Stadium Security Foils Sign-Waving Plans to Solicit an All-Star Proposal

The official name of the proceeding was the 63rd Annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Amy Jo Thompson will remember it instead as The Night When Young Love Confronted Stadium Security and Lost.

Being a child of the media age, Thompson, 22, a desk clerk at the Marriott in Rancho Bernardo, figured she’d found a way to get her boyfriend to take the big step.

Her true love is Rick Rodriguez, a jet mechanic for General Dynamics who’s been sent to Key West, Fla.

Rodriguez used to play for the Montreal Expos. Thompson was sure he’d be watching Tuesday’s All-Star Game on television.

She did up a big sign: “To Key West, Fla. Rick: Marry Me!! I Love You, Amy Jo.”

She dressed in a tight-tight tank top (also one tiny baseball earring, one tiny baseball bat earring) and headed off for San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

She waited for a lull. In the 7th inning, she figured the time had come to catch the eye of the CBS cameraman positioned just outside the center-field fence.

Backed up by her roomie (Kari Machado, 23), Thompson sashayed along the plaza-level walkway near in the railing. The cameraman showed immediate interest (cute young women, cute sign, dull ballgame).

But before the cameraman could swing his bulky equipment in Amy Jo’s direction, usher Johnnie Bates, who’s been ushering at the stadium for a decade, intervened.

He explained that stadium rules prohibit leaning over the railing or holding up signs in the walkway.

“There’s other places for those signs, not here,” Bates said. “The rules say no hanging over the rail. We go to school to learn these rules!”

Thompson and Machado protested. Machado was particularly vociferous.

She did a kind of a Dick Williams-confronts-umpire imitation: jaw, retreat, turn, jaw some more. . . .

The crowd, already restive because of the blowout on the field, started to boo. Security guards backed up Bates and snatched the sign from Machado.

“All I wanted was two seconds of network time,” Thompson said. “What I got instead was my sign crumpled.”

Mighty Mongolians

Bodies all over town.

* Amarjargal, the Mongolian strongman with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, now at the Sports Arena, maintains his muscles with a diet heavy on red meat and dairy products.

Then again, there’s no Mongolian word for cholesterol.

* The biggest applause at the opener Wednesday night was for the (female) Mongolian contortionists.

* Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, criticized by baseball fans for various decisions, found no respite at the All-Star Game.

A small plane towed a banner over the stadium: “Fay. Is Lake Edna in the NL West or NL East?”

Steven Thorne of Escondido suggests that the bullet-proof glass was installed in the owners’ box to protect Vincent, not President Bush.

* The serio-comic story of the Famous Chicken being booted from the All-Star Game (he had a ticket but not permission to perform) has gone all the way to the New York Times: “All-Star Game Jailbird.”

* Parade magazine is sniffing the story of Henry Hubbard, the cop-turned-rapist.

* The newly formed San Diego Veterans Assn. is encouraging homosexuals in the military to march in Saturday’s Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade.

But an SDVA handout warns them to be careful: “Active duty personnel who wish to disguise their identity may wear masks, makeup, wigs. . . .”

Say Good Night, Ross

No mas Ross.

* Maybe Ross Perot quit too soon.

As President Bush was being booed at the All-Star Game, fans in the left-field stands were cheering a banner held aloft by two college students:

“Bush Is a Tush. Vote Perot.”

* The sticker that (really) sticks.

Within minutes of Perot’s announcement, KSON radio was offering KSON bumper stickers to San Diegans who want to cover up their Perot bumper stickers to avoid the embarrassment of having backed a dropout.

* San Diego political consultant John Dadian thinks Perot was just too vague for voters: “Bush said, ‘Read my lips,’ but Perot said, ‘Read my mind.’ ”