PLAY BALL!: Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda gave...

PLAY BALL!: Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda gave a pregame pep talk to about 300 Sunrise Little League players and their parents Saturday in Woodland Hills. Lasorda urged the players to respect their parents and stay in school. Apparently he wowed the crowd. “It’s not every day that a professional manager comes out and talks to you,” said Randy Curtis, 12, of Calabasas. “I learned just to have fun.”

FARM FRESH: At Farmers’ Place in Van Nuys they’ve got produce . . . and lots of it. The market opened Saturday with a bountiful display of fruits and vegetables. But this market offers more than food. Visitors can also learn about health and nutrition (B1).

NO FOOLIN’: Van Nuys resident Wayne Berk opened his mailbox Friday and found a postcard he had mailed to Hawaii . . . 27 years ago. Berk sent the postcard to a Honolulu company in 1968 hoping to distribute their barbecue sauce, but stamped on the returned, 7-cent postcard was “Unknown at this address.” “Twenty-seven years en route for seven cents,” Berk mused. “No wonder the post office isn’t making any money.”

TEST OF METAL: During a 10-week course that ended in a graduation ceremony Saturday, the first Valley class of the LAPD’s Community Police Academy went through the academy’s shooting simulator. Using a laser-beam gun, they patrolled a videotaped scene of a dark alley where burglars lurked alongside children. Said Detective Woodrow Parks: “Most of them shot the wrong people.” The program trains civilians to be police liaisons in their neighborhoods.

PARDNER POETRY: Visitors to Santa Clarita’s second annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival might experience deja vu . The festival is being held at Melody Ranch--the place where Westerns such as “High Noon” and “Gunsmoke” were filmed. (B7)