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‘The Fan’ Fans in a Review by One Angel

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The Angels were holding an informal workout at Anaheim Stadium on Wednesday, where the movie, “The Fan,” featuring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes, is being filmed.

De Niro is portrayed as a fan who stalks major league players, and Angel infielder Rex Hudler is a bit apprehensive about it.

“Great, one of us is going to get clipped next season,” he said. “I hope this doesn’t give someone a crazy idea.”

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Trivia time: Which NCAA Division I school holds the record for the longest home-court winning streak in basketball?

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The whistler: Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley has the ability to get his players’ attention in a game through a shrill, louder-than-capacity-crowd whistle, according to the Sporting News.

“We know when we hear it that it is something important--we’ve learned to listen for it,” Heat rookie Kurt Thomas said. “I’ve always wanted to whistle like that, without putting my fingers in my mouth.”

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Slide deficiency: Even though Tommie Frazier has been an outstanding player for Nebraska, there isn’t much of a market in the NFL for a running quarterback who has played the option in college.

“The NFL likes its quarterbacks to hook slide,” Coach Tom Osborne said, “and Tommie isn’t much of a hook slider.”

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Trojan roots: Green Bay Packer Coach Mike Holmgren was a quarterback for USC in the late 1960s, but injuries prevented him from getting any appreciable playing time.

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“He had a very strong arm,” recalled Marv Goux, former longtime USC assistant coach, who recruited Holmgren at Lincoln High School in San Francisco.

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Cowboy mania: Skip Bayless writes in Inside Sports that the Dallas Cowboys have 37 weekly television or radio shows.

“And, of course, there’s ‘The Snapper Pineapple Show’ on KLIF, featuring deep snapper Dale Hellestrae and Hawaiian offensive tackle Mark Tuinei.

“Only in Dallas.”

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Paranoia? Howard Balzar in Pro Football Weekly on Sam Wyche, who was recently fired as Tampa Bay’s coach:

“After a recent critical story in the St. Petersburg Times, Wyche accused reporters of walking the hallways of club headquarters, secretly taping conversations between players and coaches and then editing them together out of context.

“Look for Sam to be the subject of Oliver Stone’s next movie project.”

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Hopeful sign: Larry Dorman in the New York Times on “firsts” in 1996 in the opening round of the Mercedes Championship in Carlsbad:

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“First shout of ‘You da man!’: Not one all day, which, since all trends start on the West Coast, could be the first indication that yahoos have given up golf spectating.”

Trivia answer: Kentucky, with 129 victories, from 1943 to 1955.

Quotebook: Dennis Rodman of the Chicago Bulls after learning that Adam Kopulsky, 15, was benched for two games at Birmingham High in Los Angeles after dyeing his hair pink: “What’s wrong with pink? Is it too much of a feminine thing?”

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