At This Site, Every Night Is Bat Night

There’s a new bat house at the New York Mets’ spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. But don’t be fooled.

This is no batting cage or storage shed for the team’s Louisville Sluggers.

It’s the new home to thousands of the oft-maligned winged critters who were kicked out of the stadium for making a mess of the bleachers after taking up residence in the stadium’s canopy.

The furry airborne mammals, about the size of a thumb with a wingspan of four inches, used to pour out of crevices in the stadium’s concrete concourse each evening at dusk, causing quite a spectacle for fans.

*

Add bats: There is one good reason to want them near the stadium, if not in it: Each bat can eat up to 3,000 mosquitoes a day.

*

Trivia time: Which was the last school to go into the men’s Division I NCAA basketball tournament with an unbeaten record?

*

Walking-around money: David Falk, Michael Jordan’s agent, told Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Sun-Times that Jordan’s post-basketball years will be even more lucrative than his playing days.

“He can probably make four or five times what he’s making now,” Falk said. “I mean, he can do movies and other things. In the last four months, he turned down $300 million worth of new deals.”

*

Is it worth it? The Texas Rangers are offering valet parking at the Ballpark at Arlington this season at $20 a car.

Fans can buy the service for the entire season, but there’s no discount. The cost for all 83 home games, including two exhibition games: $1,660.

*

Bored: Kevin Mitchell, on life in the Oakland Athletics’ minor league camp where he is trying a comeback: “The atmosphere just ain’t here. Softball games are more exciting than this.”

*

News note: David Steele of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Monica Lewinsky attended a Washington Wizard-Denver Nugget game last week at the MCI Center.

*

FYI: Stanford had an 11-1 record in the Pacific Coast Conference Southern Division in 1941-42 on its way to winning the NCAA basketball championship.

The only loss was to USC, 27-23, when the Trojans employed stall tactics.

*

Looking back: On this day in 1974, Rick Barry of the Golden State Warriors scored 64 points against Portland. He made 30 of 45 shots from the field.

Wilt Chamberlain, with 31 and 36, is the only NBA player to make more field goals in a game.

*

Trivia answer: Nevada Las Vegas, 30-0, in 1991. UNLV lost to Duke in the national semifinals.

*

And finally: Brent Barry, the former Clipper now with the Miami Heat, responding to criticism from NBC analyst Isiah Thomas that he doesn’t play tough, Eastern Conference-styled basketball:

“So Isiah’s helping put fuel to the fire? I can play basketball, that’s the bottom line. I can play East Coast, West Coast, Space Jam on Mars. I can play it.”