Nickname earns him a bonus game

LeBron James’ fantasy-type performance against the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals earned the Cleveland Cavaliers star a new nickname.

After he torched the Pistons for 48 points, including 29 of his team’s last 30, teammates dubbed him “Video Game James.”

“I don’t like it better than King James, but I’ll live with it,” the 22-year-old phenom told the Detroit News.

James is an acknowledged video-game junkie who often takes on the persona of others when he sits down to hoop it up.

“I play with Phoenix [Suns] a lot,” James said. “They shoot the ball extremely well, and three-pointers are definitely hard to come back from in video games.”

Trivia time

Since the summer of 2004, when Kobe Bryant re-signed with the Lakers, spurning an offer from the Clippers, which team has posted the better record?

Terrific tirade

Minor league manager Phillip Wellman got major league media exposure for a post-ejection tirade on Friday that generated endless play on television and the Internet.

“Once again, my mother is very proud of me and my wife and kids are creeping around in disguise,” Wellman, who manages the double-A Mississippi Braves, told the Chattanooga Times/Free Press.

Wellman, upset with the umpire’s strike zone, covered home plate with dirt and drew a bigger plate outline. He also removed third base and threw it into center field, then dropped to his hands and knees and crawled military style toward the pitcher’s mound. Wellman picked up a rosin bag and tossed it like a grenade at the home-plate umpire’s feet.

He finished by removing second base and blowing kisses to fans as he exited through an outfield gate.

“That’s the best I’ve seen anywhere by far,” Chattanooga Manager Jayhawk Owens said. “He has the ability to keep himself cool and have fun with it when most managers like myself just get mad.”

Brothers in arms

Sounds like Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano and catcher Michael Barrett kissed and made up after last week’s fight that started in the dugout and continued in the clubhouse.

“It’s all my fault,” Zambrano told reporters. “That’s all I can say. I feel bad for that.”

Barrett, who needed six stitches, said he thinks of Zambrano as a brother and the scuffle resulted because the batterymates are “so close.”

“I love Carlos. I know he loves me,” Barrett said.

Neither player would reveal exactly what happened in the clubhouse.

“Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” Zambrano said.

He might want to ask Pacman Jones about that.

Getting his fill

Tank Johnson of the Chicago Bears did not exactly use a recent 60-day jail sentence as a time to focus on diet and fitness.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, which obtained jailhouse records, Johnson spent $700 on junk food from the facility’s commissary, including 162 beef sticks, 40 honey bun sweet rolls, 35 summer sausage blocks and 35 bags of barbecue chips.

Wrote Steve Rosenbloom: “While the 6-foot-3, 300-pound lineman is built like a vending machine, the roster of items he ordered reads like he raided one, too.”

Time flies

Chatsworth High beat Reseda Cleveland for the City Section baseball title at Dodger Stadium over the weekend, but it was a different story 25 years ago when a skinny Cleveland pitcher named Bret Saberhagen tossed a no-hitter at Chavez Ravine in a championship-game victory over Palisades.

Playoff time apparently brings out the best in the Saberhagen bloodline.

On Saturday, the two-time Cy Young Award winner’s son, Drew, a transfer from Pepperdine, pitched eight innings to help Western Carolina beat Jacksonville, 7-0, in an NCAA regional.

Trivia answer

The Clippers are 124-122 over the last three seasons, the Lakers 121-125.

And finally ...

Toronto Blue Jays rookie Howie Clark apparently is not the only one who has been duped by Alex Rodriguez’s controversial vocal gamesmanship.

The Denver Post’s Jim Armstrong also fell victim midway through his Sunday column:

“By the way, I was going to write a really cool note here, but A-Rod yelled, ‘I got it!’ ”

gary.klein@latimes.com