It’s called Bronx Zoo for a reason

What on earth is going on at Yankee Stadium?

On Saturday, struggling reliever Scott Proctor burned his glove outside the Yankees dugout after a 7-0 loss to Oakland, making a small bonfire out of his equipment in some sort of exorcism effort.

“I wish it was that easy, just burn stuff and start turning things around,” said Proctor, who said he tried the same stunt in the minors.

On Sunday, Cynthia Rodriguez, wife of wandering slugger Alex Rodriguez, showed up for the Yankees’ 11-5 loss to the Athletics wearing a tank top with an obscene phrase on the back as she sat in the players’ family section.

The New York Post called her the “Bronx F-Bomber.”

We’ll call her Mrs. A-Rude.

Finally, on Monday, the Daily News decided not to wait for the All-Star break to declare the Yankees’ season toast with them 11 games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox in the American League East after losing nine of their last 11.

“They’re Done!” a headline blared.

Trivia time

There are six monuments in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park.

What people or events do they memorialize?

Relax

Word that Peyton Manning recently stopped by USC after filming a commercial and tossed some balls around in an informal workout with some of the Trojans had Tennessee fans seeing cardinal on a forum at volnation.com.

“He needs to drop by and give our QB and WR’s some pointers,” one wrote of the UT alum.

“Yea, USC needs help, they are in major decline,” said another.

“Glad to see he’s helping out such a struggling program,” said a third.

One billion don’t care

The NFL, eager to tap into the vast marketplace of China, is working to promote the game of football, which doesn’t have much of a, uh, foothold in the nation of 1.3 billion people.

It’s a difficult task, beginning with the language, the Associated Press noted, trying out this translation for the famous Monday night slogan.

“Are you ready for some mei shi gan lan qiu?”

That translates roughly as “American-style rugby” or “American-style olive-shaped ball.”

Foul tips

The Internal Revenue Service has begun a probe of major league baseball clubhouse workers for not reporting tips they received from players, the New York Post reported.

Clubhouse boys or “clubbies,” usually young men in their teens or early 20s, might earn only $15,000 to $20,000 a year. But federal investigators believe the handful of clubbies in a single city might be sharing $100,000 to more than $1 million in unreported tips from wealthy players for such duties as doing laundry, cleaning up the clubhouse and sometimes doing personal errands.

Those well-paid players also have well-paid accountants, who have noted the tips as business expenses. The young clubhouse workers, the IRS discovered, often were not reporting the income.

There’s a tip they could have used from the players.

Trivia answer

The monuments honor Miller Huggins, who managed the Yankees to three World Series titles, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and the victims and heroes of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

And finally

Documents filed in connection with a sexual harassment suit brought by a former New York Knicks executive against Coach Isiah Thomas claim Thomas urged a team cheerleader to flirt with NBA referees in 2004, the New York Daily News reported.

Anucha Browne Sanders, a former senior vice president of marketing and business operations, said former cheerleader Petra Pope told her Thomas asked her to go to the referees’ locker room and “make them happy.”

“I asked her to tell me what that meant and she said, ‘Well, he wanted me to flirt with the referees,’ ” Browne Sanders said.

If that’s true, it would make Thomas one NBA guy who doesn’t think the referees are blind.

robyn.norwood@latimes.com