COMMENTARY : GOOD, BAD, UGLY WOODS IS A DELIGHT, RODMAN AN EMBARRASSMENT.

Byline: Steve Bisheff Orange County Register

They are the Bad Cop, Good Cop of sports at the moment, and they couldn't be any more different.

Dennis Rodman strains to get our attention. Tiger Woods gains it as effortlessly as he delivers a 300-yard tee shot. Rodman kicks at a puzzled cameraman. Woods waves at an adoring gallery.

And isn't it interesting that a semi-exhibitionist posing as an athlete can devour just as much, if not more, air time and newspaper space as a well-mannered 21-year-old who is on the brink of taking over his sport?

The more you watch Rodman's schtick, the more puzzled you become over his undeniable hold on the public. Why are we so fascinated by the changing colors of his hair and the rash of ugly tattoos adorning his body? Because he is different?

Great. So are the people lining the streets on Sunset Boulevard. But I wouldn't pay to watch them, either. And I sure wouldn't flick on my television set to see from which pierced body part they intend to hang their next piece of jewelry.

Rodman is a terrific basketball player, a rare instinctive rebounder who can play extraordinary defense. But the NBA champion Chicago Bulls are hardly suffering without him, although they did lose to the Lakers on Wednesday. They are 8-2 with Dennis sitting, instead of playing.

And Rodman, whose TV and movie career seems to be thriving, doesn't appear to be waiting breathlessly for the chance to rejoin Michael, Scottie and the guys.

That's OK, Dennis, because the feeling might be mutual. Playing on the same team with David Robinson is one thing. Playing with Michael Jordan is another. And by the look on his face and the tone in his voice, particularly after that last mindless kicking incident, you could sense that Michael has begun to tire of Dennis' antics.

Join the club, Mike. At first, Rodman was something of a diversion, someone who was fun to write about and capture on 30-second sound bites. His interviews tended to be as lively as his wardrobe. His behavior as wild as his vocabulary.

But the routine has grown old. When Dennis put on that wedding gown to push his latest book not long ago, he crossed the line. He became more WWF than NBA. More interested in being bizarre than being a basketball star.

The only Stern he appealed to at that point was Howard, not David. And now, instead of marveling at his skills on the court, you begin to feel sorry for his pathetic need to be noticed off of it.

How nice it is to have someone like Woods come along to provide such a refreshing contrast.

Tiger has taken the relatively subdued game of golf and turned it into one of America's top TV spectator sports. And he has done it without dyeing his hair and brandishing little more than an occasional Nike emblem on his body.

Tiger has turned every tour stop into an event this season, winning at La Costa, sinking a dramatic hole-in-one in Arizona and then putting on that mind-boggling 63-64 final 36-hole finish at Pebble Beach this past weekend.

His ability is such that it transcends all the old boundaries of sport. In the Santa Anita press box Sunday, even the horse-racing diehards, among the most stubbornly narrow-minded groups in any business, pulled themselves away from their Daily Racing Forms long enough to watch Tiger make his late charge on television.

Why? Because Woods' appeal is as natural as Rodman's is manufactured. It is more than Tiger's technically-perfect swing or his remarkable finesse around the greens or the fact he has already made enough money to pay for part of an NFL franchise.

It is also the joy with which he goes about his task. Tiger's love of the game is as obvious as the work ethic required to get him this far. And the enthusiasm he exudes on the course seems to drift its way into every adjoining gallery and sports bar.

There hasn't been anyone in golf with this kind of charisma since Arnold Palmer began hitching up his trousers, wrinkling up his tan face and making those noisy charges of his. Arnie's Army, they used to call the raucous fans following Palmer.

How soon before we start calling them Tiger's Troops in the 1990s?

Too often, it seems, we tend to get caught up in the Dennis Rodmans and the Albert Belles and the Michael Irvins of our world. We dwell on the negative and sometimes overlook the positive.

We need to take more time to appreciate what Tiger Woods is doing to golf, what Pete Sampras is bringing to tennis, what Ken Griffey Jr. means to baseball.

Will we continue to follow the strange saga of Dennis Rodman? Almost assuredly we will. Whatever else you think of him, he remains newsworthy.

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Photo: (1,2) The manners in which golfer Tiger Woods, right, and basketball player Dennis Rodman have grabbed the public's attention are as different as their sports.

Associated Press