He May Work for Peanuts, but He Has the Best Arm in Dodger Stadium

He’s one of Dodger Stadium’s most famous performers, a guy who has been a guest on “The Tonight Show” four times. Yet when he appeared on TV’s “To Tell the Truth” the other day, two of the three panelists failed to identify him.

“I don’t think they were baseball fans,” said the Dodger great, vendor Roger (the Peanut Man) Owens (see photo).

Of course, the wrong guesses enabled Owens to win $1,000. As is the show’s custom, he and his two impersonators said, in turn, “My name is Roger Owens and I work for peanuts,” then threw peanut bags into the crowd. “I made a real wimpy throw on purpose,” Owens confessed. “And I didn’t show them my behind-the-back pitch.”

One of the fake Roger Owenses, a Navy employee, didn’t fool anyone, especially when he was asked where the Dodgers play. His answer: Anaheim.

But the other fake Owens received votes from two of the panelists. “He had a great arm,” Owens said.

This impostor’s real job? “He’s a telephone psychic,” Owens said.

I guess it figured that in any group of three workers in L.A., one would have to be a telephone psychic.

Guide to adventurous dining: Today’s selections (see accompanying) include:

* A playground for adults who are fond of a certain Japanese drink (W. H. Dilbeck)

* A dark, rather thick beer (Phil Proctor)

* And, finally, the kind of warning that lets “you know you’re in fishing country” (submitted by Reuben Onstad, who snapped it in Kansas).

Fish story: Here’s a charge you seldom hear made against an athlete.

On his radio show on KSPN-AM (1110), co-host Joe (the Big Nasty) McDonnell said of UCLA basketball star Jason Kapono: “He burned my albacore.” Kapono is a part-time chef at Trani’s restaurant in Long Beach, where McDonnell dines.

Kapono, however, denied the accusation and McDonnell, in the spirit of fair play, played a tape of Kapono saying, in mock anger, “Joe McDonnell’s a liar.”

McDonnell added that he considers Kapono a fine chef who merely had an off night. Anyway, Kapono’s primary interest these days is basketball. And, as his high-scoring average attests, he often “burns” his opponent, if you’ll pardon the expression.

Milestones in pest control: On Tuesday, I related how a Hollywood bartender trapped a cockroach in an upside-down glass, poured rum all around it, released the bug and ignited the rum with a lighter.

Which reminded Ed Van den Bossche of Newport Beach about a date he had at a Laguna Beach restaurant years ago. “After we’d ordered, I noticed a cockroach creeping down the wall,” he said.

“It stopped about a foot above the table and was surveying the scene with raised feelers. I didn’t do anything, not knowing if Jean had seen the thing or not.

“As the roach started to move again, Jean said: ‘If he takes one step onto the table, I’m going to kill him.’ ”

Recalled Van den Bossche: “This was an early clue that she was my kind of gal.” And, in fact, she became his wife.

And the roach? “It did step onto the table,” he said, “and she trapped him under a glass, but we just left him in there.”

Not worth wasting rum on.

miscelLAny: In case you missed this single-themed column, it was simulcast on the Food Network.

*

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, ext. 77083, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.