These Fans Are Ready to Rumble

Not everyone in Southern California is worried about Quakes. Some, in fact, are looking forward to them.

Kelly Houser of Ontario is one of them. He waited more than 24 hours at the Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga for the Quakes’ ticket office to open so he could be the first to purchase seats for the California League baseball season.

“It said in the Quakes’ advertisement in the paper that the early bird gets the worm, so here I am,” Houser said. “I came early because we wanted the best tickets in the park.”

Add Quakes: The Rancho Cucamonga team sold 12,000 single-game tickets the day they went on sale. Opening day is April 7 against the High Desert Mavericks.

Trivia time: Which three teams have played in each of the last 10 NCAA basketball tournaments?

Dodger, for sure: Headline in the New York Daily News when the Dodgers’ Darryl Strawberry had alleged problems with the IRS: IS STRAW A TAX DODGER?

Not an MVP type: Ricky Pierce of the Seattle SuperSonics has a $2.1-million salary, but he must wonder about how much he helps the team. In the 11 games he has sat out this season, Seattle is 10-1.

Changing times: Participation in high school sports went up for girls and down for boys last year, according to a survey of the National Federation of State High School Assns. There were 56,688 more girls playing sports than in 1992 and 13,464 fewer boys. However, boys still have the most participants, 3.4 million to 2 million.

Up, up and up: Michael Jordan is having his problems becoming a major league baseball player, but the Chicago Bulls’ legend hasn’t lost his sense of humor. After going back to the fence on a fly ball only to watch it go out of the park, Jordan said: “If I had on the right shoes, I would’ve caught it.”

Science fun: The PBS series “Newton’s Apple” is a family science program. When the producers did a show entitled “Gyroscopic Inertia,” they called on the Harlem Globetrotters, who showed the physics of spinning a basketball and how it relates to--get this--a synoscope. Billy Rae Hobley spun a physics book on his finger and he and Curley Boo Johnson dribbled a ball through a group of spinning tops. What would Abe Saperstein think about that?

The TV eye: Four times this season UC Santa Barbara has been assessed technical fouls when the Gaucho fans threw tortillas on the court. On all four occasions, the game was televised by ESPN.

Trivia answer: Duke, North Carolina and Louisiana State.

Local rule: At the Kampula Golf Club in Uganda, golfers are allowed relief from hippopotamus footprints.

Add rules: Closer to home, at the Glen Canyon course in Arizona, a rule reads: “If your ball lands within a club’s length of a rattlesnake, you are allowed to move the ball.” No thanks.

Quotebook: John Andretti, who is planning to race in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte on the same day, on what he would do if he won at Indy: “If I win the Indianapolis 500, they can interview me in Charlotte.”