Ousted Teen Baseball Fan Throws Ump Quite a Comeback Pitch

Ateenager was ejected from the stands at a Little League game in Long Beach the other day for heckling the umpire.

After the game, he encountered the ump and delivered a taunting exit line. A distinctly 21st century taunting exit line: “Just wait,” the youth said, “until this gets on the Internet.”

Which reminds me: Unruly sports fans have been in the news of late. Of course, troublemakers have always been around. The new book “Tommy Davis’ Tales from the Dodgers Dugout,” by the onetime Dodger star with The Times’ Paul Gutierrez, tells of a game in the 1960s in which Dodger outfielder Frank Howard backed up to the wall in Chicago’s Wrigley Field attempting to catch a fly ball.

Just as Howard jumped, a fan dumped a bag of popcorn on his head. Howard missed the ball.

Whereupon Dodger Manager Walter Alston raced up to umpire Augie Donatelli and claimed the batter should be out because of fan interference.

Donatelli asked Howard: “Did the popcorn bother you?” The somewhat absent-minded Howard responded: “What popcorn?”

Turning to unruly players: Davis’ book also recounts the time that players Johnny Podres, Don Zimmer and Al “The Bull” Ferrara were late to a game because of what Dodger exec Buzzie Bavasi surmised was a trip to the racetrack.

He called the players into his office and asked for an explanation. Podres said he’d had a flat tire.

Bavasi then handed each player a slip of paper and asked each to write down which tire went flat. The players were not permitted to huddle.

Bavasi received three different answers, of course.

One driver I’ll steer clear of: That would be the guy spotted on the Pasadena Freeway in an SUV with the license plate US MALE and a plate holder saying “Disgruntled Postal Worker.”

Disgruntled (cont.): That’s the same deference I show any car with a “Raiders” sticker. Not sure which is scarier -- a disgruntled Raider fan or an exuberant one.

From disgruntlement to marriage: Pardon the transition. Norman and Katie Kolpas sent a gift book they wrote to Prince Charles and the new missis and were charmed to receive a reply from the royal couple’s representative, Claudia Holloway (see accompanying). No indication, though, whether the newlyweds have read the tome.

miscelLAny: For the such-a-deal file, my colleague Raoul Ranoa found a fast-food joint where you can eat all the tacos you want -- for $1.59 apiece -- one day of the week (see accompanying).

And Art Detman of Pacific Palisades figures that, considering the price, the “mini-lunch” he spotted on a flier should at least be a maxi-lunch (see accompanying).

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, Ext. 77083; by fax at (213) 237-4712; by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012; and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.