Angels’ Script Had Hollywood Ending

The final World Series ring handed out by the Angels made good on a promise made 17 years ago by former owner Gene Autry.

Hollywood luminary Johnny Grant received the ring Saturday at his 80th birthday party, courtesy of Autry’s widow, Jackie.

“I kind of suspected it,” Grant said. “They had asked my ring size.”

Actress Angie Dickinson presented the ring to Grant before a crowd of about 900 and read a letter written by Jackie, who was traveling and could not attend.

“It made me feel like we were all still together,” Grant said. “It was beautiful.”

Long history: Grant met Autry in the Army Air Corps in 1944. He served as emcee for the Angels’ first game at Wrigley Field in 1961.

Autry promised Grant a ring during the 1986 season, when the Angels came within one out of reaching the World Series. Grant didn’t think about it much until last season, when the Angels made their improbable postseason run.

“When the Angels got behind, it looked like we were out of it,” Grant said. “Then it was like Gene was there, saying, ‘Everything’s going to be all right, Tiger, don’t worry.’ ”

Trivia time: Nineteen players have hit 500 home runs in their major league career. Who is the only pitcher to allow that many?

Something fishy: The Florida Marlins defeated the Colorado Rockies, 7-2, Sunday in new Marlin Manager Jack McKeon’s first game, marking his 771st career victory as a manager.

That’s 48 more wins than the team has in its 11-season history.

Bowled over: Melanie O’Grady, a 14-year-old from Florida, is taking her 224 average and becoming the youngest regular on the women’s professional bowling tour.

The carpeting in her room, according to the St. Petersburg Times, is from a local alley, and she has bowling pins on the headboard of her bed.

“When I’m not bowling, I’m dreaming of bowling,” she said.

Hot button: Michael Melo is guilty of a misdemeanor, having acknowledged that he fired off more than 500,000 e-mails complaining to a Fox television affiliate in Boston after the station preempted a NASCAR race with a Red Sox baseball game in 2001.

We’ll see at his sentencing in August if he blames road rage.

Big as Bermuda: This from columnist Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Bill Parcells, in the fashion news again, has signed a lucrative long-term deal with the Bermuda shorts industry.

“All Tuna has to do is never wear ‘em again.”

One liner: Jay Leno on the Lakers’ reaction to missing Phil Jackson for a game: “They actually called in the coach of the Clippers ... Not to coach the team, but as a heart donor.”

Trivia answer: Robin Roberts, 505.

And finally: Oracene Price, the mother of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, is divorced from her daughters’ father and says in the May issue of MORE magazine that she “can tell everything” from how a man massages her feet.

And more, undoubtedly, if he’s willing to kiss them.

-- Ben Bolch

and Mike Hiserman