DOWN ON THE FARM: Let the players...

DOWN ON THE FARM: Let the players strike (A1). Who cares? There’s plenty of minor league action a few hours away. Inside today’s Sports section (C10): a complete guide to nearby minor league games. . . . You’ll see things you’d never find in the big leagues, such as the blue sea serpent Hamlet, the mascot for the Lake Elsinore Storm. “He’s the biggest personality on the team,” says GM Kevin Haughian.

WOODSTOCK I: It was 1969, and thousands came to hear performers such as Jimi Hendrix and Joe Cocker. . . . This wasn’t Woodstock, which marks its 25th anniversary this month. It was Newport ‘69, which took place over three days in June at Devonshire Downs fairground in Northridge. . . . About 200,000 people showed up. “We weren’t prepared with jackets or sleeping bags,” said record producer Harvey Kubernik. “It was real cold at night.”

WOODSTOCK II: Among those who made it to the real Woodstock was Joan Bryant (above). Now 47 and a resident of Woodland Hills, she is getting new attention after making the cover of Newsweek (B1). “It’s so surprising that people care what I have to say,” she says.

ROYAL TREATMENT: Mark Gubicza is a starting pitcher for the Kansas City Royals. But he also knows how to earn a save. When Gubicza, of Northridge, heard that some students at Our Savior’s First Lutheran School in Granada Hills were still stressed out from the quake, he and the Royals flew them to a game in Kansas City. . . . On Tuesday, they saw him in Anaheim (B3).

PADDLE BILL: Assemblyman James E. Rogan of Glendale was away from Sacramento and missed his chance Wednesday to debate the merits of public paddlings for graffiti vandals. (A3) . . . Rogan, a former judge, is a key supporter of the proposed legislation. North Hollywood Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman disagrees: “We continue to focus on things that we know strike a chord with people, but we know they don’t do any good,” she says.