Text messages from press row ...

The mystery of the Lakers is not that they’ve turned “bipolar” in the playoffs, to borrow Kobe Bryant’s description, but that nobody seems to have seen it coming. . . .

This is the same core group that squandered a huge Game 4 lead against Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics last spring and lost by 39 points in Game 6 -- with no less than an NBA championship on the line. . . .

When push comes to shove, these Lakers tend to flinch. . . .

Lakers fans who wondered whether Lamar Odom would return next season now wonder whether he’ll be back this season. . . .

The enigmatic soon-to-be free agent has not gone AWOL, but he has been playing with little passion or energy. . . .

Maybe it’s his back. . . .

Media-dodging Manny Ramirez is proving to be more elusive than Richard Kimble in “The Fugitive.” . . .

The novelty of interleague play has faded after 13 seasons, but taut, entertaining series such as the one the Dodgers and Angels gave fans last weekend will never lose their appeal. . . .

The Dodgers have won a club-record three times on walk-off walks, matching the number of times they’d won that way over the previous 20 years, according to retrosheet.org. . . .

Their last walk-off walk before this year was in 2003. . . .

Is it a coincidence that Torii Hunter started making spectacular catches almost daily after some questioned whether the Angels center fielder had lost a step? . . .

When the Who’s “The Kids Are Alright” blared over the sound system Monday in Arlington, Texas, as Alex Rodriguez stepped to the plate, it was a reference to A-Rod saying he never would have signed with the Texas Rangers before the 2001 season if he’d known it would be him “and 24 kids.” . . .

Not even for $252 million? . . .

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Freddy Sanchez, who went six for six Monday, is a former league and conference player of the year from Burbank High and Glendale College. . . .

Mike Lopresti of USA Today, after Helio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 a month after his acquittal on tax-evasion charges: “Somewhere, Perry Mason must have been smiling.” . . .

Chris Marlowe, in his fifth season as the television play-by-play voice of the Denver Nuggets, was the captain of the gold medal-winning 1984 U.S. Olympic volleyball team, whose roster also included former Lakers announcer Paul Sunderland. . . .

Fifteen years before that, Marlowe led Palisades High to its only Los Angeles City Section basketball title, the Dolphins defeating Reseda (and City player of the year Greg Lee) in the championship game. . . .

Mike Keenan, fired last week by the Calgary Flames, is the hop-scotching Larry Brown of the NHL, having coached eight of the league’s 30 teams -- so far. . . .

Brown has coached nine NBA teams. . . .

If Bruce McNall were still running the Kings, they would do everything to pry Sidney Crosby out of Pittsburgh or Alex Ovechkin out of Washington. . . .

Of course, there’s a reason he’s not still running the Kings. . . .

Coach Mike Gillespie and the UC Irvine baseball team, ranked No. 1 but seeded sixth in the NCAA tournament, should count their blessings: The last No. 1-seeded team to win the national championship was Miami -- 10 years ago. . . .

With all due respect to Roger Brown and Bruce Springsteen sidekick Clarence Clemons, reader Pat Fields of Los Angeles e-mails to say that the most famous football alumnus of Maryland Eastern Shore is Pro Football Hall of Famer Art Shell. . . .

Mississippi’s Devin Brown is the first U.S.-born player to win the NCAA men’s singles tennis title since 2000. . . .

Gil Hodges may never be elected to the Hall of Fame, but a recently unveiled mural of the former Dodgers first baseman now looks over his hometown of Petersburg, Ind. . . .

Kerri Walsh, who delivered her baby boy nine months and two days after she and Misty May-Treanor won their second consecutive Olympic beach volleyball gold medal, says she hopes to return to the AVP Tour in August. . . .

Partying with ex-NBA star Jayson Williams, who is facing a retrial in the fatal shooting of his limo driver seven years ago and Sunday was arrested after allegedly punching a man at a bar, seems like a bad idea. . . .

Reliever J.J. Putz of the New York Mets, reader Evan Puziss of Mar Vista e-mails to suggest, “probably accounts for fewer jersey sales than any other player in Major League Baseball.”

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jerome.crowe@latimes.com