Distance

Jack Hartman, the senior pitcher with the movie star name, and Reno Rankin, the senior outfielder with the famous uncle, combined to help Reseda Cleveland defeat Chatsworth, 1-0, on Tuesday in a game for first place in the West Valley League. Hartman (9-1), one of the top pitchers in the City Section, struck out nine, walked four and gave up five hits in a complete-game effort. He had a single in the first inning that drove in Rankin from second base. Rankin's uncle is actor Jamie Foxx, who would have been screaming in excitement, because Cleveland is 18-7 and 5-0 in the league.

Most of the changes brought on by the Dodgers' new ownership group have been flashy, headline-grabbing. From a record baseball payroll to over $100 million in stadium improvements, the changes were designed to grab attention and inspire renewed belief in a beleaguered franchise. Just not all of the changes. One has been done so quietly as to not even be noticed. There was no announcement, no obscure press release, no real mention of it. The Dodgers have revamped their charity wing, largely divorcing themselves from the foundations associated with ex-owner Frank McCourt.

When the pressure rises and fans start to get riled up and make noise, that's when junior pitcher Alonzo Garcia of San Fernando High enters the calm zone. "I just go out there, take a deep breath and when the pressure hits, I sit back and throw a strike," Garcia said. Granada Hills Kennedy tried to get Garcia to crack Wednesday in the seventh inning. The Golden Cougars had the tying run on third base with one out. But he struck out the next two batters to preserve a 2-1 victory in the first of a two-game Valley Mission League series to decide first place.

The stats Distance: 2.5 miles Duration: 1 hour Difficulty: 2 on scale of 1-5 Details: Dogs on leash are OK, but not bikes. Ample parking on Stadium Way, Elysian Park Drive.

UCLA Coach Ben Howland was envious. "I'm jealous of California," Howland said. Shabazz Muhammad looked on the bright side. "At least it's not Philadelphia," Muhammad said. And Larry Drew II, the one guy on the Bruins' roster who has gone wire to wire in the NCAA tournament, was accepting. "It's weird, but I really don't understand it all," Drew said. The Bruins will open NCAA tournament play Friday against Minnesota in Austin, Texas. UCLA, the Pac-12 regular-season champion, is the sixth-seeded team in the South Regional and will be traveling the farthest of any conference team the first weekend of the tournament.

WASHINGTON - As President Obama made the rounds on Capitol Hill this week for his so-called charm offensive, one question dogged him as he met with Republicans: Is this a sincere attempt to build bridges or merely for show? The answer, it seems, is: It depends on which Republicans. As White House aides push ahead with the president's legislative agenda, they have zeroed in on the Senate GOP as the most receptive - if somewhat coy - target for courtship. Some in that chamber have shown openness to compromise on immigration reform and gun control, and even a willingness to entertain the president's demand for new tax revenue as part of any deficit reduction deal.

At a time when all sorts of artists are abandoning painting to make works that spill onto the floor and fill the room with all manner of stuff, it's exciting to see Laura Owens pack everything she's got onto a flat canvas. She's got a lot. At 356 S. Mission Road, “12 Paintings by Laura Owens” is exactly that: 12 gigantic canvases lined up on two long walls in a massive industrial space whose raw beauty has not been obliterated by overeager renovation. The first hometown solo show of paintings since Owens' survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003, her straightforward setup plays with space so effectively that every cubic foot of the gargantuan gallery matters.

Marc Groff, the principal at Ventura St. Bonaventure, will soon learn what it's like trying to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. He's facing a challenge that will require him to stay calm, take lots of deep breaths and perhaps pray for divine intervention when things get tough. His assignment on March 20 is to persuade members of the Southern Section Executive Committee to reverse a decision that would force St. Bonaventure's sports teams to start traveling hours away from their campus for athletic contests.

Redesigning an icon like the Corvette presents a delicate balance of preservation and innovation. New 'Vettes arrive only about once a decade, each paying homage to a storied past while distinguishing itself as a new generation. The job of designing the seventh Corvette fell to Kirk Bennion. He was in Southern California at the Petersen Automotive Museum last week for the car's first appearance on the West Coast, and he sat down with The Times to discuss the car's radical design departure.

You keep hearing about people who take these fabulous trips (see story) and they don't pay a penny - or very many pennies. You have miles, but you don't seem to be getting much, well, mileage out of them. For the last seven years, my life has been all about points. I quit my recruiting job on Wall Street, for which I traveled more than 150,000 miles a year (and collected numerous corporate credit card points), and founded ThePointsGuy.com , a website that's all about maximizing frequent-flier miles and credit card points.