Gripes About His Tattoos Are Getting Under Rodman’s Skin

In an interview with Inside Sports magazine, Dennis Rodman of the San Antonio Spurs questioned whether he should be considered strange for having so many tattoos.

“If people think my tattoos are strange,” he said, “they should name a city Tattooville, USA, and put everybody with a tattoo there. It’d be so overpopulated, people would have to wait in line to use their own bathroom.

“I wouldn’t even be the mayor there--I’d probably be just a street cleaner. In Tattooville, nobody cares if you got a tattoo. They think you’re different if you don’t have one.”

Makes sense, or does it?

Trivia time: What is the team record for most points scored in an NCAA tournament game?

Tony’s Ark: Phil Collier of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Oakland A’s Manager Tony La Russa, an animal rights activist, took nine cats, three dogs and two rats to spring training.

Guess who?From Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News: “So Shaq O’Neal wears a wig when he tries to slip out to the movies unnoticed.

“Fat Chance. Reminds me of the 7-footer who put on a mask and tried to hold up his neighborhood 7-Eleven. ‘Aw, come on Willie, cut that out,’ said the owner. ‘It ain’t me! It ain’t me!’ cried Willie.”

Golf fantasies: “Greatest Golf Movies of All Time” as compiled by Jack Ohman, author of “Why Johnny Can’t Putt”:

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Landed Three Feet from the Pin.” A documentary examination of golf’s greatest exaggerations, as narrated by Jack Nicholson and Jack Nicklaus.

“Field of Drivers. 1987.” Kevin Costner, Bobby Jones. An Iowa farmer is instructed by a mysterious voice to build a championship 18-hole course on his farm.

Air ball: A pregame analysis by C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle on last Thursday’s NCAA first-round game between California and Wisconsin Green Bay:

“As for Wisconsin Green Bay, I’m sure Jeff Nordgaard, Logan Vander Velden, Jeremy Ludvigson and the rest of the Norwegian ski team are a plucky band of fellows, but Cal didn’t get here because of frequent flier miles. I still say Cal handles the Green Bays with ease.”

So easy that the “ski team” won, 61-57.

Bruin update: It has been reported that UCLA’s 112-102 loss to Tulsa was the most points given up in a regulation game in Bruin history.

The previous record was 110 in a 110-83 loss to Illinois at the outset of the 1964-65 season. However, UCLA went on to win the NCAA championship that season with a 28-2 record.

Security: Former heavyweight boxing champion Larry Holmes told Ron Borges of the Boston Globe that he is financially secure.

“I own my own properties,” Holmes said. “I’m the only black guy in America who owns his own jail cell and isn’t in it. I feel good about that.”

Trivia answer: Loyola Marymount defeated Michigan, 149-115, in 1990.

Quotebook: Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune on Michael Jordan’s attempt to become a major league baseball player: “This is such a great waste, like Picasso painting outhouses.”