SPORTS WATCH : Star Trek

These are troubled times for local sports fans. Two idols whose popularity reaches far beyond the Los Angeles area may face the end of their careers.

Bo Jackson, the two-sport wonder who plays baseball in the summer and Raider football in the fall, and Fernando Valenzuela, the veteran Dodger lefty, have become so famous here that even when you just use their first name, everyone knows whom you’re talking about.

If only such fame lasted forever.

But it doesn’t, as baseball fans were reminded on Sunday when Valenzuela pitched so effectively--and dramatically--for the Dodgers in an exhibition game in Mexico. It was a bittersweet homecoming for the Sonoran southpaw--the first time he’d pitched in his homeland in a decade. Even his staunchest fans concede that Valenzuela is no longer the pitcher he was when Fernandomania was in full swing. But for five innings he showed what he can still do. Is that reason enough to hope all the trade rumors are false? Ojala! May it be so.

Then on Monday the Kansas City Royals cut Jackson from their roster because of a hip injury he suffered in his last football game, which may keep him from ever playing baseball again. Raider owner Al Davis, a good judge of football talent, says he believes Jackson can still play for his team. A one-sport Bo’s better than none. So ojala , otra vez.

But spring training is not supposed to be a time for learning that our sports gods are mere mortals. If these two still-young men are proved so, we’ll all be the lesser for it.