By GREGG PATTON, The Press-Enterprise

All you can do is laugh.
But first put on your Manny wig.
All's finally well in Los Angeles, where the meandering saga of the Dodgers vs. Manny Ramirez-Scott Boras contract negotiations ended exactly where they began four months ago. Two years, $45 million.

You had to feel pretty good for the Auto Club Speedway Sunday, since something significant happened at the track that didn't involve bad weather, paltry crowds or boring races -- the usual stories.
Matt Kenseth made history. By taking the 500-mile race, he became the first driver since 1997 to win the Daytona 500, shake off the hangover and win again the next week.

It may not have been Babe Ruth calling his shot in front of a full stadium.
But after posting consecutive games of 17, 18 and 19 rebounds, Lamar Odom played along with some pre-game cajoling.
"Tonight," the Lakers forward said with wink before the Los Angeles took the floor against Atlanta Tuesday night, "I'm going for 20."
Say it, then play it.

Andrew Bynum or Tim Duncan?
If the question were once a laughable premise, no more. The gap has seriously narrowed between the Los Angeles Lakers' emerging young monster and San Antonio's superstar since, oh, around the time of the Alamo. As if there wasn't enough bad news coming out of LA lately for the Spurs -- and, for that matter, the rest of the Western Conference.

Briny Baird and Martin Laird.
For a short period of time Wednesday, they weren't just a golf couplet that would make Dr. Seuss clap his hands. They were running at the top of the leaderboard at the Bob Hope Classic.
Best of all, they had back-to-back tee times, making it easy for spectators at the Palmer Private Course to follow them.

The two superstars can protest all they want. It's still going to be painted as the best individual rivalry in the NBA.
Who cares if there really is no such thing? That Kobe Bryant versus LeBron James exists more in our imaginations than on any hardwood floor.

If it were, me, I'd have stayed.
If I were USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, I would have nodded my head when my coach, Pete Carroll, told me that quarterbacks who leave college early for the NFL have a less than 50 percent chance of succeeding.

With auditions ongoing for two months, there's been a painfully obvious truth on the Western stage. No one seemed capable of playing a credible Joker to the Los Angeles Lakers' Batman.
The Lakers have been local heroes with no foils, a team so successful it sucked the drama out of this movie.

Right performance, wrong venue.
Again.
USC proved what just about everyone in the country already knew Thursday at the Rose Bowl -- that there isn't a team in the country that can turn them into underdogs right now.
That "news," of course, earns them a great big trophy made of smoke and one more spot in the Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda Hall of Fame.

As it turns out, the San Diego Chargers aren't the best team to not make the playoffs after all.
They are something far better -- the worst team to make the playoffs.