kan. Tickets go on sale July 10 at all Ticketmaster outlets.

On Wednesday, Dylan received an honorary doctor of music degree from Scotland’s oldest university, the University of St. Andrews.

Sexiest newscaster sought

New York — Many words come to mind when describing Andy Rooney. Opinionated. Cranky. Curmudgeonly.

Sexy? Perhaps.

The 85-year-old “60 Minutes” commentator is among the candidates on Playgirl magazine’s online ballot for sexiest TV newscaster.

Among the 18 men on the list: CNN’s Bill Hemmer, MSNBC’s Lester Holt and Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith. The “big three” network anchors — Peter Jennings from ABC, Dan Rather from CBS and Tom Brokaw from NBC — also are on the ballot.

Voters can click onto www.playgirlmag.com. The winner will be announced in September and profiled in the magazine’s October issue — with his clothes on. Playgirl also will make a contribution to a charity of the winner’s choice.

Clapton sets charity auction

St. John’s, Antigua — Eric Clapton will auction off 56 of his guitars today in New York to raise money for a new drug treatment center in Antigua and Barbuda, a manager of his center said.

Proceeds from the auction at Christie’s will go toward the recently completed 16-bed Bevon House, a center for recovering patients that is an expansion of Clapton’s Crossroads Center, said Kim Martin, the center’s marketing manager.

Clapton, who overcame his own heroin addiction years ago, underwrote the Crossroads Center, which opened in 1998 in the Caribbean country where the guitarist has a home.

According to Martin, the rock star described the guitars up for auction as “the cream of my collection.”

‘Jeopardy!’ winner sets record

Salt Lake City — A Utah man is the new “Jeopardy!” king, having pocketed more than a half-million dollars during a dominating 16-show run on the quiz show.

Ken Jennings was seen on his 16th straight “Jeopardy!” episode Wednesday, winning once again to bring his total winnings to $512,959.

The 30-year-old software engineer broke the “Jeopardy!” record early in his run. Tom Walsh, of Washington, D.C., held the previous mark, earning $184,900 in seven days on the show in January.

“Jeopardy!” recently dropped a restriction limiting champions to only five days on the show. The value of the questions are also worth double what they used to be.