Three tosses and you’re out?On a visit...

Three tosses and you’re out?

On a visit to Japan, Steven Gourley came up with a theory to explain the sub-par performance of the Dodgers’ Hideo Nomo in the National League playoffs.

It occurred to Gourley as he read about a tradition in Japan’s World Series.

“It seems the Japanese tradition is to throw the winning manager in the air three times and catch him,” said Gourley, the mayor of Culver City. “Perhaps Nomo feared injury to himself and his teammates should they win the World Series and be required to do this with Tommy Lasorda.”

L.A. LAW: One of our colleagues overheard an L.A. cop radioing a supervisor in the San Fernando Valley to ask whether he was allowed to give a Department of Transportation officer a ticket for running a red light. Sure, the cop was told--as long as he didn’t mind getting parking tickets for the rest of his life.

THE FOOTBALL STREAK OF THE YEAR: The homecoming football game at Birmingham High in Van Nuys had an unexpected halftime show. A streaker, garbed in nothing but a ski mask, raced across the football field and disappeared through a stadium exit.

He (and eyewitness agree the figure was a he) “had a getaway car speed him out of the parking lot, making a successful escape,” the school’s Courier newspaper reported. Successful for that evening, anyway.

School authorities later learned the streaker’s identity and handed him a one-day suspension.

The surprise guest also received bad marks from Birmingham’s beach-going student body. “He was too white,” said one girl.

PSSST! WE’RE LISTENING!The city’s Transportation Commission went into closed session Thursday morning to discuss whether some applicants for taxi-driver permits should be accepted despite their criminal records. Spectators and the press were asked to leave. The only problem was, someone in the chamber forgot to turn off the broadcast of the meeting, which blared into the pressroom-- and any other offices in City Hall that cared to listen.

And it continued even after a conscientious reporter informed the communications services division about the oversight.

NOT ONE OF OUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY SMELLS: Driving down Sunset Boulevard, Stuart Rosenberg saw a market sign advertising “red apples” and “grn beef.” Says Rosenberg: “Red and green sound very appropriate for the Christmas season, but. . . .”

miscelLAny Mayor Riordan, as you may have heard, finished second in the Funniest Mayor competition on a recent HBO special. Clearly, he has yet to scale the heights of one of his predecessors, Sam Yorty. Ed Ainsworth’s biography contains a shot of Sam playing the banjo on the Johnny Carson show in a foursome that included Jimmy Stewart, Phyllis Diller and Carson. Now, that’s funny.