Another Free Agent Is Released in Anaheim

Shouts. Screams. Fans dancing in the aisles. Sheer pandemonium in section 120 of Edison Field.

A Troy Glaus homer? A Garret Anderson game-winning double? A Jorge Fabregas unassisted triple play?

Guess again.

The reason the Diamond Club was shaking after the fifth inning of Monday’s Angels-Rangers game didn’t have to do with baseball. It happened to have a tail, two eyes and a maniacal hiss from its mouth--an opossum.

The opossum darted from the stands inside the bar of the Diamond Club, where shocked waitresses and patrons looked on.

“It was exciting,” said a waitress who works in the Diamond Club. “Everyone was watching and a nice lady came and picked it up.”

The woman put the opossum on her shoulder, petted it and tried to soothe it while everyone stared.

“We put it in a small box, and that seemed to comfort it,” the employee said. “Then we took it out to a trail and released it.”

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Trivia time: How many strawberries are there in Wimbledon’s traditional $2.60 fare of strawberries and cream?

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Panic time: Allison Johnson, of Amarillo, Texas, was carried to the final hole before eliminating 11-year-old Michelle Wie in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship.

“I just kept telling myself, ‘I can’t get beaten by an 11-year-old,’ ” the 20-year-old Johnson said.

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Record turnabout: Two years ago, the Atlantic City Seagulls won their third U.S. Basketball League championship in a row. This year the Seagulls finished 0-28, the first team in the league’s 17 years to go winless.

“Obviously, we’re the biggest joke in the USBL,” one player told The Press of Atlantic City. Their average attendance fell to fewer than 100.

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How the mighty fall: Remember Frenchy Fuqua, the old Pittsburgh Steeler running back whose flashy ‘70s dress once included glass high-heeled shoes with goldfish swimming inside?

Hubert Mizell of the St. Petersburg Times reports that these days he is wearing work boots in Michigan, operating a Detroit News district circulation facility.

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Looking back: On this day in 1980, Jerry Reuss of the Dodgers pitched a no-hitter against San Francisco in an 8-0 victory at Candlestick Park. The only player to reach base was Jack Clark in the first inning on a throwing error by shortstop Bill Russell.

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I’ll bet they do: Hoping to compete in future Olympics, Iran is starting a national baseball team. Among those helping it get off the ground is Glenn Johnson, a member of a Christian missionary group, Unlimited Potential Inc.

The Associated Press noted that trying to convert Muslims in Iran is punishable by death. “We obviously will keep it strictly to baseball,” says Johnson.

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Not so fast: Magic Johnson, as vice president of the Lakers, is proud that Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant have led them to two consecutive NBA titles, but he’s still not ready to call them the equal of his Showtime Lakers.

“Until they do it five times, don’t compare,” he said.

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Down and in: A hole-in-one at the Happy Jack Chalk Mine fund-raiser in Scotia, Neb., will be worth $10,000, but it won’t be easy.

The winner must make the shot from the top of Happy Jack Peak into a regulation-size cup in the middle of a North Loup River sandbar. That’s 175 yards out and 150 feet down.

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Standing tall: Japanese golf pro Kaname Yokoo, a PGA rookie, has Aaron Buckmister, a 6-foot-8 former Division II basketball player, for his caddie.

“What I love about [him] is that he’s so easy to find,” said Yokoo.

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Trivia answer: Ten, or fewer.

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And finally: From Nancy Armour of the Associated Press, noting that Mike Piazza’s new blond look isn’t such a big deal: “Dennis Rodman has gone through more colors than Crayola ever considered.”