One surprise guest on Fred Roggin’s “Sports...

One surprise guest on Fred Roggin’s “Sports Bowl ‘89” highlights program on KNBC was Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

Gates, employing an impressive Joe Friday-like, monotone delivery, took part in a running gag that parodied the “Most Wanted” show. Playing himself, Gates gave repeated warnings about a fugitive bulldog whose m.o. is to steal skateboards after knocking the riders aside.

This wasn’t the chief’s acting debut, though.

“He’s had bit parts in a couple of shows,” said Cmdr. William Booth, a police spokesman. “In fact, because he spoke one line in (the detective series) ‘Hunter,’ he had to join the (Screen Actors) Guild.”

A check with the guild confirmed that Gates’ dues are paid up.

He has no agent--yet.

A photograph in The Times last Friday that showed the RAND Corp.’s Benjamin S. Lambeth inside the cockpit of a MIG-29 aroused the suspicions of some attentive readers.

They phoned to ask: If that really and truly was the Soviets’ most advanced jet fighter, then why were the words “rear cockpit” visible in plain English behind Lambeth’s head?

The craft wasn’t some movie prop--really.

Lambeth, RAND’s Soviet military expert, said there were definite reasons for the apparent anomaly: “English is the international language of aviation and the MIG was an export demonstrator” model that has appeared at air shows in Paris and Vancouver.

“If I had $20 million,” said Lambeth, “I could have flown that one home myself.”

Elvis-Head Sightings (cont.):

The floral noggin of the King arrived in his home state of Mississippi after being denied entrance at the gates of the Graceland Mansion on the singer’s 55th birthday. Before leaving Memphis, the ex-Rose Parade float was towed to a parking lot of a 7-Eleven store by its stewards, KLOS disc jockeys Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps.

An estimated 300 Elvis fans gathered there. Unfortunately, the float was showing the effects of the four-day journey from Pasadena.

“A lot of fans were pulling flowers off it and picking the hair, which is made of seaweed,” said KLOS spokesman Steven Smith. “Its sunglasses were just trashed too.”

Obviously, the petal-pickers forgot the sentiments of “Treat Me Nice.”

It didn’t raise quite the controversy that ensued in Beverly Hills when a smoking ban at restaurants was proposed (and later watered down). But many bingo players in Alhambra obviously objected last July when the City Council passed a no-smoking ordinance that applied to certain public buildings, including those that offer bingo.

Officials of St. Therese Church and Temple Beth Torah told the city that attendance at the previously lucrative games fell by almost 33% after the ban. To halt the puffer-drain, the City Council this week exempted public bingo games.

One thing’s for sure: Alhambra’s players weren’t turning to Pasadena for action in the meantime. That city’s no-smoking law also covers bingo, and officials there said recently that they haven’t heard a single complaint.

Go figure.

Listen to the experts:

A six-wheeler truck passed through downtown Tuesday, carrying a big sign that read: “ Please drive safely.”

The truck belonged to the Batesville Casket Co.