THE WRITING ON (AND OFF) THE WALL : STINKY TRAIL LEADS TO VALLEY.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

It took a little shuffling, but the IOC-Salt Lake City bribery paper trail finally came up with a Los Angeles link in its marathon inquisition.

Or, in this case, they found a clink, like the sound an aluminum bat makes as it spanks a poor cowhide baseball.

Late last week, the Washington Post reported that Jim Easton, the IOC member from Van Nuys who, in addition to his bat plant in the Valley, owns a technical products company in Salt Lake City, hired the son of an IOC guy from Swaziland six weeks before the Utah city was picked in 1995 to host the 2002 Winter Games.

You know those Swazis have a knack for improving athletic equipment technology. Just look at . . . oh, never mind.

That IOC fellow, David Sibandze, has since resigned after charges he received $111,000 in scholarship and living expenses for his kid, Sibo.

Easton told the Chicago Tribune he didn't know about the hiring until two months later and he never met the IOC member before Sibo was hired. Easton knows he'll take flak for this, but his willingness to stand behind what he did is because ``I don't think it was unethical or improper.''

Which all could be entirely true.

But now little Sibo is in the middle of this mess, and the lynch-mob mentality continues, and sponsors will start pulling back their $50 million investments to use those Olympic-ring logos on their letterhead, and Juan Antonio Samaranch will stay in office . . .

Wouldn't you think it's bad enough already for Easton that more and more college baseball teams are going back to wood? . . .

Then there's the NFL fan in Salt Lake City who's been ordered by the state Supreme Court to remove her license plates because they might offend ``reasonable people,'' according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The plates read ``REDSKIN.'' . . .

A bunch of golf writers tried to prod former L.A. Olympic Organizing Committee head man Peter Ueberroth for a comment on the IOC mess when he was playing in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am two weeks ago. Ueberroth wouldn't bite. . . .

The vote for the 2006 Winter Games comes up in June. Who's got the best shiny trinkets? . . .

And it's so nice to see Nancy Kerrigan's career brought to its knees - she's Sandy in ``Grease on Ice,'' coming soon to an empty arena near you. . . .

At the NFL meetings in Atlanta on Tuesday, the owners will talk amongst themselves about the Houston and L.A. franchise bids - without any more dog-and-phony shows from the groups. Sounds way too fishy. . . .

Over and under on Trevor Hoffman's save opportunities this season: Four. It'll drop to two if Garth Brooks actually makes the travelin' squad. . . .

And yes, we smuggle Playboy under the covers to read the articles. Like the one by Keith Olbermann in the March issue where he gets off on a rant about how baseball has nothing left to market since Mark McGwire blew up the home-run record. . . .

Olbermann forgets one thing: Stuffed animals filled with beans. Because of 'em, the Dodgers have practically guaranteed sellouts for their first seven games.

After Opening Day (Kevin Brown vs. Arizona's Randy Johnson), the Dodgers have six different beanie-bear-like giveaways for the lucky 14-and-under age range - with customized tags on them to show they came exclusively from Dodger Stadium. The otherwise-nondescript bears are named after Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, Ken Griffey Jr. and Hank Aaron, which will be given out on April 8, the 25th anniversary of his 715th home run.

There's no Al Downing bear to go with it? He could be named ``Boo Boo.'' . . .