SPOTLIGHT : Down But Not Out : Baseball Fans Don’t Have the Angels, but They Have Options That Are in the Ballpark

All around the newsroom last Saturday, TVs were tuned to baseball. There were cheers when the hometown team tied it up, groans when they fell back behind, gasps when a late-inning home run put them back within one.

With all the attention, you might have thought it was the World Series. And it was--the Little League World Series, Northridge versus Maracaibo, Venezuela. These kids were good, but hey, they were still just kids.

Yes, the major leagues’ strike continues, reaching day 22 today and leaving some baseball fans more than a little desperate. More than 200 games have been missed, and if things keep moving (or not moving) as predicted, most if not all of the remaining season will be wiped out.

Public opinion seems to view both sides, the players and the owners, with equal disgust. It was a high-flying season until the walkout, with home runs on a record pace and many star players having career seasons. Just like that, it was over, and for seemingly arcane reasons that have left most fans crying foul.

The strike hit the same day the exhibition football season started, so some made a relatively painless switch--as long as there’s a ball involved, they’re happy.

But die-hard fans of the great American pastime may be having more of a problem with the season’s premature demise. The lack of baseball--a national ritual as much as it is a game--has left a void, and OC Live! has a few suggestions for filling it.

Minor Diversions

If there has been a winner in this strike, it is the minor league system, which has reaped plenty of attention (including newspaper features like this one) touting it as an alternative to the stalled major leagues’ seasons.

All the publicity couldn’t have come at a better time for the newly uptown Class A California League. The Lake Elsinore Storm (an Angels affiliate) has a new $19-million stadium with 6,800 seats, a sunken field and a roofed concourse that evokes a turn-of-the-century ballpark. The Epicenter, year-old home of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, cost a cool $20 million.

Because of the relatively low ticket prices ($3 general admission to $6 box seats), minor-league games are whole-family affairs. And the action on the field isn’t the only thing that’s in an entirely different league than what you find at Dodgers and Angels games.

At a Lake Elsinore Storm game last weekend, for instance, patrons jockeyed for prizes between innings: Dancers shimmied atop the dugouts, with the crowd’s cheers determining the winner; amateur golfers chipped whiffle balls at a pin held by the team’s dinosaur mascot; two men spun until they were dizzy, then ran a woozy footrace.

Meanwhile, families spread blankets on the hilly lawn section, and kids did somersaults down the grass. Some even watched the game.

The regular minor league season winds to a close Sunday , but there are a few remaining chances to catch games near Orange County. Ticket prices top out at $6 for the chance to see young ballplayers hustling to make an impression on big league managers and scouts.

Attendance has been strong this season, so it’s not a bad idea to call ahead.

* Lake Elsinore Storm: There’s one home stand left, Friday through Sunday against the Riverside Pilots. The first two games start at 7:05 p.m., the Sunday game at 5:05 p.m.; ticket prices are $2.50 to $5. Games are played at the Diamond, on Diamond Drive just off Interstate 15. Information: (714) 245-4487.

* Riverside Pilots: The Pilots, affiliated with the Seattle Mariners, have one home game left, tonight against the Storm. Game time is 7:15 p.m., and tickets range from $2 to $5. The game will be played at the Riverside Sports Center, 1000 Blaine St. Information: (909) 276-3352.

* Rancho Cucamonga Quakes: A San Diego Padres affiliate, the Quakes close out their home season tonight at 7:05 p.m. against the High Desert Mavericks of Adelanto. Tickets are $3 to $6. The Epicenter is on Stadium Way (off Foothill Boulevard). Information: (909) 481-5252.

League of Their Own

“I like baseball more than softball. I grew up playing in the streets with the boys,” says Lee Ann Morretino. But when it came to playing for organized teams, she never really had a choice.

“I had to follow that ‘baseball is for boys, softball is for girls’ thing,” she says.

That has changed. Morretino is now the player-manager of the Edge, one of three Orange County teams in the new Women’s National Adult Baseball Assn. Here in the county, the league kicked off last Sunday with three games.

Teams from the South Bay area of Los Angeles County joined in, including Pepper’s Peaches, managed by Pepper Davis and featuring several actresses from the film “A League of Their Own,” about the wartime exploits of a women’s professional baseball league.

The success of that film is what inspired the new women’s recreational league, said Jim Moore, Orange County president of the National Adult Baseball Assn., which started in 1986 as a men-only league. Now there are 44 men’s teams in the county, including some with former college and minor league players.

Getting the women’s league off the ground locally was a challenge, Moore said. But now that the season has started, it’s getting attention, and he expects that to translate to more players.

“We hope to add some more teams,” Moore says. “We’re really looking for teams and players.”

Morretino, who played last year on the Rancho Santiago College softball team, says she is having a lot of fun. “With the leading off and the stealing, it’s a blast. It’s a little more challenging” than softball.

There’s something for spectators too, she says. “We’re not inhibited at all, so there’s a lot of action going on all the time,” she says.

“They were good” on Sunday, adds Moore. “We had a pretty good little crowd out there.”

The league accepts all ability levels (players must be at least 18). For information on both women’s and men’s leagues, call (714) 996-2763. Games are played Sundays at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove; spectators are admitted free.

All-Star Weekend

Some of the best high school players in the world will converge on Long Beach this weekend, playing the ninth annual Goodwill Series in lovely Blair Field. The three-day tournament, opening Saturday, features all-star teams from Korea, Japan and the United States.

How’s the level of play? “In my experience, it would be equal to Class A over in the California League,” said Bob Williams, president of the Santa Rosa-based Goodwill Series Inc., organizers of the tournament. “They would be very competitive in Division I college ball.”

OK, so Williams has a vested interest. But he is able to point to some high-profile alumni, including Matt Williams of the Giants, Gregg Jeffries of the Cardinals and John Wetteland of the Expos. Chan Ho Park, who started the current season with the Dodgers, played for the 1991 Korean team at the event and was “discovered” there by Dodger scouts. (He will make an appearance at this year’s tournament, at noon on Saturday.)

So, what it boils down to is this: If you can’t watch the stars of today, come check out the possible stars of tomorrow.

Orange County is represented by one player on this year’s 20-player U.S. team, Eric Valent of Canyon High School in Anaheim. All the U.S. players are juniors, selected through a recent national tournament, the Area Code Games.

Here’s the schedule: Saturday, it’s Korea vs. the United States at 12:30 p.m. and Korea vs. Japan at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the U.S. team will play Japan at 12:30 p.m. and Korea at 3:30 p.m. In the final games, the United States and Japan will play Monday at 12:30 p.m., and Korea and Japan will meet at 3:30 p.m.

Tickets for all games are $5 and will be sold at the gate (children under 12 get in free). Blair Field is near Wilson High School in Long Beach; from the San Diego (405) Freeway, head west on Seventh Street, then turn right on Park Avenue.

Playing the Game

Clyde Wright put in 10 years as a major league pitcher, including a stint with the Angels. “I missed it from the day I walked out of it,” he says now. “I wish I could still play, but there’s a certain thing called old age that catches up with you.”

So, for 15 years, Wright has done the next best thing to playing--teaching others to play, specifically, to pitch.

“We work on the curve, the change-up, everything,” he says. “I start the kids at 9 years old, and they go on from there.” It’s not just the youngsters, though. He’s had students up to 47 years old, getting ready for spring fantasy baseball camps.

So, for those baseball fans who always dreamed of some time on the mound but figured their glory days were behind them, there’s still a chance to rear back and toss a few, with the help of a pro. The skills learned could come in handy, with the growing number of recreational baseball leagues.

Wright teaches on a pair of practice mounds at Home Run Park in Anaheim, a privately run park with batting cages and a large baseball shop with more than 1,000 bats for sale. His school is one of several operated throughout Orange County (just check the Yellow Pages under baseball schools); Don Aase is another former Angel who operates a local pitching school, in Anaheim Hills.

Enrolling in pitching school requires a commitment of time and money. Wright, for instance, charges $250, which covers one one-hour meeting a week for eight weeks (there are two students per session).

The lessons can pay off, however: One of Wright’s longtime students just signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians.

“He made more money signing than I did in 10 years of playing,” Wright says. But there are no hard feelings. The young prospect is Wright’s son, Jaret, a pitcher out of Katella High School.

Baseball fans who would rather work on their swing than their slider, or just work out their frustration over the shortened season, can drop into one of the many public batting cages throughout the county. Most offer a variety of pitching machines set to speeds from about 40 m.p.h. up to major league-level heat (there are also slow-pitch softball machines). You can put in a handful of quarters for a set number of pitches, on those quick visits, or pay a flat fee for a more substantial chunk of time. Most facilities loan bat and helmet for free.

Memory Lane

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?

The musical question grows even more poignant as yet another labor dispute further tarnishes the image of the Grand Old Game. Baseball fans yearning for a visit with DiMaggio and other stars of yesteryear, and hoping perhaps for a nostalgic return to childhood passions, can check out a sports card and memorabilia shop--almost as ubiquitous on the Orange County landscape as frozen yogurt franchises.

Here, the cards you cavalierly obliterated in your bike spokes as a kid are gingerly preserved in plexiglass frames. Prices on the real rarities can exceed the players’ lifetime batting averages. The browsing is fun, and even if you don’t feel like buying, chances are you’ll at least find someone to commiserate with about the strike.

Before the walkout, interest in cards of such hot current stars as Ken Griffey Jr. was riding high, according to Tim Stone, manager of Whiz Kids, a card and memorabilia shop in Costa Mesa. But when the strike hit, much of the collector interest drifted to the coming pro football season.

Still, the market for cards of past baseball stars remains steady.

“That never stops,” Stone says. “Interest in the older cards is still high.”

A Day in the Park

Anaheim Stadium holds some memories, even if most of them are frustrating ones. There’s no baseball there at the moment, but that doesn’t have to rule out a visit.

The stadium (which, alas, was a much nicer baseball park before it was partially enclosed for the Rams) is open daily for tours, except on event days and holidays. Tour times are 11 a.m., noon, 1 and 2 p.m.

Tour stops include the Angels’ dugout, but not their locker room. Visitors do get to see the Rams’ locker room and their cheerleaders’ locker room, along with the press box. They also get to walk out onto the field, which is currently in its between-seasons state: dirt base paths for baseball, goal posts for football.

After Wednesday, tours will also include a stop at the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, which is housed in the stadium near Gate 6 and features a number of former Angels. Officially, the hall of fame is open to the public 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, but times can be sporadic, so it’s best to call ahead if you’re not planning to take the stadium tour. The hall is also open for two hours before events at the stadium.

Tours are $3, $2 for children 5 to 16 and seniors, free for kids under 5. For tour information, call (714) 254-3120. For information on the hall of fame, call (714) 254-3050.

Road Trip

Looking ahead, it will be possible to visit such legendary ballparks as Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Boston’s Fenway Park--along with such minor league spots as Bakersfield’s rickety Sam Lynn Field--all without leaving Fullerton.

“Major League/Minor League: Photographs of America’s Baseball Stadiums by Jim Dow,” a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian, opens at the Fullerton Museum Center Sept. 30.

Dow, who once made prints for the great photographer Walker Evans, made his highly detailed ballpark portraits with a tripod-mounted, large-format view camera, taking his long-exposure photographs both at dusk and in daylight.

The exhibition includes text by Times staff writer David Lamb, author of “Stolen Season: A Journey Through America and Baseball’s Minor Leagues.”

“Baseball’s best ballparks are full of odd angles and nooks and crannies,” Lamb says in a written release. “And, rather than being architectural intruders, they appear to be part of the cityscape.”

For now, the major league parks are a silent part of that cityscape.

The Fullerton Museum Center is at 301 N. Pomona Ave. For information on the exhibit, which will run Sept. 30 through Nov. 13, call (714) 738-6545.

Looking Back

Finally, the best news of all for dejected fans could be the arrival of “Baseball”--the long-awaited series on the history of the sport from Ken Burns, creator of the highly praised “Civil War” miniseries.

“Baseball” will air in nine two-hour segments on KCET Channel 28, at 8 p.m. Sept. 18 through 22 and 25 through 28.