THE OPENING LINE

Monday, June 5, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

Nothing better to do? Try the arena Bowl

It's time to throw our hats into the Arena Bowl again. Or, given that last year's game was less than an attendance success, at it.

The indoor football championship game will be played for the second (and probably last) time at the Thomas & Mack Center on Sunday, and if you're like me, you're probably wondering what a team with a 7-9 regular-season record is doing in it.

The Chicago er, um ... Rush ... qualified to play for Arena Football's biggest prize despite a losing record. Wouldn't it be neat if Major League Baseball was similarly structured, so another Chicago team with which we're a little more familiar could finally play in the World Series?

Apparently when it comes to the postseason, the Rush never sleeps. Chicago's drive to the final might be the biggest story of Arena Bowl week, at least for fans whose nets don't go all the way to the top. But that there have been XIX Arena Bowls before this one speaks volumes of the vision of Jim Foster, the game's creator.

Football played in a hockey rink with final scores that resemble the odometers on a couple of old Buicks is an acquired taste. But that the Arena Bowl is being shoved down our throats for the second consecutive year shows that a lot of fans in cities bigger than this one are still swallowing.

It's days like this that I wish my childhood pal Wally had lived to a ripe, old age. Wally drew one of life's brutally short straws - he died of leukemia a few months after Larry Bird and Indiana State, where they both attended classes, came up short against Magic Johnson and Michigan State.

Wally was a good guy, a decent quarterback and an outstanding point guard. And probably the best darn sock drawer basketball player who ever lived.

Sock drawer basketball is what guys who grew up near Chicago did to pass the time, before Nintendo, when Lake Michigan froze over. But there's only so many ways you can toss a pair of argyles into the bureau, and we quickly tired of it.

We tried Nerf ball, but have you ever tried to shoot a basketball made of foam? It would have been easier to land a paper airplane in a typhoon. Plus, where's the fun if you can't break anything with a well-aimed airball?

So Wally came up with this hybrid game, a cross between basketball and ... well, a trapeze act gone awry. The player with the ball had the option of attacking the rim in the conventional manner (boring). Or, using Wally's bed as a trampoline, he could propel himself toward the tiny rim like an Apollo astronaut, while the defender braced himself in front of it (not so boring).

A lot of stuff usually got broken. Or X-rayed.

So with all due respect to Jim Foster, it really doesn't require a fertile imagination to concoct a new sport to pass the time before the old ones start up again.

Sometimes all it takes is a cold front and nothing better to do.

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THIS WEEK'S BEST BET

Arena Bowl XX, Chicago Rush vs. Orlando Predators, noon Sunday, Thomas & Mack Center

Even if eight-a-side football isn't your cup of team look at it this way: It'll still be cool inside. TICKETS: 739-FANS or www.unlvtickets.com

ON THE WEB: www.arenabowl.com

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ALSO WORTH A LOOK

Tacoma Rainiers at Las Vegas 51s, 7:05 p.m. Saturday, Cashman Field

It's Dodgers Throwback Night featuring free Dodgers caps, old Dodgers uniforms and an old Dodger (Steve Garvey).

TICKETS: 386-7200 or www.ticketmaster.com

ON THE WEB: www.lv51.com