TAKING NOTES:

Usually, when I tell people I’m still a fan of the former Los Angeles Rams, they look at me in puzzlement.

“Why?” they ask. “They moved away.”

Yeah, yeah, they moved away.

And my two brothers and my dad and I tried to break our ties to the team. When the late Georgia Frontiere announced she was moving our beloved team to St. Louis, we vowed never to root for them again. But that didn’t last.

By the next season, we were back. We were, in essence, Rams junkies.

And junky best describes the team we were watching back in the mid-1990s. They were a horrible team, but we still couldn’t get enough.

This was before the popularity of satellite, so we would go to sports bars and beg the manager to put the game on one of the 55 TVs in the house.

He’d usually find some 19-inch job on the patio, where we’d hunker down and root away for our loser Rams.

Then things changed, and they became the Greatest Show on Turf.

They won a Super Bowl, and suddenly, we were back. We had a skip in our step, a swagger.

But alas, the now St. Louis Rams are back to their old habits and finished the 2007 season a miserable 3-13, tying the franchise’s worst-ever finish.

Thank the football gods for DirectTV though, because nowadays I can watch the team’s miserable antics in the comfort of my living room.

But David Vobora is a guy who can help change all that. Who is David Vobora, you ask?

Well, he is the last pick in the NFL draft who is coming to town next week to be honored as Mr. Irrelevant, the guest of honor at a weeklong party cooked up by local legend Paul Salata some 33 years ago.

And guess who picked him? That’s right, the Rams!

But don’t be blinded by his irrelevancy. Because the scouts are saying that Vobora could well make the team.

And trust me. They need all the help they can get.

And because the Rams picked Mr. Irrelevant, the good thing is that a bunch of old Rams greats are going to be blowing into Newport Beach this week to celebrate and toast this young Vobora guy.

Past Rams expected to be part of the festivities include Coach John Robinson, LeRoy Irvin, Lawrence McCutcheon, Doug Smith, Rich Saul, Mike Lansford and Ron Yary.

You think it would be wrong of me to have those guys autograph my reporter’s notebook?

Events during the week include the arrival party at 5 p.m. Monday at the Newport Beach Dunes.

That’s always a fun time with cheerleaders, and food and drink all around.

There is also the famous Lowsman Trophy Banquet on Wednesday night at 6 at the Newport Beach Marriott, where Vobora will be roasted and toasted by a panel of celebrities emceed by broadcaster John Ireland, a former Corona del Mar resident and high school basketball player.

Vobora will also be treated to visits to Disneyland and Huntington Beach.

It’s all part of what Salata calls “being nice to someone for no apparent reason.”

For more information on the events and how to attend, call (949) 263-0727 or go www.irrelevantweek.com.

Also, we will be covering the event during the week, so go to our website www.daily pilot.com/special_reports/ irrelevant for news, photos and videos. And one last thing: Go Rams!

TONY DODERO is the Daily Pilot’s director of news and online. He may be reached at [email protected] or at (714) 966-4608.