NEW YORK -- David Wells' personal trainer testified Wednesday that a man taunted the player about ordering an egg-white omelet before punching Wells at a Manhattan diner.

Trainer Scott Yeckinevich testified that after he and Wells ordered omelets and waffles, the defendant made a profanity-laced taunt about the pitcher's girth, saying "Why don't you order a ... cheeseburger?''

The 39-year-old Wells had two teeth knocked out during the fight, which occurred during after 5 a.m. on Sept. 7. Rocco Graziosa, a 27-year-old bartender from Yonkers, N.Y., is on trial for charges of misdemeanor assault, menacing and possession of a weapon -- in this case, a butter knife he allegedly waved at Wells.

Graziosa could spend up to a year in jail if convicted of all the charges.

Graziosa, who is 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, said he hit the 6-foot-4, 245-pound pitcher in self-defense because he feared for his safety after the bulky pitcher, who admittedly had been drinking, grabbed his collar and started yelling at him.

A friend of Graziosa's testified Wednesday that Wells started the fight because he was insulted that Graziosa and his friends wanted to eat instead of talk to him.

Anthony Spinelli, 21, said he and his companions shook Wells' hand and chatted. They told him that the family of one of the men, Joseph D'Angelo, owned pizza restaurants in the neighborhood and Wells said he had eaten in them.

When the waitress served Graziosa, Spinelli and D'Angelo, they turned to eat, and Wells said, "Oh, you'd rather eat than talk to David Wells?'' the witness said.

Spinelli said Wells, whose speech was slurred, "looked like he was out partying all night, just like us.'' He said he told the pitcher they were hungry.

Wells told the men to "forget about it,'' Spinelli said. He said Wells told them that the D'Angelo family's pizza was lousy.

"I guess he (Wells) was kind of annoyed that we were not paying attention to him,'' Spinelli said.

From that point, insulting exchanges, including Wells' and Graziosa's comments about each other's mothers, escalated, Spinelli said. He said Wells came over to their table, noted that his mother had died and said something that made them laugh.

"That's when he grabbed Rocco,'' said Spinelli, who testified that he and Graziosa have been friends since childhood. "I guess from the laughter he got extremely mad. After he (Wells) grabbed him (Graziosa), Rocco punched him.''

Yeckinevich told a much different story about the episode, which occurred after he and Wells had gone to nightclub for a few drinks and to "unwind'' after Wells had pitched a complete-game victory over Detroit.

Yeckinevich, who's from Bal Harbour, Fla., said Graziosa's offensive comments about Wells and his late mother started almost immediately after Yeckinevich and Wells sat down and ordered. He said Graziosa, seated with two other men, was the only one making the remarks.

When Wells got up to go to the rest room, Yeckinevich said, the pitcher stopped at the adjacent booth where the men were seated and said, ''`Enough is enough. Kindly leave my mother out of this. Say what you want to about me.'''

"I turned, and Rocco sucker-punched David,'' Yeckinevich said. "It looked to me like he lunged across his table and took a big swing,'' he said.

After the punch, Yeckinevich said, Wells was bleeding from the forehead and mouth.

"His teeth were chipped, knocked out,'' he said.

Wells, who testified Tuesday, described how he was staggered by the blow, then fell and hit his forehead on a table, opening a gash. Wells spent seven hours in a dentist's chair the next day, and work on the his damaged teeth was only finished on Monday. Wells testified that he never touched Graziosa.

Yeckinevich said he hustled Wells out of the diner and told him to call 911, which he did. Before police arrived, Yeckinevich said, he could see Graziosa and his companions "celebrating'' inside, giving each other high-fives and laughing.

Graziosa's lawyer, Henry Mazurek, acknowledged that his client had been drinking, too.

When police arrived, they arrested Graziosa. Wells declined a police offer of medical treatment and walked two blocks to his apartment.

In opening statements, Mazurek told the jury that Wells was inebriated when he instigated -- and then lost -- the fight. He told the jury that Wells was "stinking drunk.''