Percival Doesn't Know Much About Streaking

By T.J. Simers

May 19, 2004 12 AM PT

Some odds and ends while waiting to see if the Dodgers will ever get the lead again and give Eric Gagne the chance to make it 74 saves in a row.

By the way, I stopped by Angel Stadium on Tuesday night to ask closer Troy Percival what’s his present streak for consecutive saves without blowing the lead?

“One,” he said before the game with the Yankees. “What Gagne is doing is ridiculous. He’s not only got four pitches, but command of four pitches.”

Percival needs seven more saves to become the 17th pitcher to reach 300. Gagne needs 183. Wonder who gets there first?

DODGERS LOSE, Dodgers lose. Again.

I haven’t heard much from Dodger fans the last few days, although Luis Hernandez did e-mail to say: “Please remove the Page 2 jinx from the Dodgers. Fans now know not to mess with a higher power. Lesson has been learned. Please.”

I’d like to believe that, but I’m not so sure about some of you people.

THE LOS ANGELES Sports & Entertainment golf and tennis extravaganza, orchestrated by the commission’s gung-ho president Kathryn Schloessman, was held at Riviera on Monday.

The event is one of L.A.’s top charity tournaments every year, but it also attracts some weird people, and I’m not only talking about sports editor Bill Dwyre, who seldom works anymore. For instance:

* Actor Alan Thicke showed up, took a practice swing with a driver and hit Jerome Stanley, Keyshawn Johnson’s agent, in the head. Fortunately Stanley is as hard-headed as Johnson. Thicke left early -- I guess after realizing Stanley is an attorney.

* Dodger GM Paul DePodesta was on the practice range hitting groundballs.

* A foursome sponsored by ESPN won the no-handicap tournament with a record score of 18-under par, a score so low ordinarily it would have demanded an investigation. However, one of ESPN’s players was actor Joe Pesci, and anyone who saw “Goodfellas” probably understands why no one made fun of him.

* Times’ columnist Bill Plaschke played. It’s a sad story.

* The LA Sports & Entertainment folks paid good money for long-drive specialist Frank Miller to take $40 from every team and hit the ball as far as he could, and from what I could see, mostly off target. George Lazenby, something like 60 or 70 years old, a former James Bond and still Pam Shriver’s husband, picked up Miller’s club, and according to witnesses, hit it as far as the long-drive guy who can’t keep it in the fairway. They ought to pay Lazenby to be the long-drive guy next year; at the very least, he could probably use the break from Shriver.

* Former Raider quarterback Billy Joe Hobert, asked by some golfers on the first tee to try and hit the Page 2 columnist who was already down the first fairway, drilled two balls over the head of the Page 2 foursome. Fortunately, as I told Hobert later, he had the same amount of success trying to hit the Page 2 foursome as he did Raider receivers while playing quarterback, which explains why he’s now working for a title company.

* The day ended with a tribute to John Wooden and Wooden’s eloquent speech.

There’s nothing weird about that, although it was funny to watch everyone line up to get their picture taken with Wooden, while his daughter asked if she could get her picture with Pesci. Guess she didn’t know I was there.

SPEAKING OF daughters -- the daughter left the Grocery Store Bagger.

To get her picture taken with Nick Lachey. You know, the slug who is married to Jessica Simpson.

Mr. and Mrs. Bagger were guests of Tom Lasorda on Sunday for the Dodger game. The Grocery Store Bagger had played baseball previously with Reds’ starting pitcher Aaron Harang, presumably going their separate ways when their tee-ball careers ended. Anyway, Mr. and Mrs. Bagger got together with the Harang family and invited Lachey, who grew up in Cincinnati and who had taken batting practice with the Reds, to stop by for photos.

“He’s hot,” said the daughter, and I know she wasn’t talking about her husband.

WITH A two-day carry-over, Hollywood Park is expecting a Pick Six pool of more than $3 million, which might cover the wife’s shopping trip to Nordstrom. Several of the horses I like also remind me of the wife.

I’d take Our Fling and Stop the Talking (guess which one reminds me of the wife) in the third, Fortunate Event and Princess Godiva in the fourth, Church Editor and Sweet Lips (back in the day maybe when we were dating), Drought Breaker (no comment) and Jewel of the Year in the sixth, Tronare and Royal Place in the seventh and Global Empire and Yodelin Two in the finale. Or, you could go with Times’ handicapper Bob Mieszerski’s picks, if Misery is your thing.

JASON GOMPERZ e-mailed to say Dodger Boy went off as a 5-1 pick to win the 11th race at Maywood Park (Ill.), but not surprisingly finished seventh. There was no mention of the horse’s owner, which might have given us a clue what Kevin Malone is doing these days.

TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Steven J. Shaevel:

“True story: I was reading the second page of the sports section (and) as I was reading I was saying to myself ... hmmm, entertaining, informative, insightful ... T.J. Simers must have taken a ‘nice’ pill today. I looked up and realized I was reading Chris Dufresne’s column. I just shook my head, smiled and said to myself, no wonder.”

I notice you talk a lot to yourself -- no friends? Oops, guess I forgot to take that nice pill again.

T.J. Simers can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.