Little just isn’t in this guy’s league

Turns out that Phillip Wellman -- the minor league manager who threw that bizarre, belly-crawling tantrum after getting tossed from a game last week -- was on the staff of Dodgers Manager Grady Little in Class-A ball in Durham, N.C.

Yes, Little caught the video of Wellman’s drawn-out antics, replayed countless times last weekend. “How are you going to miss it?” Little told Times staff writer Ben Bolch.

Little was ejected from a game himself Sunday in Pittsburgh, shortly after some of the Dodgers watched the replay of Wellman’s Friday night meltdown on a TV in the clubhouse before the game.

Little was no match for his protege, who drew in dirt over home plate, threw a base and then crawled, military-style, in the infield before tossing a rosin bag toward an umpire as if it were a grenade.

“That’s what I was looking for,” the Dodgers’ Nomar Garciaparra said with a smile. “I was a little disappointed in Grady that he didn’t do that.”

Little said Wellman never did anything like that when they worked together, but “evidently he had a lot of frustration built up inside him,” even though the actions looked “pretty well thought-out.”

The three-game suspension the Atlanta Braves gave to the manager of the double-A Mississippi Braves wasn’t much of a surprise. It could have been worse.

“I’m glad that grenade didn’t hit the guy in the foot,” Little said.

By the way, Wellman apparently picked up a thing or two from Little, Cincinnati Reds Manager Jerry Narron told the Cincinnati Post.

Turns out Wellman does impressions. “He can do Grady Little better than Grady Little,” Narron said.

Trivia time

Each year, the names of the players, coaches and management of the NHL champions are inscribed on the Stanley Cup.

What does the inscription say for 2004-05?

Feminine allure

Saturday’s Belmont Stakes doesn’t have Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, who was beaten in the Preakness.

But the final leg of the Triple Crown gained intrigue when trainer Todd Pletcher entered the filly Rags To Riches. Only two fillies ever have won the race, and the most recent was Tanya, in 1905. Ruthless won the first Belmont Stakes, in 1867.

“It’s a tall order,” said Southern California trainer Bob Baffert, whose filly Silverbulletday was seventh in the 1999 Belmont.

“At least it makes the race interesting,” Baffert told the Daily Racing Form. “I was going to watch the [horse vs. man] match race at River Downs. Now that the filly’s running, I’m going to watch the Belmont.”

Now, about that match race ...

NFL receiver Chad Johnson is to race the 4-year-old colt Restore The Roar on Saturday at River Downs in Cincinnati.

The sprint will cover an eighth of a mile for the horse, and half that distance -- 110 yards -- for Johnson. Proceeds will benefit the Cincinnati Bengals receiver’s favorite charity, Feed the Children.

In 1983, Bengals receiver Cris Collinsworth lost a match race to Mr. Hurry at what is now Turfway Park in Kentucky. Ten years later, Collinsworth raced Sir Trace at River Downs, and lost by a nose.

Presumably a large one.

Trivia answer

“Season not played.” The 2004-05 season was lost to a

labor dispute.

And finally ...

Carson Palmer, the Heisman Trophy winner from USC who is Johnson’s Bengals teammate, doesn’t need a Form to handicap this one.

“I don’t think he understands how fast horses are,” Palmer told reporters. “I’ve been to the Kentucky Derby and been to different tracks and seen horses run. I don’t think he knows what he’s getting himself into.

“Just because he’s my teammate, I’ve got to back him up. But I’ll be secretly putting money on that horse.”

robyn.norwood@latimes.com