This is a story about what our increasingly violent and dangerous society is doing to our collective wisdom and judgment.

Rick Roseli is a 17-year-old senior at Western High School in Anaheim. He's a three-year varsity water polo player and four-year trumpet player in the school band. In eighth grade, he won a prestigious John Philip Sousa award for outstanding bandsman. He's an average high school student, active in church, works as a busboy after school and has missed an inordinate number of classes this year because his single-parent mother has been on medical disability since last June and occasionally needs his help. Neither he nor his mother attempt to portray him as any kind of angel. "He's a typical 17-year-old kid," his mom says.

On Feb. 24, the school was giving a spring concert in the gym. Apparently a day or so earlier, the band teacher had asked whether any student had a toy popgun that the percussionist could use as a sound effect for a particular song. That night, one of the students brought an unloaded, handgun-sized BB gun, but it was quickly determined that it didn't make the requisite noise. As high schoolers will do, however, they passed the gun around and joked about having it in their midst.

Rick Roseli arrived about 25 minutes late for the pre-concert warm-up. He started tuning his trumpet and plinked a note on the piano in the band room, until a campus security monitor, in charge in the band director's absence, told him to stop.

What happened next is the nub of the matter. Partly for laughs and partly to irk the monitor, Rick got the empty BB gun and went back into the band room. Humorously, he says, he waved it around the room and, as if mockingly helping the monitor, said something like, "Everybody clear out!" He then said something to the monitor along the lines of, "Who was that yelling at me?" and pointed the gun in her general direction and, as he recalls, imitated Clint Eastwood doing a "Make my day" impression. He pulled the trigger, with the unloaded gun making its faint pop.

"Right after it happened, it crossed my mind, 'That was pretty stupid,' Rick said. "Then I thought, everybody's laughing, so nobody was scared." Of the monitor, he said, "She didn't act scared, just extremely mad." Rick told his mother about it when he got home later and she said it was a stupid stunt. "Don't worry,"he says he told her, "everybody knew it was fake, it's no big deal."

Rick played the concert that night, a Thursday. He attended a church camp over the weekend and came to school the following Monday. On Tuesday, he was called to the principal's office and asked to write a statement about the incident. Later that day, he says, police arrived and read him his rights. He wasn't arrested but was told he was on five-day suspension for violating the policy against having a gun, either toy or fake, in his possession on school property.

That was March 1. Rick hasn't been back in class since. School officials indicate they are recommending expulsion.

School officials won't discuss the case, citing student confidentiality. At my request, Rick's mother, Frankie Repine, authorized Principal Warren Stephenson to discuss the case with me, but he chose not to.

Stephenson told me there's more than meets the eye but can't tell me what. Rick's attorney, Jack Fleischli, disagrees, saying he has seen all the school district reports on the situation and that the details don't vary significantly from Rick's version.

The district hasn't disputed, the lawyer says, that the band teacher authorized a student to bring a popgun to school for the concert. The teacher also saw the gun before the concert and knew it was on campus, Fleischli says.

I spent an hour with Rick this week. He concedes the impropriety of flashing the gun around the campus monitor. Fleischli says a school report notes that a young child was standing nearby, but Rick says he doesn't remember seeing a child. Had he caused a serious disturbance that night, he says, school officials could have pulled him from the concert on the spot. Besides, he says, no one said anything about the incident until five days later.

Rick concedes that the monitor may not have known the gun was a band prop. He concedes the stupidity of waving it at her, if only in her general direction.

As for the no-gun-on-campus rule: "Oh, yeah, I totally agree with that. My only beef is that the sign is telling me if you have a gun, real or fake, you're going to get in trouble. Now here's a teacher saying, 'Bring in a gun, please, for our song.' The fact that it was authorized and was going to be used in the piece makes it the same to me as my trumpet, the same as the drum. It puts it in the 'everybody knows it's here, everybody knows it's fake' category."

I asked Rick to forget for a minute that the gun was requested by a teacher. What does he think about what happened?

"The most reasonable punishment, disregarding for a minute the fact that she authorized bringing the gun -- but on my actions alone -- would be a five-day suspension," he says. "I would think that would be reasonable.

"Most of all, I want to graduate with my class. I spent four years working my butt off, 12 hours a day, coming in on Saturday for band. . . . I don't think this one little mistake should override four years of hard work."

Fleischli says the district is acting illegally by continuing the suspension without a formal hearing.

I don't know what more, if anything, the district has on Rick. His mom and his lawyer said they told me the most damning things the district has told them, which don't sound very damning to me.

What may be at work here is the upshot of our current "three strikes and you're out" mentality. When it comes to students with guns, the mentality is one strike and you're out.

On paper, that's fine. For the 1992-93 school year, Orange County districts reported more than 400 incidents of students with guns. The threat is real and should be dealt with decisively.

But in school officials' zeal or fear or concern -- call it what you will -- a zero-tolerance policy overlooks that all crimes are not created equal.

Roseli may have stupidly frightened a woman, but he knew the gun wasn't loaded. He wasn't brandishing it around other students who didn't know it was unloaded.

He is not the same as the kid who brings a gun to school. A prankster who doubles as a trumpet player isn't the kid a zero-tolerance policy should be out to get.

Twenty years ago, this would have been a stupid prank.

It's still a stupid prank today. What's different is our fear of youth violence, which transported this incident to a level it doesn't warrant. And so Rick Roseli, who should be sitting in class for the final quarter of high school, sits at home, having his homework sent to him.

His mother asks: "Are we so intimidated because of what we're bombarded with on TV and in the news, associating our youth with gangs and killings, that a child can't even make a mistake now? Are we that frightened? It's scary."

Dana Parsons' column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.

A motorcycle exhibit and street fair near the Dana Point Harbor on Saturday will be part of national weekend festivities for the third annual Ride for Kids to benefit pediatric brain tumor research.

The local event will run from noon to 5 p.m. at the Pavilion Lantern Bay, at Street of the Golden Lantern and Dana Point Harbor Drive.

The motorcycle expo will feature new and vintage two-wheelers. The featured motorcycle will be a 1965 Honda CB-450 Super Sport known as the "Black Bomber."

"With the help of the motorcycling community, we can give these children a second chance," said Mike Traynor, founder of the charity event, which will take place at 12 other locations across the country. "We're excited to continue our national effort to conquer this serious childhood disease."

Other benefit activities taking place during Saturday's event will be a fine art reception and a charity auction.

The benefit ride from Dana Point to Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego County will follow on Sunday. Registration and breakfast will take place at 7 a.m. at Selva Road and Pacific Coast Highway, with riders leaving at 9 a.m.

Motorcyclists must collect a $35-minimum donation to participate. Those collecting $300 are entered in a drawing for a new Honda CB750.

For information about the Ride for Kids, call (800) 600-3821. FRANK MESSINA

The firm: "I know that lawyers are often intimidating," began the note from Janie Schulman of L.A.

But, she opined, one set of panelists at a Labor and Employment Law Section Retreat "have gone overboard with their firm name."

It's Payne & Fears.

*

Maybe Clinton could use a second-grader on his staff: Valerie Williams Zarrillo asked her class of second-graders at John C. Fremont School in Glendale to write essays on the topic, "If I Were President for a Day."

The students seemed to be up on current events, possibly more so than some of the President's older advisers.

One student, Dustin Boxer, is obviously a close follower of Bill Clinton. Dustin wrote, in part: "In the afternoon I would eat a cheeseburger."

Some other examples of political awareness:

* Whitewater influence: "I do taxes and read papers and then I watch the news again to see what happened." (Emineh Noravian)

* The Reagan influence: "In the afternoon, I do my check signing. I take a nap." (Jorge Alvarez)

* The Socks influence: "In the evening I would take a shower and I would get my bajamas on and I would get my cat -- well, if the President is allowed." (Michael Johnson)

* The Quayle influence: "In the evening working doing statistics on the computer and typing and doing papers and talking to the Vis President and testing him." (Corey Golden)

*

Arkansas West?Phyllis Waggner found a classified ad in a Westside newspaper that seems to offer sanctuary to the First Family.

Abe! We're shocked!We recently published a photo of some Downtown demonstrators standing alongside Abe Lincoln's statue while brandishing signs that said, "Down with Dirty Movies" and "Hollywood Repent." It was an inadvertent juxtaposition -- the picketers were protesting the nearby Academy Awards, not Honest Abe.

At least, that's what we wrote.

Imagine our surprise when we received a copy of the cover of Scientific American from Gerry Thompson of Arleta. It showed Honest Abe arm in arm with a grinning Marilyn Monroe. Monroe's dress is blowing in the wind, allowing her to show a lot of leg (a lot of both legs, actually).

Did the demonstrators know something we didn't? We're a little hazy on American history but we don't remember Monroe being involved with that President.

We felt better when we saw the magazine caption, which said: "Digital forgery can create photographic evidence for events that never happened."

Even so, we're happy the magazine didn't show Abe in his bajamas. miscelLAny:

The UCLA Sub Team and the HPS "Quicken" of Cal Poly Pomona are among the entries in the West Coast Human-Powered Submarine Invitational, scheduled for March 24-29 in Escondido. Pleasure-boaters need not fear a collision because Escondido is 15 miles inland. The competition will be staged in an area known as the Offshore Model Basin.

Beware of big doings in small, out-of-the-way places. The criminal charges against two former officials of an obscure water district in Orange County serve as a reminder of what can happen when important public business is conducted largely out of sight.

A year ago, scarcely anybody had ever heard of the Santa Margarita Water District, a $28-million-a-year special district providing water and sewer service to the sprawling suburbs. Then The Times reported that Walter W. (Bill) Knitz, district general manager, and Michael P. Lord, assistant general manager, had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and lavish trips from local business people, many of whom the two officials recommended for hefty contracts, apparently in violation of state law. Knitz and Lord later retired.

This week the Orange County district attorney's office weighed in after a yearlong investigation with charges that what the two did was out and out illegal. The counts centered on alleged failure to meet reporting requirements for the gifts and alleged actions taken on behalf of gift-givers in violation of conflict-of-interest laws. The misdemeanor counts carry fines or jail time or both.

The larger lesson lies in the potential for funny business at that most local level of government, the special district. There is a compelling need for public officials to keep special interests at arm's length, whether they function in the glare that falls on City Hall, Sacramento and Washington or in dimly lit places like small water districts.

Crime-weary Americans are counting on President Clinton to make good on his promise to provide 100,000 new cops. The Senate is already on board. Now, the House must deliver. One way to do that would be to support the police corps.

The police corps would work like the ROTC. Students would sign up after high school. They would receive federal scholarships for college in exchange for a four-year commitment, and the feds would pay for law enforcement training. After graduation, the new rookies would work for local departments. They wouldn't be eligible for pensions so they would cost less then traditional rookies. What a bargain!

Yet for some unstated reason, the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), did not consider the police corps bill last week when it took up the other anti-crime bills reported out of subcommittees. What's the holdup?

The White House and Senate would earmark anticipated savings from deep cuts in the federal work force to pay for more prisons, drug treatment and other anti-crime measures, including the initial appropriation for the police corps. Over five years the police corps would cost $2.5 billion, if limited to 50,000 participants as proposed by the Senate. That's a sound investment in public safety, but several House members are reluctant to cut federal jobs to pay for an anti-crime package that they justifiably believe is much too heavy on punishment and too lean on prevention. A better balance should be negotiated, but without sacrificing the corps.

If the powerful Chairman Brooks doesn't have a problem with the police corps, he should get the bill out of his panel so House-Senate conference committee members can tackle the differences. If he does have a problem, he should put it on the table and work out a timely compromise. Americans want more police, but most cities, including Los Angeles, have to scrape around to expand beyond a symbolic increase. A good chunk of a new police corps could shore up a Los Angeles force that is woefully too small to protect and serve this sprawling and diverse metropolis.

President Clinton repeated his promise of more cops last month. Did the House hear? America did.

Mexico's political and financial leaders were relieved at Tuesday's decision by Manuel Camacho Solis to not run for president. But with him out of the race, outgoing President Carlos Salinas de Gortari must take unambiguous steps to guarantee the fairness of next August's presidential voting. Otherwise, a victory by Salinas' handpicked successor will be tainted.

Camacho, the former Mexico City mayor who is negotiating peace with anti-government rebels in Chiapas, was the wild card in Mexico's presidential race. Public opinion polls indicated that he could strongly challenge Luis Donaldo Colosio, who was tapped by Salinas to be the nominee of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

A Camacho candidacy clearly would have erased the predictability of the cycle of Mexican politics -- every six years the PRI wins. The concern over the prospect of a forcefully contested race was such that when Camacho's no-go decision was announced the Mexican stock market soared.

The near-certainty of six more years of PRI rule is worrisome in some respects. Although the PRI has given Mexico 65 years of stability, it has done so at the cost of real democracy. The ruling party's grasp on power is so firm that most Mexicans are politically apathetic, if not cynical; when the PRI wins an election, many automatically assume fraud has been committed. A wide-open presidential race could have shaken the public's apathy.

The national Congress must press forward with the electoral reforms recently proposed by President Salinas, such as fair campaign financing and new technology to preclude fraud.

From the perspective of the United States and other foreign countries, the most important of Salinas' proposed reforms would allow international observers to monitor the coming election. This is a sensitive issue, one involving pride; Mexicans don't want foreigners acting as if they are the final arbiters of Mexican elections. But 1994 is a special year, with the memory of violence in Chiapas still fresh and the future of the country's dealings with the rest of the world pumped up by last year's North American Free Trade Agreement. This year, Mexicans must be prepared to swallow their resistance and not only accept foreign election observers but invite as many as possible.

That is what Salinas says he wants, so the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the rest of the world should take him up on it. If Colosio is to be Mexico's next president, so be it. But let him be elected in an open and honest vote, with the whole world watching.

Comish, Zelda M., 90, of Tujunga, retired seamstress for Chazan Interior Decorating. Forest Lawn Mortuary, Glendale.

Cuevas, Guadalupe J., 90, of Sun Valley, retired retailer.Utter-McKinley Mortuary, Mission Hills.

Feldman, David, 74, of Tarzana, retired refrigerator repairman. Aftercare California Cremation & Burial Society, Van Nuys.

Fox, Charles E., 95, of Sylmar, retired carpenter. Utter-McKinley Mortuary, Mission Hills.

Harbison, Betty, 85, of Panorama City, homemaker. Pierce Brothers Valhalla Mortuary, North Hollywood.

Holt, Vincent Evan, 79, of Reseda, retired utility lineman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Gates, Kingsley & Gates Mortuary, Canoga Park.

Johnson, Allen J., 38, of La Crescenta, general contractor. Ferrara & Callahan Funeral Directors, Sunland.

Johnson, David Brian, 34, of Canoga Park, mechanic. Gates, Kingsley & Gates Mortuary, Canoga Park.

Leiker, Mary Louise, 76, of Studio City, retired waitress. J. T. Oswald Mortuary, North Hollywood.

Marino, Alfredo, 64, of Burbank, pipe coater for the plumbing industry. The Valley Funeral Home, Burbank.

Miller, Ruth V., 78, of Glendale, retired cook for Glendale Community Hospital. Pierce Brothers Valhalla Mortuary, North Hollywood.

Roman, Amelia, 55, of Pacoima, homemaker. Noble Chapel, San Fernando.

Smith, Mary R., 88, of Palmdale, homemaker. Ferrara & Callahan Funeral Directors, Sunland.

Wilkins, Bette H., 68, of Tampa, Fla., formerly of Palmdale, homemaker. Chapel of the Valley Mortuary, Palmdale.

You, Jan Chen, 93, of Glendale, retired automotive mechanic. Forest Lawn Mortuary, Glendale.

Obituaries are published free of charge as a public service to readers. They are based on information provided by mortuaries.

Cessation of total inpatient care at the Sepulveda Veterans Administration Medical Center is an inappropriate solution ("Sepulveda VA Hospital to Be Torn Down," March 15). While it may be necessary to temporarily relocate surgical and long-term-care cases to other facilities until complete reconstruction is accomplished, the care provided to veterans from Bakersfield, Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley must not be disrupted or deferred in the wake of the events of Jan. 17.

Furthermore, there is one service provided by the Sepulveda VAMC that is so crucial and so necessary that its continuance should be of paramount concern to the current Administration. That function is the Chemical Dependency Treatment Unit, a three-pronged program that involves a five-to-seven-day inpatient detoxification, a 21-to 28-day inpatient rehabilitation program and finally an open-ended daily outpatient program with an initial 12-week patient commitment.

If the decision to partially relocate or otherwise disjoint this program is tolerated, veterans will die. It is a fact that because of the Sepulveda CDTU a great many lives have been saved. One of them is mine.

SHERRIE E. GOGERTY

Van Nuys

Since outpatient services are running in many functional buildings at the Sepulveda VA, why waste millions on some new building dedicated solely to outpatient care?

The Sepulveda VA is also one of the teaching and research arms of the UCLA medical complex. If you want to cut off one of the arms of UCLA because the public can't afford it, then I suppose that's just a grim fact of economic reality. But be intellectually honest enough to admit that this is a step backward, not forward.

JOHN PARSONS MD

Anaheim

Besides David Gergen, perhaps the Velcro President ought to consider hiring the Teflon President's scriptwriters.

JAMES R. GALLAGHER

Huntington Beach

The job summit is another exercise in futility and casuistry (March 15). The leaders of the G-7 are crying in their soup about the high unemployment in their respective, heretofore affluent democracies, and yet put in place mechanisms and incentives in the name of free trade and global competition that tend to make unemployment and underemployment a structural and long-term, rather than cyclical, phenomenon.

The blame is often placed on the victims of unemployment: They are not sufficiently trained, lack of basic skills, too expensive, too much regulation, too much taxation, etc. It is difficult to swallow the "lack of training" story when you hear that IBM, Apple, GM, and dozens more Fortune 500 companies lay off hundreds of thousands of workers, most of them highly skilled and college graduates. Does our government propose to retrain them to flip hamburgers?

In this country we have created tax incentives to destroy jobs. Every announcement of a downsizing, merger, restructuring is inevitably followed by a statement of how many workers will be let go, and of how much it is going to cost and impact profits for the period: hundreds of millions, billions in some cases. Read: The taxpayer is going to subsidize the layoffs by sheltering corporate profits. Which, of course, is a double hit since the taxpayer is also paying for unemployment compensation and all the other programs designed by government to fix the problem. A problem that, by its own policies, the government had a major role in creating.

MANUEL MORENO

La Jolla

In Detroit, President Clinton called on the world's leading industrial democracies to embrace the technological changes that are shaking their economies.

Whether embraced or not, there are growing concerns that the improvement in technology leads to layoffs.

The industrial nations must admit that unemployment, whether 6% or 16%, is inevitable when advanced technologies cause substantial reductions in employment. They must move beyond President Clinton's symbolism and carefully crafted rhetoric about future benefits generated by technological changes. They must provide jobs for the jobless.

JOSEPH WALDBAUM

North Hollywood

In the more than 2,000 words in your March 7 story about Mike Reynolds and the "three strikes and you're out" movement, not one mention was made of the group that's done more than anybody else to make it a reality -- the National Rifle Assn.

The NRA has pushed three strikes laws for years now.In Washington state, a citizens' movement to put a "three strikes" initiative on the ballot failed -- until the NRA stepped in with financial, organizational and grass-roots support. From there, it's taken off, and the NRA has been deeply involved all along. With the NRA's $40,000 contribution to Mike Reynolds' organization, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of NRA magazine publicity promoting it and countless California NRA members and activists all doing their part, you could have said NRA was a crucial element in the California "three strikes" victory.

The NRA's 3.4 million law-abiding members deserve that recognition.

WAYNE R. LaPIERRE

Executive Vice President

National Rifle Assn.

Washington

All the praise and all the complaints about Los Angeles are justified.

It's a beautiful city, it's hell on Earth, it exemplifies every dream and every excess of the human race and its destiny is to run into problems sooner than the rest of us. Los Angeles pioneered freeways, earthquake-proof construction, the catalytic converter and air-pollution emission trading. It is working hard on multilingual, multiracial human relations.

The next problem that L.A. has to solve ahead of other cities is growth. There is a limit to the number of people, buildings, cars, smokestacks that can be crammed in between the mountains and the sea. At some point the growth of Los Angeles will stop. There are two ways it can stop. One is that the city becomes so ugly, so polluted, so overwhelmed with the problems caused by growth that more people and businesses move out than move in.

The other way is to stop growth deliberately, with the intention of having a city that is not only manageable, but responsible to the large hinterland from which it draws its resources and to which it returns its wastes. No city has ever done that. In a land where freedom of movement is a right, and where growth is the supposed solution to all problems, the question of how to develop without growing, to differentiate, to innovate, to get better without getting bigger has never been taken seriously.

But it is the ultimate question before all of us, with L.A. out in front. The next challenge for the incredible spunk and drive of L.A. is not how to keep growing against all bounds -- that was the problem of the 20th Century. The problem of the 21st is how to live good and just lives within limits, in harmony with the Earth and each other. Great cities can rise out of cruelty, deviousness and a refusal to be bounded. Livable cities can only be sustained out of humility, compassion and acceptance of the concept of "enough."

Can any member of Congress honestly say that decision-making in the White House will be improved, that systematic wrongs will be righted, that the American people will gain enhanced respect for their leaders or that any other gain will be achieved from holding hearings on the Whitewater affair? The idea of a "serious examination of the issues" by Congress brings a smirk to the face of anyone over 12 years old. Such is the result of media-driven politicians and scandal-driven media, which together dominate and corrupt the political process in our country today. My qualifications to offer objective comment may be in doubt; as a central figure in the Iran-Contra hearings, a bias would not be unexpected. I would only offer that I'm prepared to condemn both parties.

Time and again during the Iran-Contra hearings, there were examples of congressmen who had been kept well-informed -- who knew everything I did about Ollie North's activities -- looking down at me from the dais, intoning with false gravity, questions to which they knew the answers, criticizing policies and actions for which they had been devoted advocates months before. Theater, pure theater.

We know what those hearings produced: a popular outpouring for North, the basis for his escaping successful prosecution; and no initiatives, laws or rules that hold any promise of preventing the same thing from happening again. Let's face the facts, congressional hearings present opportunities for Congress to get on the evening news back home -- period.

Scholars have identified the roots of our political decline over the past 30 years. They include loss of confidence among Americans in the very idea of "reposing special trust and confidence" in political leaders, which started with a President's abuse of that trust during the Gulf of Tonkin episode and the Vietnam War. Popular mistrust of politicians deepened with episode upon episode of lying by public officials over the bombing of Cambodia, Watergate, congressional check-kiting and Iran-Contra.

The angry expressions of voter backlash to these events unfortunately, haven't done much to help. The election after Watergate of a huge tide of young "reform-minded" congressmen who swept away the seniority system did more harm than good. So-called election reform gave us political-action committees, which have led to everyone having a voice in Washington except the majority of the people. The separate but related phenomenon of each legislator now having his or her own financial base has left the party leaderships and machinery much less powerful and much less able to deliver votes to a President or to a cause. It also gives a President less incentive to bother trying to engage with them if they can't deliver.

In times of crisis, our country has been extraordinarily fortunate to have produced heroic leaders -- men or women of vision and courage who were not susceptible to the temporary lure of political expediency. I'm convinced that those in office today are capable of doing the right thing.

What would be your reaction if the following events occurred?

Sen. Robert Dole engages privately in heart-to-heart talks with President Clinton. The larger point Dole would make would be that both men face only two choices. One choice is hearings, which will produce much confusion and one awful sentiment among Americans: that their leaders are playing political games again. The alternative is for the President to acknowledge errors. With a pledge from Dole to discontinue the push for hearings (probably with the President's agreement to accommodate a few GOP legislative priorities), Clinton agrees to go before the people and lay everything out (to Dole's satisfaction).

On the same day, Dole makes a statesman's speech, recalling the aforementioned benchmarks of decline over the past generation and his wish to set a new course in our political discourse.

There was a time not so long ago when a President of one party -- Dwight Eisenhower -- could engage candidly with congressional leaders of the other -- Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn -- and argue but in the end agree that they shared a responsibility to govern, not to engage in sustained playground fights with one another. The political upside of that kind of behavior -- Dole's and Clinton's numbers would go way up immediately -- is as clear today as it was then. But it does take courage to do the right thing.

Some people save the first dollar they ever earned; I have my first lipstick. In my closet is a large box of lipsticks, a few kept for more than three decades. Most are useless as cosmetics, but they are reminders, as exact as excerpts from my diaries, of what I used to be and how I came to be what I am now.

My passion for lipstick goes back to childhood. One of my early memories is of standing before a mirror trying to color my mouth with a red crayon. I liked to open my grandmother's handbag, search for her Tangee, and swivel it slowly up and down. I still recall the sweet fragrance and vivid orange color that somehow became muted when applied to the lips.

Although I don't associate a particular lipstick with my mother, I remember her process of application: upper lip, lower lip, blot, reapply. She now wears lipstick if my sister or I pick it out for her, but she's never shared our delight in going to cosmetic counters and trying on different shades for the better part of an afternoon, always seeking the perfect hue with the perfect sheen that will transform our faces, and thus our lives, forever.

Often it's not the color but the name that lures me. Who could resist Honey Amber, Plum Silk, Iced Rubies? I'm seduced by the rhetoric of lipstick, the way the adjectives kiss the nouns. Even Susan Brownmiller, whose book "Femininity" is strongly anti-cosmetic, can reel off the names of the five shades she wore in high school. Yet she maintains that "a brightly painted mouth" never did anything positive for her face, conversation or kissing. For me, a lipsticked mouth can dramatically enhance all three. Perhaps Brownmiller gets by just fine with a swipe of Vaseline, but my lips cry out for color.

I'm not alone in thinking that lipstick improves my words, maybe even my mind. A colleague who teaches philosophy swears that her lectures grow dull as she nervously gnaws off her lipstick. A poet assures me she finds it impossible to write unless her lips are glossed. My friend Terry insists she could never have learned a syllable of French without her rouge a levres: "Lipstick makes it easier to pronounce eu. "

You discover much about yourself by looking at your old lipsticks. "Was I really like that?" you ask. "Was I once brave enough to use up almost a whole tube of Stormy Scarlet?" Sometimes I like to dig through the box in my closet. The past is hidden there, a clue in every hue.

I find the Golden Brandy I wore in college, the Soft Sea Spice my sister wore on her wedding day. Here's the burgundy that perfectly matched my coat one winter. More memories, long abandoned, return as colors become flowers -- geranium and hibiscus, lilac and violet. And every shade of roses, roses, roses. To stimulate remembrance, Proust had his madeleine: I have my Maybelline.

Many of the cases are so worn that I can no longer read the names on the bottoms. A few must have changed color over the years. Would I really have purchased a blue lipstick? Here's one I can't part with because my father bought it for me. Goodness knows how many decades I've had this Mucho Gusto Coco Loco, and yet it still smells like fresh chocolate.

Some of the lipsticks I've saved so long have never been used at all. Why haven't I tossed them out? Because lipstick fuels not just our memories but our great expectations, our dark desires. It helps narrow the distance between the real and the imagined self. I always convince myself that next summer I will be tan and that shade I've never worn will at last look right. Or I might yet become dramatic and be able to get away with fiery fuchsia and torchy red. This Bare Berry didn't look good on me but was dazzling on Cheryl Tiegs on a magazine cover in the spring of 1980. Maybe I'll try it again.

I have never agreed with those who suggest that cosmetics are camouflage. Makeup isn't a way to cover your face, but to discover it. Lipstick isn't a means of oppression, but of expression. Do feminists wear it? Read my lips.

"A More Perfect Union" is specifically addressed to heterosexual readers. "Why Straight Americans Must Stand Up for Gay Rights" is the book's provocative subtitle, and it is more correctly described as a book about human rights than "gay rights," a term the author himself uses.

"As an invisible minority, gay men and lesbians also need civil rights protections," argues Richard D. Mohr, "in order for them to have reasonably guaranteed access to an array of fundamental rights which virtually everyone would agree are supposed to pertain equally to all persons."

Homophobia, Mohr asserts, is merely another expression of the same ugly bias that is sometimes directed at Jews, African Americans or Latinos. And gay bashing is "a form of vigilantism that bears a striking resemblance to the lynching of black men."

Thus defined, gay rights is part of the civil rights movement in America, a movement that is entitled to the support of blacks, Jews, Latinos and every minority that has known the sting of hatred, violence and discrimination.

Mohr, a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois, gives us an all-embracing manifesto that starts out as an essay on the philosophical and jurisprudential underpinnings of civil liberty and quickly escalates into an unrestrained call to arms for gays and straights alike in the name of "gay justice."

Mohr is blunt and unsparing in his arguments in favor of gay rights. While he is hardly an in-your-face activist -- and even though his prose is always courtly and well-considered -- Mohr is not the least bit shy about demanding that gay men and lesbians be afforded the freedom to pursue their own vision of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For example, Mohr condemns the closing of gay bathhouses as a prophylactic against the spread of AIDS precisely because, as he puts it, such meeting places are so important to a sense of community and identity among gay men.

"With some slight exceptions like the gay choral movement, gay political organizations, and . . . . AIDS support groups, sex is the only mode in which gays in current culture are allowed to identify themselves to themselves," he writes. "Self-respect, such as it is, for gay men in our culture is often the product of a robust sex life."

Similarly, Mohr devotes a good deal of his book to the suggestion that "committed gay relationships" ought to be recognized as legal marriages. He argues that "gay life, like black culture, might even provide models and materials for rethinking and improving family life." And then he makes the startling proposition that "a commitment to monogamy" is one condition of marriage that is not necessarily an element of gay marriage.

The central argument in "A More Perfect Union" is rooted in the constitutional right of privacy -- the same concept that is the basis for the right of women to seek an abortion. As Mohr reads the right to privacy, it assures all Americans, men and women, gay or straight, the freedom to express themselves through their sexual identity without fear of a law against abortion or a law against sodomy. Even the threat of AIDS, he seems to argue, is no reason to abridge the right of sexual freedom.

"If independence -- the permission to guide one's life by one's own lights to an extent compatible with the like ability on the part of others -- is, as it is, a major value, one cannot respect that value while preventing people from putting themselves at risk through voluntary associations."

Again and again, Mohr draws intriguing linkages between sexuality and politics. Mohr depicts "coming out" as not merely a moment of self-discovery and self-revelation, for example, but also an overtly revolutionary gesture.

"Far from signaling immorality," he writes, "coming out to others affords one of the few remaining opportunities in ever more bureaucratic, technological and socialist societies to manifest courage."

How does the advocacy of gay rights work to the benefit of "straight America"? Mohr holds out the bland promise of a better world for all of us if only we can acknowledge that gay men and women are entitled to genuine civil liberties and not merely the back-to-the-closet policy of "Don't ask, don't tell."

"Society would be richer for acknowledging another aspect of human diversity," he exhorts. "Families with gay members would develop relations based on truth and trust rather than lies and fear. And the heterosexual majority would be better off for knowing that they are no longer trampling their gay friends and neighbors."

Still, Mohr does not quite deliver on the straightforward promise of his subtitle -- he tells us why we should stand up for gay rights, but not why we must do so. To a reader who is not already convinced, the distinction may turn out to be crucial.

TELEVISION

Oscar Ratings Hold Steady: ABC's coverage of Monday night's Academy Awards ceremonies garnered almost identical ratings as last year, which was the highest-rated Oscar telecast in 10 years. Monday's program earned a 31.1 Nielsen rating (meaning it averaged about 29.3 million homes from start to finish) and attracted 49% of available viewers. Last year's show got a 31.2 rating with 51% of the viewers. ABC estimated that about 78 million people nationwide watched at least part of Monday's show.

*

Pilots, Pilots, Pilots: More than 100 new shows are being considered for fall by the four networks. Some big names in ABC pilots are Kelly McGillis, Kirk ("Growing Pains") Cameron, Patricia ("thirtysomething") Wettig and Howie Mandel. At CBS, they are Rita Rudner, Cybill Shepherd, Dolly Parton, Dudley Moore, Cheryl Ladd, talk-show host Montel Williams and, in two sets of co-starring roles, Olympia Dukakis and Lorraine Bracco and Hal Linden and Suzanne Pleshette. NBC has projects with Gene Wilder, Martin Short, Marlon and Shawn Wayans, O.J. Simpson, Patty Duke and, as co-stars, Melissa Gilbert and Cicely Tyson. The biggest names Fox has are Don Adams and Barbara Feldon in a new version of "Get Smart."

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'Geraldo' Suit: Geraldo Rivera and the production staff of his TV talk show were sued in Los Angeles Superior Court by a man claiming he was reunited with his birth mother on the air against his wishes. Brent Jasmer says he had an agreement with the show's producers that he would only talk about his search for his mother and would not be reunited with her on the air. He alleges breach of contract, bad faith, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress. PEOPLE WATCH

Pavarotti Performs: Opera star Luciano Pavarotti performed in the Philippines Monday night, gulping down what his doctor said were as many as 37 pills before his show, which had been postponed from Friday because of a cold. Although he stepped away from the microphone to cough during pauses in the music, attendees said the tenor still hit the high notes. "I came here tonight to give all I can," a feverish Pavarotti told the cheering crowd. "I never thought it possible to arrive to this last song." The Manila show had been criticized for ticket prices as high as $900.

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Dudley Moore Arrested: British-born actor Dudley Moore was arrested at his Venice home Monday night after a woman identifying herself as the actor's girlfriend claimed he "battered" her, police said Tuesday. Moore, 58, was booked for investigation of domestic abuse and released on $50,000 bail. Police said the district attorney's office will decide whether criminal charges of "cohabitational abuse," a felony, will be filed. Ironically, it was Moore who first involved police in the incident by calling in what police termed "a possible domestic dispute" at about 7:35 p.m. A short time later, another call came from Moore's residence, this time from the unidentified woman. Police said a preliminary investigation found the woman had "sustained minor but visible trauma to the neck area" from a "physical altercation" with Moore.

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Gov. Stern?: Radio bad boy Howard Stern instantly became the best-known challenger to Mario Cuomo when he announced plans Tuesday to run for governor of New York. And he appeared to be serious, offering a platform that included passing the death penalty, getting road crews to work only at night and staggering highway tolls to prevent traffic jams. Once these three goals were achieved, Stern said, he would resign and turn the state over to his as-yet-unnamed lieutenant governor. Stern said he hopes to run as a Libertarian candidate, but he didn't address potential problems with federal regulations that would require New York stations carrying his syndicated show to give equal time to his opponents. "I'm going to win," he told his roughly 3 million listeners nationwide. "I'm going to be the next governor of New York." POP/ROCK

Chili Peppers Suit Dropped: A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday threw out a former band member's lawsuit against the Red Hot Chili Peppers, ruling that guitarist Jack Sherman had waited too long to attempt to collect damages from his expulsion from the band in 1985. Sherman claimed he was wrongly kicked out of the group and was not paid his full share of profits from the Grammy-winning band's first two albums to which he contributed. Sherman had contended he was unable to bring the case within the three-year limit because of debilitating childhood abuse that made him passive, but the judge discounted that argument. QUICK TAKES

Madonna is ready to enter the major leagues. In the upcoming issue of New York magazine, the pop star says she wants to buy a National Basketball Assn. franchise. On the top of her shopping list: the Chicago Bulls, followed by the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic. . . . Film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert pulled out of a scheduled appearance on the "Arsenio Hall Show" Tuesday night because the talk-show host "never distanced himself from anything (Nation of Islam leader Louis) Farrakhan said" on the program three weeks ago, Siskel said. The film critics were scheduled to give a post-Oscar review. . . . Pop star Morrissey will be the first music act to play Los Angeles' refurbished Olympic Auditorium. Tickets for the April 8 show, a preview of his upcoming tour, go on sale Thursday. SHAUNA SNOW

The Mark Taper Forum's latest P.L.A.Y. (Performing for Los Angeles Youth) production, touring Southland public venues and schools, turns out to work quite nicely as a complement to the clown hit "Fool Moon," finishing its run Sunday at the Doolittle Theatre.

"Harold's Big Feat," a short comedy created and performed by Wolfe Bowart and directed by Peter C. Brosius, is billed as "a day in the life of an Everyman clown." Bowart, a professional actor with a trim athletic build, gives a skillful comic performance that starts giggles sputtering as soon as he walks on stage in red nose and nightshirt.

Bowart plays a music-loving clown named Harold, combining slapstick and other nonsense with facile timing and just a hint of European-flavored pathos. But he can't understand how to play the clarinet, no matter how loudly young audience members shout advice; his violin snaps, and his accordion rips. Surely he'll be able to get the hang of his new piano?

Not without a struggle. This is no ordinary piano.

The big brown upright (designed by Martin Zboril, who also did the cartoony set), has eyebrows, arms, toothy keys and a mind of its own. The mad interplay between clown and piano builds to a comic crescendo until Harold is swallowed by the musical monster, then returns a changed man, in top hat and tails, with a newfound talent.

Bowart's sojourn inside the piano, represented by shadow puppetry, slows the pace a bit, and the piano manipulation was somewhat clumsy at a recent performance at the Los Angeles Public Central Library's Mark Taper Auditorium. But the show triumphs thanks to Bowart's cleverness, timing and confident interaction with the audience, punctuated by talented composer Michael Silversher's whimsical sound design.

Victoria Petrovich did Bowart's clown costumes, and Michael Gilliam provided the mood lighting.

* "Harold's Big Feat," Natural History Museum, Exposition Drive, Saturday at 2 p.m. and April 2 at 1 p.m., $5-$7 . (213) 972-7392. Also at Angelica Lutheran Church, 1345 S. Burlington, Los Angeles, on April 9 at 3 and 5 p.m., free . (213) 382-6378. Running time: one hour.

A performance by Luciano Pavarotti will be the main feature of "A Tribute to Henry Mancini -- A 70th Birthday Party," April 19 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion.Julie Andrews, Quincy Jones, Dudley Moore, John Williams and Andy Williams also will be part of the program honoring the composer. A highlights film of Mancini's career, produced by Jack Haley Jr., will also be shown.

The event, as well as a post-concert gala dinner, will benefit the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Tickets will go on sale in early April. Information: (310) 206-6431.

Kyle (Duane Martin) is a high school basketball phenom in Harlem who wants to be a college whiz and an NBA all-star. Irked that the big college recruiters have yet to sign him, he showboats on the court in the closing games of his final season. It's bad teamwork but great to watch: Kyle is totally fulfilled as he soars through the air.

"Above the Rim" would have been better had it stuck with Kyle's love for the game and depended less on a mess of tired melodrama about his involvement with a brutal drug dealer, Birdie (Tupac Shakur), and his estranged brother Shep (Leon), who had been a great neighborhood basketball star before he skipped town. It's not that this material is inappropriate to Kyle's story; it's just that it never comes to life in the way the basketball scenes do. That's the problem with sports movies: If the ball-playing footage is any good, the rest of the action tends to look like filler.

Director Jeff Pollack, who co-created NBC's "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," shoots the basketball scenes with vigor and understanding. (Some sports movies look as if they were directed by couch potatoes.) But he isn't aided by Barry Michael Cooper's script, which has Kyle rebounding among confrontations with his mother (Tonya Pinkins), his coach (David Bailey), Shep, Birdie and just about everybody else. He's supposed to be an Angry Young Man pulled between crime and ethics, but he doesn't seem to be all that angry. His fights have a trumped-up-for-high-drama feeling.

The film is much better when it drops the arch theatrics and just moves along to the great rap soundtrack. The hang-loose scenes between Kyle and his dotty friend Bugaloo (Marlon Wayans) are the best not only because they seem the most realistic but also because they don't make a big fuss about how socially conscious they are.

They make you want to shoot a few hoops.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong language and violence. Times guidelines: It includes much cussing and graphic violence.

*

'Above the Rim'

Duane Martin: Kyle

Leon: Shep

Tupac Shakur: Birdie

David Bailey: Rollins

A New Line presentation. Director Jeff Pollack. Producers Jeff Pollack and Benny Medina. Executive producer James D. Brubacker. Screenplay by Barry Michael Cooper and Jeff Pollack. Cinematographer Tom Priestley Jr. Editors Michael Ripps and James Mitchell. Costumes Karen Perry. Music Marcus Miller. Production design Ina Mayhew. Set decorator Paul Weathered. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Sparked by a double-dose of "Home Improvement," ABC sailed to its second win in as many weeks in the prime-time ratings, according to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. A new episode of the sitcom, starring Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson, was No. 1 and a repeat was No. 9 among last week's 94 network programs.

ABC had three other shows in the Top 10, including its 2-week-old news series "Turning Point." And its new sitcom "Thunder Alley," despite losing 13% of its opening-week audience, still finished No. 11 with the "Home Improvement" episodes bracketing it.

The debut of "Someone Like Me," NBC's new comedy about a teen-age girl, ran second in its Monday time slot and finished No. 32 overall. But NBC said the show posted the highest ratings of any entertainment program this season among girls 12 to 17.

Fox, meanwhile, was crowing about the ratings for "Melrose Place," which finished second in its Wednesday time period. But Tuesday night continues to be an abyss for Fox: A special hosted by Magic Johnson attracted only 7% of the viewers and ranked 94th for the week. Southland Ratings

Here are A. C. Nielsen's Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households. 04,05,22,09,08 Program Station Rating 1. Home Improvement KABC 22.3 2. Seinfeld KNBC 21.1 3. 60 Minutes KCBS 20.9 4. The Simpsons KTTV 20.8 5. Frasier KNBC 18.9 Grace Under Fire KABC 18.9 7. Roseanne KABC 18.5 8. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 16.4 9. The Sinbad Show KTTV 16.3 10. Turning Point KABC 15.9 Weekly Averages

ABC 12.9

CBS 11.2

NBC 10.7

FOX 7.3 Season to Date

CBS 14.3

ABC 12.4

NBC 11.2

FOX 7.2 LEE MARGULIES

* A fund-raiser for Palmdale mayoral candidate Ron Saldivar and Palmdale City Council candidate Lydia Guzman Saldivar will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at O'hara's restaurant, 2710 E. Palmdale Blvd., Palmdale. Donation is $20 with reservations or $25 at the door.Reservations: (805) 285-3612.

* State superintendent of education candidate Delaine Eastin will speak at a dinner meeting of the National Women's Political Caucus of the San Fernando Valley beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at China 28 restaurant, 17337 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Cost is $15 per person. Reservations: (818) 763-4161.

* Mark Boos Benhard, Republican candidate for the 24th Congressional District, is scheduled to speak at a North San Fernando Valley Republican Assembly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Galpin Ford, 15555 Roscoe Blvd., Van Nuys. Reservations: (818) 719-8828 or (818) 226-6829.

Once or twice a year, the elements all come together for a perfect moment. The planets align, and something special happens on the ice.

Once or twice a year, Stu Grimson scores a goal.

Grimson, the 6-foot-5 Mighty Duck enforcer, broke the longest streak without a goal in the NHL this season when he scored his first goal at 19:16 of the second period of a 4-3 loss to Dallas at Reunion Arena Tuesday night.

But the playoff hopes of Grimson and his teammates slipped a little further into the distance as they fell six points back with 11 games left after San Jose tied Pittsburgh.

"It was all for naught," Grimson said. "It doesn't really feel that thrilling when it doesn't count for much. It's a lot better when you can assist on a winning cause. It takes the edge off it. I really thought it might have been the lift we needed, but it turned out it wasn't."

The goal -- only the fourth of Grimson's 242-game career -- set off a celebration as Grimson skated in front of the bench, high-fiving with teammates.

"It was a beaut," Coach Ron Wilson said, after Patrik Carnback put a pretty pass on Grimson's stick on the right side of the net, and Grimson handled it deftly at his feet to beat goalie Darcy Wakaluk.

Grimson hadn't scored since Dec. 31, 1992, a stretch of 106 games without a goal. That is not the longest streak in the NHL -- Philadelphia's Rob Zettler, for one, hasn't scored in at least 125 after not scoring all last season.

But Grimson's streak this season was distinguished by how many games he has played without scoring a goal, showing the team appreciates his work enough to put him out there almost every night. The goal came in his 71st game. Only eight skaters who have appeared in at least 50 games haven't scored. Only two who have played at least 65 games -- Dallas' Doug Zmolek (70) and Ottawa's Gord Dineen (68) -- haven't scored.

Dallas took a 3-1 lead with the help of Mike Modano's 43rd and 44th goals -- both on power plays -- but Grimson's goal cut it to one just before the end of the second period.

But the spark he hoped for didn't come. Derian Hatcher made it 4-2 at 2:23 of the third, and the Ducks' third-period comeback was stopped short.

They went on the power play with 2:12 remaining when Hatcher was called for holding, but they didn't capitalize until it was too late. With the Ducks using an extra attacker in the final 1:18, Carnback scored off a rebound with 7.9 seconds left.

"I didn't know how much time was left, but when I saw seven seconds, I understood it was over," Carnback said.

The Ducks' goaltending situation, seemingly resolved when Ron Tugnutt was traded to Montreal last month, has changed again. Guy Hebert's brief hold on No. 1 is over.

Tugnutt's replacement, Mikhail Shtalenkov, has been sharp since arriving and has started the past three games. Wilson says he's essentially back to alternating, with Hebert set for the next game, though a standout performance can earn a goalie another start.

"Guy's worked hard in practice lately and I think he's gained some respect for Mikhail that might have been lacking," Wilson said. "Mikhail played well again. There's nothing wrong with having two good goalies."

There's nothing wrong with having a tough guy who can knock in the very occasional goal, either.

"Obviously scoring this late in the season, there were a lot of nights where it was starting to get kind of frustrating," said Grimson, who has contributed five assists for a career-high six points. "The opportunity has been there. I've had some near-misses, so you have to be encouraged by that. I just don't want to put myself in the position psychologically now where it's, 'OK, the pressure's off, and I can float.' I'd like to make that kind of contribution every night." Ducks Notes

Left wing Troy Loney will join the team in Boston today after remaining in Anaheim with his wife, Aafke, for the birth of their son, Clint Teagan, on Monday. . . . About $400,000 was raised at Fan Fair, a team fund raiser for the Disney GOALS youth hockey program.

Every so often, someone will wonder if I happen to know, "What's Steve Garvey doing these days?" Particularly in springtime, when camps are training baseball players to be half the player Garvey was, inquiring minds will be curious as to what Garvey is up to, whether instead of running the bases he is running a business, or running for office, or what?

Garvey is the new publisher of Sport magazine.

Journalist Steve has been on the job at the L.A.-based magazine for a few weeks now, ever since the January earthquake, in fact.

"That was my first day at work," he remembers. "I was supposed to start that morning, but the quake hit us around 4:30. Well, you know me, mister never-miss-a-game. I get dressed and go to the office on time.

"The guard is standing there at the building saying, 'What the heck are you doing here?' He's looking at me like, 'We had a little earthquake around here this morning, buddy, in case you hadn't noticed.' '

Garvey was eager to get to work, same as always. This is his spring training in the magazine business. He intends to be a hands-on publisher, not some figurehead.

Sport is one of the most venerable monthlies in the magazine trade, one that in the past has known much success. But black ink or red, it was in need of some new blood.

Corporate executives got the idea of bringing in someone who would be an ideal crossover choice, someone who could exist comfortably in each of a sport magazine's worlds -- sport and magazines. Garvey was a natural. He was someone who could be as at ease inside a boardroom meeting with business leaders and advertisers as he generally has been with writers and photographers.

"It just seemed to be the perfect idea at the perfect time," Garvey says.

Already he has taken an active role in a new design for the magazine, and will reshape some of its editorial content. He also will write a publisher's column in each issue.

One of the first issues he could address, were it not so self-serving, could be, "What's wrong with those Hall of Fame voters?"

I can only speak for myself when I say that Garvey has gotten one of my votes for baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown ever since he became eligible. So far, though, I have not been able to successfully push him over the top for the necessary number of votes, any more than I did Orlando Cepeda.

Anyone who reviews Garvey's numbers would be hard-pressed to explain why he isn't a Hall of Famer. His batting totals alone are noteworthy, but when you take into account his astounding fielding percentages at first base, his World Series and All-Star achievements and his consecutive-game streak, it is not easy to ascertain exactly where Garvey is lacking.

Then again, as they say, if getting there was easy, everybody would do it.

I asked if Garvey had ever weighed making a comeback after his retirement, a la Jim Palmer. After all, he kept himself in pretty good shape. Probably could have padded his numbers a bit.

He said: "I did think about it after my injury healed. But the first team I contacted told me, 'We can't offer you a contract, but you could come down and try out.' And the next team I contacted told me, 'We can't offer you a contract, but you could come down and try out.'

"To me, that was another example of the collusion among baseball executives. Every one would give exactly the same answer, in virtually the exact same words."

Back when he was playing for the Dodgers and later for San Diego, there was no telling where Garvey's post-career interests might take him. He dabbled in broadcasting, ventured into various business areas and had often expressed a curiosity about politics. There was some much-publicized upheaval in his personal life, then a quiet time when he didn't make the news much.

Now he publishes it. Sport magazine used to sponsor the trophy presented to baseball's most valuable players. Now, the National League's most valuable player of 1974 is running Sport magazine.

"I've gone over to the other side," Garvey says.

No, not really. The man can never be a true sports journalist. He works hard and dresses well.

Former NBA referee Earl Strom in his book, "Calling the Shots, My Five Decades in the NBA," recalled working a college game at the old Madison Square Garden in New York.

"A woman sitting on the end line was giving me (grief) the whole game. Right near the end she stood up and yelled, 'If you were my husband, I'd feed you poison mushrooms.'

"I said, 'Lady, if I was your husband, I'd eat 'em.' "

*

Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA tournament record for highest career field-goal percentage?

*

Sleepskating: Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe, writing about Boston's slow start in a recent 4-2 loss to to Pittsburgh:

"The Bruins came out like 20 skating Barney Fifes."

*

Conventional wisdom: From Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News: "The late Jimmy Cannon wrote it several years ago, but it has never been more true than today:

" 'The trouble with the big leagues is that there aren't enough big leaguers.' "

*

Calling 911: Milwaukee pitcher Steve Sparks recently suffered a dislocated left shoulder in a most unusual manner. He was trying to tear a telephone book apart with his bare hands after a demonstration by a California motivational group called Radical Reality.

"This is one of the freakiest injuries I've seen," trainer John Adam said. "And a bit annoying, because I had to look up a (phone) number later."

*

The Big O's: Michael Jordan, who is now a minor leaguer, began his baseball career with the Chicago White Sox by going 0 for 14 in spring training. Did he ever have an 0-for-14 game in the NBA?

Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer asked statistical whiz Harvey Pollack of the 76ers and he got a short answer: Get real.

Only two players in the NBA -- Tim Hardaway, 0 for 17, and Rodney McCray, 0 for 15 -- shot so many blanks during Jordan's entire career.

Jordan's worst shooting night: a three for 17 in 1986-87.

*

Queen who? Dizzy Dean, as the St. Louis Browns' announcer, when the Queen of The Netherlands took a seat in the stands below him:

"I don't know what all the commotion down there is, but it has somethin' to do with a fat lady."

*

There's a limit: Pittsburgh Manager Jim Leyland on Cincinnati owner Marge Schott throwing a birthday party for her St. Bernard, Schottzie, before a Pirates-Reds exhibition:

"I ain't singing 'Happy Birthday' to a no dog."

*

Clip this: Orlando General Manager Pat Williams on the Magic's rookie guard, Anfernee Hardaway:

"Five years from now, he'll be the most exciting athlete in the game. Like with Magic Johnson, every time he touches the ball, you'll hear the crowd oohing and aahing."

*

Trivia answer: UCLA's Bill Walton, 68.6%, 1972-74.

*

Quotebook: Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller on Jordan: "He's not a natural hitter. He couldn't hit a curveball with an ironing board." MAL FLORENCE

Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson each scored 25 points as the New Jersey Nets beat the Clippers, 105-102, Tuesday night for their sixth straight home victory.

P.J. Brown scored six of his 12 points in the final 1:44 and grabbed 16 rebounds for the Nets, who have won 14 of their last 16 at home.

New Jersey opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run to take an 84-79 lead.

The Clippers pulled to 97-95 on a three-pointer by Dominique Wilkins with 1:36 left before Brown hit a jumper to give the Nets a four-point lead.

Wilkins, who finished with 33 points, got a three-point play with 1:09 remaining to make it 99-98. Armon Gilliam hit two free throws to give the Nets a 101-98 lead, but Elmore Spencer's dunk off a pass from Wilkins with 38 seconds left cut New Jersey's lead to one again.

A jumper by Brown and two free throws by Anderson helped the Nets take a 105-102 lead. The Clippers had a chance to tie in the closing seconds, but Mark Jackson missed a three-pointer.Ron Harper and Spencer each scored 21 for the Clippers.

The Nets only made 34 of 90 shots (38%), but they outrebounded the Clippers, 70-49, including a 27-13 advantage on the offensive glass.

"We struggled tonight," said Net Coach Chuck Daly. "They're a very tough team to defend and we struggled to get it done offensively. P.J. was the open guy tonight. He hit two big shots."

Anderson said he has tried to encourage Brown to take the open shot.

"I keep telling P.J. to drill those shots and that's the bottom line. We all know he can make them," Anderson said.

Brown, whose 12 points was one shy of his season high, said he took Anderson's advice.

"Kenny told me not to lose my confidence and to take the shot if it was there," Brown said. "At the end, I took those shots with confidence and that's the whole key to this game."

Clipper Coach Bob Weiss said rebounding was the difference.

"This was a frustrating loss," he said. "We scrapped but just couldn't keep them off the offensive boards."

Wayne Gretzky is going to break the NHL goal-scoring record any minute now, but, funny, I have always admired him more for his assists. . . .

He broke the NHL assist record six years ago. . . .

He has led the league in goals four times and in assists 12 times. . . .

He hasn't won a goal-scoring title since 1987, but is about to win his fourth assist title in the last five years. . . .

He is Magic Johnson on a fast break, usually preferring to feed a teammate rather than shooting. . . .

Gretzky lends a helping hand off the ice, too. . . .

His charitable contributions are numerous, and most are made without attention being called to them. . . .

He is a tireless promoter of his sport. . . .

He makes my job more pleasant by giving thoughtful, quotable answers to questions, often even after losses. . . .

Prediction for tonight's King-Vancouver game at the Forum: Gretzky will get goal No. 802 and assists Nos. 1,647, 1,648 and 1,649. . . .

Craig Janney's Canuck career sure was disappointing. . . .

Cam Neely won't play another game for the Boston Bruins this season, but I would still vote him NHL most valuable player. . . .

The Mighty Ducks must not be very confident about their playoff chances if they trade their only Western Conference All-Star, defenseman Alexei Kasatonov, to St. Louis for a junior player and a sixth-round draft choice. . . .

The New York Rangers now lead the Kings in former Edmonton Oilers, 7-5. . . .

You have to be impressed when Dodger pitching coach Ron Perranoski, not given to hyperbole, says rookie Darren Dreifort's fastball moves better than any right-hander's he has ever seen. . . .

Pitching in the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor league camp is Damon Allen, brother of Marcus and most valuable player in the Grey Cup last year as a quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos. . . .

For the first time, baseball season will open on a Sunday night, St. Louis at Cincinnati on April 3. . . .

The guy carrying the biggest stick in the majors is third baseman Charlie Hayes of the Colorado Rockies, whose bat weighs 38 ounces. . . .

A young Baltimore Oriole to watch is Jeffrey Hammonds, the left fielder from Stanford. . . .

*

Two of the 16 finalists for the Wooden Award, Clifford Rozier of Louisville and Khalid Reeves of Arizona, will meet Thursday in the West Regional at the Sports Arena, which used to be home court for Wooden's UCLA Bruins. . . .

Of course, the prohibitive favorite is Glenn Robinson from Wooden's alma mater, Purdue. . . .

Jason Kidd -- a brilliant playmaker and defender but a mediocre shooter -- figures to be selected second, third or fourth behind Robinsion in the draft. . . .

Consider yourself a college hoops fanatic if you can recite the names of the teams remaining in the National Invitation Tournament. . . .

The two-point conversion rule is another reason the Raiders should pick a running back in the first round of the draft, or, if they have the money after cutting some veterans at other positions, sign a free-agent runner. . . .

If Burt Bacharach's Soul Of The Matter faces Powis Castle, the Santa Anita Derby won't be missing a beat April 9. Powis Castle is owned by the Vistas Stables of Motown's Berry Gordy. . . .

Even though Strodes Creek and Numerous missed the two major prep races for the Santa Anita Derby, I'm not discounting them for one simple reason: trainer Charlie Whittingham. . . .

Thumbs-up to ABC for putting good-humored Al Trautwig on its World Cup announcing team. . . .

Herbie Hide's seventh-round knockout of Michael Bentt that sent Bentt to the hospital didn't exactly flatter Tommy Morrison. . . .

Bubby Brister could become the Jody Reed of the NFL. The quarterback who turned down a $2-million contract from the New Orleans Saints might re-sign with the Philadelphia Eagles for $1 million. . . .

The defensive tackle expected to be drafted No. 1 overall by the Cincinnati Bengals -- 6-foot-4, 313-pound Dan Wilkinson of Ohio State -- ran 40 yards in 4.72 seconds at the scouting combine. . . .

Among free agents who have worked out for the San Francisco 49ers is Tony Bennett.

With three consecutive winning records and the school's surprising run through the NCAA tournament, Tulsa Coach Tubby Smith is one of the hottest coaching prospects around.

Tennessee has asked for permission to meet with Smith, and outgoing Tulsa athletic director Rick Dickson said he has received a couple of other feelers.

"We're just telling everybody they need to wait until basketball is over," said Dickson, who will leave next month to become athletic director at Washington State. Tulsa will play Arkansas in the Midwest Regional semifinals Friday night in Dallas.

Smith said he is willing to listen to offers, "but I'm really going to listen to the University of Tulsa first." He said that Tennessee was an offer he would listen to, but he declined to elaborate.

"This is where I want to be at this point," Smith said. "I think we've got a program well on its way to being what we all hope we can do. You've got to do the best job you can where you are. If you do, people are going to recognize you're doing a good job, and you're going to always be in demand. That's what I want to do."

Smith was left with no returning starters when he took over for J.D. Barnett, but still managed a 17-13 record and lost by three points in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament final. The next year, Tulsa learned it was banned from postseason play only three days before the season started because of NCAA violations by the track team.

This year, Tulsa won the MVC regular-season title and 20 games for the first time since 1987. Throughout the season, Smith has had a five-year contract extension on his desk. Smith said he hasn't signed it because he wanted to concentrate solely on basketball.

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Starting forward Donyell Marshall has a sprained ankle and has been unable to practice, Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. However, he said there is no ligament damage and not much swelling, and team doctors expect Marshall to recover in time for Friday's game against Florida.

Rick Barnes, who coached Providence to the Big East tournament championship this year, was hired to replace Cliff Ellis as coach at Clemson.

Ellis said in January that this would be his last season at Clemson after 10 years.

Western Kentucky's Ralph Willard is expected to be hired at Providence within a week, The Providence Journal-Bulletin reported.

Barnes was 108-76 in six seasons at Providence and took the Friars to three NCAA tournaments and two NITs. Providence, 20-10 this year, ended its season Thursday with an NCAA tournament loss to Alabama.

Clemson ended the regular season 15-14 and lost to Duke in the second round of the ACC tournament. The Tigers beat West Virginia in the second round of the NIT Monday night and will play Vanderbilt tonight.

No matter what happens at the Sports Arena on Thursday night, Missouri Coach Norm Stewart is in better shape than he was the last time the Tigers played Syracuse.

"This is a better deal for me," Stewart said in Columbia, Mo., on Tuesday.

But when the Orangemen beat Missouri, 83-80, on March 24, 1989, Stewart was in no shape to be behind the bench. He had undergone treatment for colon cancer and a diseased gallbladder and was too weak to even think about getting back to coaching.

"I was just trying to get well," he says.

Stewart, 59, has made a full recovery and will not miss the final 16 matchup this time around, although he acknowledges that while he hasn't slowed down much, there is a difference. He said the simple knowledge that he is "on the right side of the grass" has given him a new perspective.

"I'm not as instinctive as I used to be," he said.

The Tigers, seeded No. 1 in the West, are making their fifth trip to the final 16. Their best finish under Stewart was in 1976, when they lost in the regional finals to Michigan.

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Louisville Coach Denny Crum says defense has been the difference for his Cardinals this season.

"We've not gotten any credit for our defense," Crum says. "Nobody thinks of Louisville playing defense, but defense is what has carried us."

Louisville has limited 21 opponents to less than 42% shooting and 40.5% overall in 33 games. The Cardinals also average nine steals.

Louisville, which has won eight of its last nine games, will be tested by an Arizona offense that is averaging 90.2 points. The Wildcats have made a school-record 258 three-point shots.

The National Invitation Tournament is not a consolation prize for every team in its field.

When it's your first postseason appearance in 36 years in Division I, the NIT is serious and losing is devastating.

"There are 13 kids down here, and they are all crying because it means a lot to them," said Gonzaga Coach Dan Fitzgerald after his Bulldogs (22-8) were beaten, 66-64, by Kansas State (19-12) at Manhattan, Kan. "I told them this was something that we will remember for the rest of our lives."

Askia Jones scored a game-high 22 points, including two free throws with 4.9 seconds to play, to preserve the win for Kansas State, which now plays Fresno State.

Bradley 79, Old Dominion 75 -- Deon Jackson scored 27 points and Bradley (23-7) rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to beat the Monarchs (21-10) at Peoria, Ill., and advance to a quarterfinal game against Sienna on Thursday.

Siena 89, Tulane 79 -- Doremus Bennerman scored 33 points for the second consecutive game, leading Siena (23-7) past the Green Wave (18-11) at Albany, N.Y.

Fresno State 68, Brigham Young 66 -- Seth Marshall sank two free throws in the final 11 seconds, lifting the Bulldogs (21-10) over the Cougars (22-10).

Today's practices for the teams in the NCAA West Regional at the Sports Arena will be open to the public, with no admission charged. The practice times:

Syracuse: Noon

Louisville: 1 p.m.

Missouri: 2 p.m.

Arizona: 3 p.m.

Castaic and Casitas might be the lakes for trophy-sized largemouth bass, but Riverside County's Lake Perris seems to be the place for regular bass.

"Guys have been catching 25 bass a day," said Mark Hamann, an employee at the lake.

The bass have moved into the shallows to spawn. They are averaging only 14 inches, Hamann said, but there are exceptions. Ted Ford of Los Angeles landed an 8-pound 12-ounce bass while fishing a Power Worm at the dam, and Gary Marshman of Murrieta caught a 6-pounder while fishing a plastic worm at the east end.

"Free Rudy!"

That was the cry for the last few weeks in Rancho Cordova, until a 100-year-old Maine lobster presumably destined for the dinner table was shipped back to its home waters and set free.

The giant lobster, caught in a fisherman's net and flown west to Rudy's Hideaway, a restaurant in the Sacramento suburb, spent weeks in a tank before arrangements could be made for it to be flown back east. Rudy, as the crustacean had been dubbed by restaurant personnel, was released Monday at an undisclosed site off New Hampshire.

"I was told he arrived in good shape," said Steve Ryan, owner of Rudy's. "He was lively when he got there, and when he saw the ocean he became even more lively. He was released and then he really took off."

Ryan thought he was merely getting an unusually large lobster from his East Coast broker, who normally ships 2 1/2- to 3 1/2-pound specimens. He had no way of knowing that when the giant crustacean arrived, so would the TV cameras and protesters.

"We found out after it arrived that it was not so much an 18-pound lobster, but a 100-year-old lobster," Ryan said, adding that Rudy "would have probably fed a small neighborhood."

An animal-rights group got involved in the lobster-liberation movement, and with Ryan's permission made plans to have Rudy sent back to the Atlantic.

Just as well, Ryan said. "It was the size of the Buick. It had huge claws. We probably would have needed a buzz saw to get through the shell."

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Strong winds practically blew the Del Mar off the water, but a fishing trip promoting next month's Santa Monica Bay Halibut Derby wasn't a total bust.

The crew gave the fishery a boost of sorts by releasing 100 hatchery-raised fish into the bay.

"They were all 8- to 10-inch fish," tournament chairman John Bourget said.

The trip was cut short when a huge wave slammed against the side of the boat shortly before noon.

"It was choppy at first, but we caught five nice halibut," Bourget said. "Then all of a sudden one big, big wave came in and soaked half of the guys. After that, the skipper said it was time to head in."

The derby, proceeds from which benefit youth groups and the halibut hatchery project, will be held April 16-17. Details: (310) 450-5131.

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Barracuda have made their annual springtime showing at various locations from San Diego to Palos Verdes, an indication that bottom-fishing for sluggish rock cod and rockfish will soon give way to surface fishing.

One of the better bites has been at Horseshoe Kelp outside of L.A. Harbor, where large female barracuda are mixed in with smaller fish. The Matt Walsh returned with 42 fish on Saturday and the First String had 25 on Monday.

There is a catch, though.

"You have to have the anchovies for bait if you want to catch them," said Mark Larson, a spokesman at L.A. Harbor Sportfishing. "And they've been hard to come by."

Strong winds hampered the fishing effort Tuesday.

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The Golden Gate appears to have finally lost some of its luster.

The popular fishing area off Cabo San Lucas had been the site of an outstanding marlin bite since last November, but seasonal winds appear to have finally shut it down.

"The water turned green and the mackerel the marlin were feeding on have disappeared," Mario Banaga of the Pisces Fleet said. "So far (Tuesday), only one boat had some fish, three yellowfin tuna . . . small ones, about eight pounds."

Banaga said there is an abundance of larger tuna offshore and when the winds let up, the Cabo fleets should have no trouble finding porpoises and the tuna that feed beneath them.

Briefly

MISCELLANY -- The Inland Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation will hold a seminar and calling contest Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Sizzler in Corona. Details: (909) 985-5896. . . . Pacific Edge in Huntington Beach will hold a seminar covering all aspects of trailering boats into Baja California on Saturday at 11 a.m. Details: (714) 840-4262. . . . The Fly Fishers Club of Orange County will hold a casting clinic Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at William Mason Park in Irvine. Details: (909) 598-7905. . . . The Claybird Classic, a sporting clays contest for amateurs, will be held Sunday at Coto Valley Shooting Club in Coto de Caza. Details: (714) 589-5000.

Geronimo Berroa, a non-roster outfielder who now is batting 17 for 34. hit two home runs to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 5-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Phoenix. . . . Brian Jordan hit a three-run homer as the St. Louis Cardinals ended a 20-inning scoreless drought with a 9-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox in St. Petersburg, Fla. . . . Will Clark's second home run of the game, a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth, gave the Texas Rangers a 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in Port Charlotte, Fla.

Tino Ray Younger, girls' soccer coach at El Modena, and Harry Hutcheson, girls' coach at Capistrano Valley, announced their resignations Tuesday.

Younger stepped down after four years to concentrate on coaching in college; Hutcheson resigned after two years to work on getting a full-time teaching job.

Younger, who led the Vanguards to their first girls' soccer league title this season, also is an assistant coach at Cypress College. Cypress advanced to the State championship game last season.

Younger was named the Southern Section Division II coach of the year this season. The Vanguards finished 20-6, losing in a quarterfinal to Esperanza. Younger's record at El Modena was 53-27-14.

Hutcheson, who coached the boys' junior varsity for eight years, had a 39-10-8 record with the girls' varsity. MARTIN BECK

Whether they score 68, 78 or 28 points against New York, the Chicago Bulls aren't giving the Knicks any respect until they do once what Chicago has done for the last three years -- win an NBA title.

"The Knicks talk about respect a lot, but the only way they'll get it from us is to win a championship," Scottie Pippen said Tuesday night after the Knicks beat the Bulls, 87-78, at New York for their 10th consecutive victory.

The Knicks held the opposition under 90 points for the ninth time during their longest winning streak since they won 11 straight in 1972-73.

Hubert Davis scored 24 points for New York, including a 3-pointer with 1:51 left that capped a decisive 7-0 run.

Denver 108, Milwaukee 94 -- Mahmoud Abdul Rauf scored 22 points and Dikembe Mutombo had 14 rebounds and six blocks in the Nugget victory at Denver.

LaPhonso Ellis had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who outscored the Bucks, 33-18, in the third quarter. Eric Murdock led Milwaukee with 30 points.

Phoenix 124, Miami 118 -- The Suns rallied from an 18-point deficit against the Heat at Phoenix and won the game in overtime. A.C. Green had seven points and three rebounds in the overtime.

Kevin Johnson sparked the comeback, scoring 24 of his 35 points in the second half and overtime.

Minnesota 83, Houston 81 -- Chris Smith rebounded his own miss and scored with five seconds left to lift the Timberwolves over the Rockets at Minneapolis.

Stacey King scored 19 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked a career-high seven shots for the Timberwolves.

Charlotte 125, Philadelphia 91 -- Alonzo Mourning and Dell Curry scored 24 points apiece at Charlotte as the Hornets posted their largest victory this season and sent the 76ers to their 19th loss in 20 games.

Muggsy Bogues had 12 points and 11 assists for Charlotte. Jeff Malone paced the Sixers with 16 points.

Cleveland 93, Indiana 61 -- The Pacers were held to their lowest point total ever in their loss to the Cavaliers at Richfield, Ohio.

The 61 points were the third fewest scored by an NBA team since the 24-second clock was introduced in 1954. The lowest output since then was 57 by Milwaukee against Boston in 1955.

Golden State 117, Orlando 116 -- The Warriors overcame a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter at Oakland and beat the Magic on Billy Owens' tip-in with 21 seconds remaining. Chris Webber then blocked Dennis Scott's shot in the lane with just over five seconds left.

The Magic argued to no avail that Webber should have been called for goaltending.

Seattle 105, San Antonio 89 -- Sam Perkins scored nine of his 27 points in the fourth quarter at Seattle as the SuperSonics beat the Spurs for the third time in a row this season.

Gary Payton had 21 points and six assists for Seattle.

David Robinson led the Spurs with 27 points and eight rebounds. Willie Anderson added 18 points.

Portland 96, Sacramento 94 -- Clyde Drexler scored with one second remaining at Sacramento as the Trail Blazers snapped a five-game road losing streak. Drexler scored 28 points for Portland. Lionel Simmons led the Kings with 26.

The first John R. Wooden Classic, featuring a game between UCLA and Kentucky, will be held Dec. 3 at Anaheim Arena, it was announced Tuesday. Kansas will meet Massachusetts in the second game of the doubleheader.

UCLA and Kentucky have not met since the 1975 NCAA final that marked Wooden's last game as a coach and his 10th national title. Both games will be nationally televised, the first starting at 10:30 a.m. Tickets will go on sale in June.

Wooden joined three of his most famous former players -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton and Michael Warren -- for Tuesday's announcement in Anaheim.

"I'm flattered and proud," he said. "You have to keep your ego in the proper perspective, but I'm glad they saw fit to name this event in my honor. I think it can become something very worthwhile."

It has been a busy past seven months for Randy Ryan, who will serve as the event's president, and J.T. Visbal, who will be executive vice president. The two dreamed up the event and organized it.

Ryan said response from college coaches has been positive.

"It certainly didn't take lot of effort to get people involved who wanted to honor Coach Wooden," Ryan said. "Every major basketball program that we've talked to has indicated that they want to participate whenever they're invited."

Ryan said no commitments have been made after the first year.

The presence of Abdul-Jabbar, Walton and Warren at a news conference underlined the magic Wooden's name adds to the event.

"John Wooden and the word classic go hand in hand," Walton said.

Warren, noting Wooden's philosophy, said playing was more important than awards.

"That's why I think having an event of this type named after him is so fitting," he said.

It took almost three years, but USC has finally returned to the top of college baseball's rankings.

The Trojans, who entered the week 21-6 overall and 8-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division, are ranked No. 1 by Baseball America for the first time since May 6, 1991.

Last weekend, USC won two of three Pac-10 games against Stanford, the first time since 1981 that the Trojans won a series at Palo Alto.

USC, which has won 12 of its last 13 games, is in first place in the Pac-10 Southern Division with a half-game lead over California.

"Being ranked No. 1 is not going to bother us because teams are always out to get us anyway," said senior infielder Lionel Hastings, who was seven for 13 with a home run and five runs batted in against Stanford. "That's just part of playing at USC."

Aaron Boone is batting .384 and Walter Dawkins has hit nine home runs for the Trojans, who feature one of the country's best offensive lineups. The key to the Trojans' success, however, has been a pitching staff that has compiled a 3.16 earned-run average. Freshman Randy Flores, a left-hander, is 4-0 with a 1.46 ERA.

"He's shown a lot of moxie for a freshman," USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. "He's not intimidated by any situation."

USC is hoping to ride its No. 1 ranking to a Pac-10 title, a regional championship and its first trip to the College World Series since 1978. The Trojans will try not to stumble tonight against Loyola Marymount or this weekend against UCLA, which is 6-17 overall and 2-4 in conference.

"They've scuffled in a big way," Gillespie said of the Bruins. "But they're most definitely going to win some big games and ruin someone's season."

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Trivia time: If former Wichita State right-hander Darren Dreifort makes the Dodgers' opening-day roster, he will become the third player from the 1993 draft to break into the major leagues. Who were the first two?

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