The Baseball Reliquary: It’s All a Matter of Being a Good Sport

It’s been said that the Monrovia-based Baseball Reliquary is to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown what the Doo Dah Parade is to the Rose Parade.

The Reliquary, which likes to spoof the obsession with sports memorabilia, has amassed such supposed treasures as a partially smoked cigar left by Babe Ruth at a brothel, and a fragment of skin from the inner left thigh of baseball pioneer Abner Doubleday.

The Reliquary, which holds exhibitions around the Southland, recently announced the addition of a new artifact: “The tooth from the mouth of Cleveland catcher Ray Fosse, knocked out in the home plate collision with Pete Rose in the 1970 All Star Game.”

Will Rose attend the Reliquary’s next showing? Don’t bet on it.

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DUELING SIGNS: If you’re like me, and find that on some days you don’t know whether you’re coming or going, today’s signs won’t help. Andrew Bairden of Torrance, for instance, snapped an exit that is not an exit (see photo).

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L.A. SPEAK: Mike Ellis, author of “Slanguage,” a study of expressions unique to geographical sections, says the following terms are native to L.A. (His Web site is slanguage.com):

* The mountains are out (a very clear day)

* Yo Betty (hello pretty lady)

* Shake and bake (earthquake on a hot day)

* Orange Crush (intersection of Interstate 5 with 22 and 57)

* Agro (out of control)

* Pea doc (psychiatrist)

* Random (not good)

* Silicone Beach (Playa del Rey/Venice area)

* Stogies & chino (cigars and cappuccino)

* Go wood (adopt a Hollywood attitude)

* Gone Richter (became angry)

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com