Cheap Seats

Will Geraldo throw out the first pitch?

First the Palm Springs Suns baseball team had to tell fans to keep their clothes on. Now it wants them to wear someone else’s.

The club’s new promotion, “Female Impersonator Night,” is set for Aug. 9. Originally billed “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Night,” it was renamed to deflect criticism from the gay community.

The controversy comes on the heels - high heels, we presume - of the cancellation of “Nude Night,” in which the club planned to provide a clothing-optional tent for fans. The gimmick became monologue material for Leno and Letterman, and the club - which averages 700 fans per game in its 5,200-seat stadium - backed out over worries of overcrowding.

The gimmicks irked Palm Springs mayor Will Kleindienst, who offered the obligatory eye-roll while chastising the team’s shameless tactics. And while the team bills the latest promo as a fund-raiser for AIDS charities, the mayor isn’t alone in his objections.

“If you want me to come in a dress, forget it,” said local hotelier Joe Riordan. “To me, it’s all an embarrassment. I don’t feel a baseball field is the place for a drag-queen show. That’s why you have nightclubs. I think it would be terrible to have that paraded in front of kids. I have 13 nieces and nephews. They know I’m gay, but they know I’m not like that.”

Whoa. We wouldn’t touch that one with a 10-foot mascara brush.

One-on-none

New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani launched a “Mayor’s Cup” basketball tournament and laced up a pair of gift sneakers from Magic Johnson, but dodged a challenge to go one-on-one with the semi-retired NBA star.

Johnson showed up at City Hall on Tuesday to help promote the citywide tournament, a projected annual event for city youth with boys and girls teams.

Johnson, representing MVP Sports, one of several corporate sponsors, gave a pair of sneaks to Giuliani, who put them on. “We’re going to go over and shoot some hoops,” Johnson said, nodding toward a portable backboard set up in the parking lot.

But once the ceremony ended, Giuliani ducked back inside City Hall while Johnson chatted, signed autographs and tossed a few shots for the cameras.

Downward mobility

Los Angeles Daily News media critic Tom Hoffarth doesn’t expect much from NBC’s Charlie Jones at these Games. “We hate to beat a dead hoarse voice,” Hoffarth wrote, “but remember when he blew that track call in the ‘88 Games? Then he was reassigned to the not-so-bad swimming and diving in ‘92? “This year, Jones wears one of those big orange lifejackets at incredibly unnewsworthy flatwater canoeing, kayak and rowing sites. Sorry, Charlie.”

Hoffarth, meanwhile, stays home to write about him.

The last word …

“Why didn’t the Raiders re-sign offensive tackle Gerald Perry? He was overpriced, injury-prone, and got called for holding so frequently his jersey number should have been VO5.”

- Sam Farmer, San Jose Mercury News

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo