Not to Be Contrary, but Who Let the Dogs Out?

When I think of my dog and his bone, USC comes to mind.

I really like my dog, although I’m sure at times Ralphie wonders what I have against him, and while I would like to throw him one of those large rawhide bones every week, they cost $8.97 each.

This was one of those weekends when I splurged, however, and when I left the uncoordinated mutt--and you can see why he reminds me of the Trojans--he was slobbering all over himself, happy as can be while chewing that bone.

It wasn’t that much different when I came to work Monday, the Trojan fans getting their own occasional $8.97 bone with a USC win and a UCLA loss on the same day--only the fifth Saturday that’s happened since 1997--and of course the e-mails were piling up, the Trojan slobber more disgusting than usual.

“I’m still waiting for you to start writing retractions for all the articles you wrote about your precious little Bruins, now that they’ve been exposed as over-ranked, trash-talkers once again,” wrote Steve McGuire . “How many times are you going to get lured into the Bruin hype? UCLA does not have what it takes to go all the way. God, I love being a Trojan.”

Apparently there’s nothing like a UCLA loss to make a Trojan feel good about himself, but I worry that such an infrequent happening might take its toll on USC fans, and like Ralphie when deprived of a bone, they’d start begging, barking and just becoming a real annoyance.

“Do you realize that when you were talking about UCLA football in your opening remarks [Sunday night on TV], you used the pronoun ‘we,’ and when you talked about USC football, you said, ‘they?’ wrote Gale F. McKim . “It seems like all the claims of The Times’ bias have some basis in light of how you speak.”

I don’t know about The Times’ bias, but I know we are 6-1 and they are 3-5.

SOME FANS are struggling with the idea of a columnist having an opinion, as if it’s something new in the newspaper business or forbidden when mentioning USC.

“A principle of journalism is that reporters are to report facts and not editorialize,” wrote John Sanford Todd , an attorney at law in a two-page epistle. “I do not ever recall an article where [you] reported the facts fairly, and rather, it seems whenever you have the chance, you have either attacked Mike Garrett or President Sample .... If you are going to report the facts, you should acknowledge that your articles are editorials.”

My articles are editorials.

“I’m through with The Times,” wrote Aherbon@bacou-dalloz.com . “I’ll miss my subscription, but I cannot support a paper that gives you a pulpit for your garbage and biased attitude towards USC sports.”

My articles are editorials, and I’m surprised by the clueless reaction from the USC faithful, who apparently haven’t figured it out yet--that all I’m doing is subscribing to the teachings of USC President Steven Sample.

It’s right there in his book, “The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership,” which according to an amazon.com review is “outside-the-box thinking on leadership from one of the country’s most renowned college presidents, who doesn’t return phone calls.” OK, so I added that last part, but that’s a fact.

“The Contrarian’s Guide,” according to amazon.com, urges leaders (and I’d imagine Page 2 columnists willing to spend $24 on the book) to focus on key counterintuitive truths, like writing bad things about the Trojans--when everyone at USC thinks differently--with the hopes it will inspire them to greatness.

In fact, it’s that kind of contrarian forward thinking on my part--never for a moment thinking USC could win again--that probably accounts for the only reason the Trojans defeated Arizona Saturday. They wanted to prove me wrong.

And for all I know, my continuing focus on key counterintuitive truths--like thinking the Bruins were going to win the national championship--led to UCLA getting a big head and ultimately losing Saturday.

Obviously, Trojan fans owe me thanks. And since I’m the only one who probably bought Sample’s book, he might want to call with his appreciation too.

PORTLAND TRADED Will Perdue to the Clippers for the rights to Doron Sheffer, an Israeli player drafted by the Clippers in 1996, who retired a year ago. Then the Clippers realized they’d have to pay Perdue, and immediately cut him.

HOW BAD is the state of football in the NFL? The Quincy Carter/Anthony Wright/Curt Stoerner Cowboys are one game out of first place in the NFC East.

I THINK it’s nice of Jason Allison the way he’s waiting until Thursday night to have any measurable impact with the Kings and score his first goal--when I’ll be there at Staples Center to witness it.

SO NOW the Dodgers are talking to Lee Thomas, the guy who advised Boston GM Dan Duquette. At least he’ll have experience in dealing with disasters.

ANGEL GM Bill Stoneman says he has been unsuccessful in attempts to arrange a meeting with Mo Vaughn. Maybe he should invite him to lunch.

RAMON LOPEZ sent a wonderful gift--the “Puttin Button,” a patented UCLA golf marker, which should come in real handy for the USC-UCLA golf tournament at Bel-Air Country Club Nov. 14.

I’m guessing they will probably want to pair me with UCLA recruiter Kevin Malone and have us take on Garrett and Bum Garner.

TODAY’S LAST word comes in an e-mail from John:

“Hey Scoop, your all-everything Bruins got dusted. Where is the equal-opportunity bashing that would give you one shred of credibility?”

OK, John, your e-mail is lousy compared to everyone else’s.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.