Walk Ons

In college baseball, with 35-player teams limited to 11.7 scholarships, walk-ons can become the unsung heroes of a successful program, and that's the case for No. 2-seeded UCLA, which plays Stony Brook on Friday at 2 p.m. PDT in the opening game of the College World Series in Omaha. Who knows where UCLA would have finished this season without the contributions of junior catcher Tyler Heineman and freshman pitchers David Berg and Grant Watson, all of whom chose to come to Westwood with no scholarship and only the promise of an opportunity to compete for playing time.

Collin Mehring had been a growing boy and a somewhat unreliable contributor to the UC Irvine men's volleyball team for two years while being an intense student in the school's acclaimed computer science engineering program. And that's hardly surprising. Mehring is a walk-on. He almost didn't play volleyball in college. "You know," he said, "I wanted to be a student and didn't know if I could do both. " At the last minute, with a pep talk from his high school coach Mike Rubin - who was also Mehring's physics teacher at St. Francis High in Mountain View - Mehring decided to try to do both.

Their success is all relative. Collectively, Tyler Trapani, Jack Haley and Alex Schrempf have played eight minutes this season for UCLA, scoring one basket, and some might say even that was heaven-sent. Stockpiling points was no trouble for their famous kin. John Wooden was an All-American guard at Purdue long before becoming UCLA's revered coach. The elder Jack Haley had a 10-year professional career after a memorable rise to prominence with the Bruins. Detlef Schrempf was a three-time NBA All-Star, a league leader in three-point shooting and gravity-defying hair.

It seemed only fitting that the MOCA gala celebrating the opening of Urs Fischer's new chaos-skirting show, organized under the "creative direction" of the crazy-making artist Rob Pruitt, would have a Dada sort of anti-logic. In other words, it was one weird night, packed with preposterous events and odd gestures that never quite connected, except maybe through a reflexive sort of humor about the excesses of the contemporary art world and MOCA's recent struggles.  The evening began with a cocktail hour or two at MOCA Grand Avenue, where Fischer's exhibition opens with a visual punch: a field of blue raindrops hanging from nylon threads that nearly extends from wall to wall.

A reporter approached Rod Stinson on Tuesday and asked the Cal State Northridge basketball walk-on if he had a few moments to talk for a story. "A story?" the 6-foot-7 junior forward shot back. "What kind of story?" "One about you, and the other walk-ons," the reporter said. Stinson still looked puzzled, unsure of just how to handle the situation. After some more cajoling, he was finally persuaded to spend a few minutes talking about himself.

Try to figure this one out. Each year, Coach Doug Scovil's staff has raved about its scholarship recruits at San Diego State. Scovil is in his fifth year at SDSU and arguably has his best Aztec team. So who are three of the top six offensive linemen? They are walk-ons, who did not even receive scholarships to SDSU. The group includes starting guard Dave Audick, starting center Jim Dennis and tackle Bill Dowd, who started the last two games when Dan Knight was injured.

John Manoogian surveys the line of scrimmage, the noise rising to ear-splitting decibels. He motions to his left, correcting a receiver lined up in the wrong spot, then cups his hands around his mouth and barks orders to the running back on his right. "Red 13!" Manoogian yells, simulating a change in the play. "Red 13!" More than 1,000 pounds of USC defensive linemen, some of them bound for next year's NFL draft, are poised to pounce at the stocky quarterback. But Manoogian receives the snap from center and, as cool as the early-morning mist that shrouds the field, sidesteps the onslaught, throwing the ball downfield just like Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas.

A lanky Spanish forward whose last name goes by Gasol plans to step foot on a basketball court in Los Angeles. But we're not talking about Pau, who enters this season with the Lakers refreshed without having to worry about trade rumors. Adria Gasol, the 18-year-old brother of Pau and Marc Gasol, will play for UCLA's basketball team as a walk-on freshman. You'd think the tremendous basketball talents Pau and Marc have displayed over the years would've transferred to his younger brother.

Adam and Ryan Goldston designed their spring-loaded basketball shoes with the elite player in mind, hoping their products would eventually be worn and endorsed by the likes of Andrew Bynum and Blake Griffin. But it was only when the NBA banned their $300 shoes on Oct. 19 because they might give players a competitive advantage ? they're supposed to instantly improve vertical leap?that sales "went through the roof," the 23-year-old twins from Los Angeles say. "We sold more shoes the day they were banned than we did in the previous month, and that repeated daily for the rest of the week," Adam Goldston said.

More than 25,000 people are expected to take to the streets on Sunday for AIDS Walk Los Angeles, which benefits AIDS Project Los Angeles and other local AIDS organizations. Streets along the route will be closed from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There is something mesmerizing - almost addictive - about the classic film noirs of the 1940s and '50s, with their darkened, rain-drenched streets and narrow alleys inhabited by anti-heroes sporting well-worn raincoats and crushed fedoras. These men held their secrets close to the vest. And their hearts on their sleeves. The women they encountered were labeled dames. Far from shrinking, demure violets, these tough-minded beauties could hold their own, wrapping the men around their little fingers and causing their moral downfall or death.

When Christian Gerhartsreiter learned a detective was searching for him, he became paranoid and started living a more clandestine life, a former girlfriend testified Wednesday. He dyed his dark hair and eyebrows blond. He disposed of his garbage in public trash bins. He had his live-in girlfriend, Mihoko Manabe, walk on the opposite side of the street and refused to exit buildings with her at the same time, Manabe said. Gerhartsreiter's odd behavior began in 1988 shortly after Greenwich, Conn., police Det. Daniel Allen left a phone message seeking to meet with him, Manabe said.

UCLA got a recruiting bonus Wednesday. Running back Malcolm Jones, who left UCLA last fall, will return to the Bruins program as a walk-on, Coach Jim Mora said. Jones was a high-profile recruit out of Westlake Village Oaks Christian, where he was named the national Gatorade player of the year as a senior. But Jones career meandered his first three years at UCLA. GRAPHIC: UCLA recruits The 6-foot, 220-pound running back had 313 yards rushing in three seasons before leaving after the 2012 season opener.

It was our first Christmas together, and I was determined that it would be special. We had booked a hotel room for the holidays on the sand at Pismo Beach. Jim, my new love, had Mark Harmon hair and a Richard Gere smile. He watched BBC News, read (actual) books and regularly finished the Sunday Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle - in pen. He was also a no-nonsense merchant marine, so I was resolved that there would be nothing too frilly about this celebration. I spent the weeks before the holidays scouring thrift shops for inexpensive lights, garland and ornaments - with no emotional baggage - all of which could be discarded when Christmas was done.

Fireman Ed has called it quits on the New York Jets, whose fans will have to find someone else to lead them in the famous "J-E-T-S  Jets! Jets! Jets!" chant now that the well-known superfan is hanging up his helmet. Jets fan Ed Anzalone, however, will continue attending the games -- he just won't be wearing his signature helmet or leading the cheer that he and his brother are said to have started back in the 1980s. In a guest editorial published by Metro New York on Sunday, Anzalone said he left the last two Jets games early, something he had never done before, because of the increasing frequency of confrontations with other fans.

Is David Lyle, chief executive of National Geographic Channels, being coy when he says he didn't expect a major dust-up over his decision to air the movie "SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden" a few days ahead of the hotly contested U.S. presidential election? Or is he just crafty, using a film that quickly became a political football as an attention-grabbing centerpiece of his fall schedule? Despite some critics' charge that the film could give President Obama an unfair boost, Lyle said he had no second thoughts about showing it on a Sunday night two days before Americans were to go to the polls.

Re "Sidewalk Spat Shaping Up Over Vehicle," July 23: So let me get this straight. I'm going to be forced to jump out of the way for some silly idiot on a Segway who insists on having the right to use the sidewalk? This sounds like the same people who spend our tax dollars on bike lanes that no one seems to use. Tammy A. Clifton Valley Village

Andrew Abbott wears his heart under his sleeve. The senior UCLA safety straightened his left arm and opened up his world. The tattoos begin with "LB" for Long Beach, where he grew up. The journey to his wrist includes "Josie," his grandmother's name, a symbol for change, the Bruins logo and "26," his number. At the end is simply "8-20-06. " That's the date of the night Abbott's path was altered, yet he has never wandered off course. Marque Allen, his older brother, was visiting relatives in Lynwood.

Zombies must eat human flesh. And they're kind of partial to Nielsen ratings too, if the huge numbers for AMC's season premiere of "The Walking Dead" are any indication. In another sign of the growing programming power of cable TV, Sunday's Season 3 rollout of the zombie drama devoured basic-cable ratings records and also became the highest-rated entertainment premiere among young adults this fall - higher even than "Modern Family" and "The Voice," not to mention "Revolution" and "Vegas" and all the other new series the broadcasters have put on. Recent months have found cable dramas on a creative and viewership roll as broadcast rivals have lagged behind.