Number Crunching: APAs and the 2000 Census (Feature) Community Mourns Sudden Death of APA Actress (in National News) Chang-Lin Tien, UC Berkeley Chancellor and Scientist Dies (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: Inside the Twilight Zone (in Business) Tuaolo Emerges from the NFL Closet (in Sports) Xinran: The Voice of the Good Women of China (in A&E) Emil Amok: Bleeding Orange and Black (in Opinion)

San Francisco Giants outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo packs up his gear in the Giants clubhouse in San Francisco, Oct. 28, 2002, after the Giants lost to the Anaheim Angels in the World Series. Photo by The Associated Press.

Bleeding Orange and Black

Is the trick this Halloween the omnipresence of all the traditional orange and black? It’s just a constant eerie reminder of that spooky game 6 (or was that game 6-6-6?) and the eventual collapse and demise of our beloved Giants.

We San Franciscans are still crying in our seaweed soup, while I’m sure there are Asian Pacific Americans in the Southland creating a new kind of pho to honor the Angels. Is this a Pan-Asian snack worth having: Pho 2002, topped off with a Filipino dessert — Halo halo-halo? Just don’t slurp, Angels’ fans.

And while I bawl over baseball, isn’t it odder still that such an exciting World Series had the lowest 7-game ratings in history? And this: a wild card series that produced great moments, most, but not all, by a fellow named Bonds. But I suppose we must face the fact that baseball is no longer the game that defines America. It’s not the same game that captivated my Filipino immigrant dad who listened to the Giants on his Philco transistor and learned to become American an inning at a time.

Even among the young, there aren’t as many kids playing the game these days, unless it’s forced on them like Chinese school. My 7-year-old son didn’t even feel compelled to watch the Series with me. He was too engrossed playing his Game Boy, the Yu-Gi-Oh game, if you must know. It’s enough to make one wax Yogi Berra. Yu-Gi-oh is another Asian import that has turned being “all thumbs” into a major league compliment for the young men in the digital generation. Hitting a slider or a fastball? As in real life? Is there a Nintendo version of that?

So, of course, it was great to see the Series produce, not one but two memorable APA moments, the first being perhaps the most memorable of all moments in the entire Series. And all because it involved an APA kid.

APA kid? Did I miss something, Emil?

He was in all the action. Three-year-old Darren Baker, son of manager Dusty Baker and his wife Melissa, a Filipino American.

Darren’s the Tiger Woods of batboys.

As we all know by now, D.B. was nearly bowled over as he went to retrieve a bat near home plate during a Giants rally. Fortunately, as Giant J.T. Snow scored, he had the golden glove presence of mind to scoop up young Darren like an errant throw and yank him to safety.

But what’s a 3-year-old kid doing in a dugout anyway? The spitting alone makes it a toxic waste site.

Baseball reportedly is so upset by the Darren Baker episode it wants to pre-empt any problems. The whole thing may have instigated the creation of a rule in little Darren’s honor limiting children in the dugout.

But I wouldn’t hail it as some victory on the child labor law front. Dugout duty is a fun kind of sweatshop. In fact, it would be terrible if a rule was imposed.

Except for Darren’s single faux pas, the game needs more innocent young kids running around the field. And a lot fewer spoiled millionaires.

SHINJO: The other APA moment of note — the presence of Tsuyoshi Shinjo, the first Japanese national “position player” ever to appear in the World Series. (I know I use the term APA broadly to describe Shinjo, but he is an Asian in America, and the general term is all-inclusive and is not based on citizenship).

He played in three games and had one hit in six at-bats, including an appearance in the “hold-your-breath, could this really be the end” bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh game, where with runners on first and second, the Giants down by three runs, Shinjo represented the tying run at the plate.

Don’t tell me you APA baseball fans didn’t have a moment of unadulterated delusion that our poor man’s Ichiro, with one stroke, would redeem himself for such a poor season and put the Giants right back in the game.

Oh, well, pass the San Miguel. There’s always next year.

BACK TO REALITY: The truth is, I didn’t want the wild card series to end. As long as the Giants were in it, baseball was, at least for me, the great escape. A diversion and great excuse to: 1) Forget about the D.C. Sniper; 2) Forget about the other “World Series” — against Iraq; 3) Forget about the dismal mid-year elections including that god-awful race for California governor.

Ah, the wonder and necessity of sports. Doesn’t that list make you wish the World Series went on forever?

That’s not up for a vote next week. But there are other important things, and you must, of course, vote. Whoever you vote for, I don’t care. Just go in and do your business behind the curtain. It’s democracy. And that’s not toilet paper, that’s a ballot.

GOP ADVICE: At this point, Bill Simon needs a Rally Monkey. That is, if Gray Davis doesn’t buy it first. Dems advice: Get your act together before the Greens get you.

The election boils down to a trip to the fish store. Buy the one that smells best, er, least. You can always consider vegetarianism. I never had a smelly carrot.

RECALL KUNG FOOL?: Do you remember that hideous Kung Fool mask by a company called Disguise? Ready made for racists, it featured a bucktoothed, slant-eyed martial arts type. It covered all the bases.

Steve Stanley, a Disguise executive VP, told me two weeks ago the company would not pull the masks from outlets like Walmart, Spencer’s, Spirit and Party City. I guess doing the right thing would be too much trouble. But he did say the company would stop sending them to stores. Big whoop. They had already shipped most of them out, and stood to make all their money. I said we should step up the protest and boycott.

After we went to press, Elbert Oh and members of the website yellowworld.org, who started the campaign, got Disguise to issue two directives, on Oct. 17 and 18, that advised stores they could send the masks back for a refund. Props to Brother Oh.

But oh brother, even the company admits it can’t compel stores to not sell the masks for profit.

We’ll see how successful they are this weekend. If you see any Kung Fools out there, it’s definitely trick, not treat.

Reach Emil Guillermo at emil@amok.com.