Tommy

He had just made the final out in a city where his name is booed, his jersey is reviled, and his team had been swept. His power had disappeared, his swing was spotty, and his season was a wreck. Matt Kemp would have been excused for quickly disappearing through the dugout at San Francisco's AT&T Park on Sunday night and forgetting all about an earlier promise to third base coach Tim Wallach. “But that was the neat deal about it,” Wallach said. “He was standing there waiting for me.” PHOTOS: Greatest moments in Dodger Stadium history Kemp was waiting to cross the diamond to sign an autograph for a terminally ill Dodgers fan, waiting to summon the passion necessary to pass along the hope that he now found so precious.

Actor Nick Nolte has put a Malibu compound up for sale that has seen a galaxy of stars come through its arched entryway. Besides Nolte, other notables to have owned the house include comedian Tommy Chong, Don Felder of the Eagles and music producer David Foster. Priced at $8.25 million and set in the Bonsall Canyon area, the two-acre retreat is covered with sycamore and pine trees. The main house, built in 1963, features 19-foot vaulted ceilings, skylights, six stone-and-carved-wood fireplaces, marble floors and mahogany French doors.

Chris Willman's review of "Tommy" (" 'The Who's Tommy': Is Wizardry Enough?" May 12) was correct in one sense: The producers did miscast the title character: The only "deaf, dumb and blind kid" in the audience was Willman. P.S. Chris, you watch too much MTV. WILLIAM MURPHY SWAIN Orange

Who would have thought the son of Biff from the 1985 movie classic, "Back to the Future," might become a high school pitching star? Tommy Wilson, a junior pitcher at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and the son of actor Thomas F. Wilson, came through for the Knights in their Southern Section Division 1 wild-card playoff game Tuesday, throwing five shutout innings while striking out eight in a 6-1 victory over Riverside North. Notre Dame (16-11), one of two Mission League teams to win wild-card games, will face Marmonte League champion Agoura on Thursday at Agoura in the first round.

The thing I always liked about Tom Heinsohn, the basketball player and coach, is that you always knew how you stood with him--somewhere between a bill collector and a guy giving him a traffic ticket. Tommy was always the same, on the court or off--half-mad. If he wasn't scowling he wasn't Heinsohn. I guess he was the original power forward, intimidatory, aggressive, physical. He got his points, 22.

There is a word to describe the Arnolds that is rarely used these days. That word is uncouth . FREDERICK D. MULLEN Upland

When they pass out credit for baseball's recovery from the moribund 1960s, Tom Lasorda's arrival will be listed along with Carlton Fisk's home run, Mark Fidrych, double-knit uniforms, the retirement of Curt Gowdy, the rise of the Yankees and the fall of Charlie Finley. Walter Alston won five pennants in this town, but Lasorda made Dodger baseball hip. Has Lasorda been a great manager? I'm sure half the knuckleheads who called for his scalp after the 1985 playoffs would have pitched to Jack Clark.

The audience was on its feet, whooping and cheering at the end of "Tommy," the first official Pete Townshend-approved staging of the Who's landmark 1969 rock opera. The gonzo-tech $6 million production, at the St. James Theater after a tryout at the La Jolla Playhouse, can hold up its head among the flashiest of the pseudo-serious British mega-spectacles. It's emotionally conventional. It's technically extravagant and very slick, and it recycles material that everybody knows.

TONY-nominated actress and pop musician Alice Ripley is about to become a mother for the third time. Sort of. When "The Who's Tommy" is unveiled this weekend at Hollywood's Ricardo Montalban Theatre, it will mark Ripley's third appearance as one of the show's principal players: Tommy's reputation-obsessed mom, Mrs. Walker. Also in the cast are Acid Queen Nona Hendryx (a Grammy nominee and former member of Patti LaBelle's R&B group LaBelle); titular deaf, dumb and blind kid Aleks Pevec (from the L.A. cast of "Wicked")

Just about everybody in this forlorn fishing hamlet has moved to higher ground, leaving Tommy and Keith Girouard behind on their houseboat, "The Rockin' G. " But not everyone is as prepared as these two Cajuns to meet the rising brown waters of the Atchafalaya River. They don't need sandbags. They have a freezer full of Fudgesicles, three generators and a flat-screen TV. The brothers plan to ride out the coming flood in the comfort of the houseboat, which bobbed in the soft spring breeze along the canal behind Tommy's one-story river house, "The G Spot.

MINNEAPOLIS - Ryan Madson took the most significant step yet in his return from Tommy John surgery, completing a 40-pitch bullpen session Tuesday in which he said he threw all three of his pitches "with conviction, with extension and without one bit of pain. " The right-hander, who missed all of spring training because of a sore elbow, is scheduled to throw to hitters Friday. He expects to begin a minor league rehabilitation assignment next week and hopes to be activated by May 1. "This is the closest I've felt to being normal," said Madson, who had a 4-2 record and 2.37 earned run average and 32 saves for Philadelphia in 2011.

Three-time champion Novak Djokovic lost in the fourth round of the Sony Open to Tommy Haas , 6-2, 6-4. The defeat Tuesday night ended Djokovic's 14-match winning streak at Key Biscayne, Fla., where he won the tournament the last two years. The top-ranked Djokovic has lost two of his last four matches after winning 22 in a row, including the Australian Open for his sixth Grand Slam title. Haas, who turns 35 next week, improved to 2-14 against No. 1-ranked players. His only other win came against Andre Agassi in 1999.

TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Angels took no chances with pitcher Tommy Hanson Wednesday, removing the right-hander after three innings of a 6-5 exhibition win over the Cleveland Indians because of tightness in his triceps, an injury Hanson says is not serious. "I have no concerns, zero; I know 100% that I'm fine," said Hanson, who was slowed by shoulder and lower-back injuries the last two seasons. "They just wanted to take the safe route. " Hanson, acquired from Atlanta for reliever Jordan Walden last winter, gave up two runs and three hits, struck out four and walked one. His fastball was clocked at 89 to 91 mph, and he looked strong, striking out Nick Swisher to end the third.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Angels pitcher Tommy Hanson left Wednesday's exhibition game against the Cleveland Indians after three innings because of triceps tightness, an injury that flared up as the right-hander was throwing his warm-up pitches before the fourth inning. Hanson, acquired from the Atlanta Braves for reliever Jordan Walden in the off-season, gave up two runs and three hits in three innings, struck out four and walked one, and his fastball was clocked between 89-91 mph. He looked strong while striking out Nick Swisher to end the third inning.

St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal will have major surgery on his right elbow next week. The team did not say in its statement how long the three-time All-Star will be out. Dr. James Andrews, the noted orthopedist, examined Furcal on Wednesday and will perform Tommy John surgery. The 35-year-old Furcal has been sidelined since reinjuring the elbow he hurt late last season. Furcal and the team had tried rehabilitation rather than reconstructive surgery in the off-season.

The scene is a devastated Japan, August 1945, as "Emperor," the new historical drama starring Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones, begins. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are little more than smoking rubble and stone-faced survivors. Emperor Hirohito has officially surrendered but remains protected behind palace walls. Into the morass strides World War II hero Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Jones). He has exactly 10 days to decide whether to put the emperor on trial for war crimes and a cultural expert in Gen. Bonner Fellers (Fox)

Brian Austin Green pokes at a bowl of chicken and rice soup at the 101 Coffee Shop in Hollywood. The 39-year-old actor has a cold that he doesn't want to pass on to his 6-week-old baby son, Noah. "I'm too old for this sleeping three or four hours a night thing," says Green of having a newborn in his life. Noah is his son with wife Megan Fox, but Green also has a 9-year-old son with former girlfriend Vanessa Marcil. These days Green, who admits that he was quite the party guy in the past, says his priorities are to take it easy and to care for his family.

TEMPE, Ariz. - You could say that Michael Kohn has a leg up on Angels teammate Ryan Madson in their recoveries from Tommy John surgery. The relief pitchers underwent elbow reconstruction on consecutive days last April, Madson with Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels' team physician and an expert on the procedure, and Kohn with Dr. James Andrews, the renowned Alabama surgeon whose patients include Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus and Robert Griffin III. ...

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