First Pinch-Hitter : First Lady Stumps for Brown, Praises Little League Champions

As campaign rallies go, this one had the look of a clunker.

The President, Bill Clinton himself, had been the scheduled speaker. But he was stuck back in Washington, preoccupied with the Haiti business.

So he sent his wife. But her plane was late. And it was very hot out on the jet-black Tarmac at Burbank Airport, the late-afternoon sun beating down on the 200 Democratic faithful who had gathered to cheer on gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Brown.

And the faithful were bored and thirsty, milling inside black velvet security ropes, unmoved by music from the hit movie “Forrest Gump,” uninspired by a placard in the crowd that proclaimed, “We Support Pres. Clinton’s Haiti Policy,” unprovoked by a longtime activist whose T-shirt read: “Homos for Hillary.”

Then, abruptly, a water cooler appeared. And so did the Northridge Little League champions. And the champs made it a show.

“We’re excited. We get to see Mrs. Clinton!” said John Michael Baca, 11, a second baseman on the team. “We get to see Pete Wilson. No, Kathleen Brown, I think. It’s fun, because it’s the First Lady.”

“Hey, because it’s the First Lady we get to see the Secret Service guards and their guns!” added center fielder Michael Nesbit, 12.

Just then Brown arrived, and the Little Leaguers, in their uniforms, crowded around the woman in the red dress. “Did any of you hit any home runs?” Brown asked. “I did,” said one voice. “I did,” added another. “I hit two,” said a third.

Brown tried a risky move. “Any girls on the team?” she asked.

“No girls!” came back a chorus.

Raised in a deft political family, Brown tried a slightly different tack. “Do you guys think California is ready for a woman governor?”

“Yes!” cried the boys.

“All right!” she exclaimed. “This is my team!”

“Vote for Kathleen Brown!” said one of the Little Leaguers. “She’s the nicest!”

Moments later, the blue-and-white Air Force jet zoomed in from the west. In a black suit trimmed in pink, Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped off the ramp to loud applause. She mingled with the Little Leaguers for a few minutes and posed for photos.

A cooling breeze began to blow. The music on the loudspeakers turned to a CD from the rock group 10,000 Maniacs, who sang out: “These are days you remember.”

As the music faded and Clinton and Brown stepped up to a podium, the harshness was gone from the sun, replaced by a soft light that illuminated their excited faces and cut through the smog to reveal the beauty of the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.

To enthusiastic applause, both the candidate and the First Lady jabbed at Gov. Pete Wilson, the Republican incumbent whose job Brown wants, blaming him for the state’s lackluster economy.

But to even louder applause, Clinton took a few moments to praise the Little Leaguers, who won the U.S. title last month in Williamsburg, Pa., before losing the world championship to a team from Venezuela.

It was a “real joy,” she said, to meet the Northridge team. She was “so impressed” with “their style and their sportsmanship and their winning.”

They were, she said, a “real symbol” of overcoming adversity, of “the spirit of California.” As the boys bowed their heads and their coaches and parents beamed, she added that they were “what I have always thought of as Californian. Good-looking. Lots of sun. Hard-working. Strong. Smart.”

And resourceful. Todd Delevie, 12, a backup catcher on the team, snagged the First Lady’s autograph. As Clinton and Brown sped off to a fund-raiser later Sunday night in West Los Angeles, he proudly showed it off, fetching the scrap of paper and a well-used black Bic pen out of his right back pocket.

“I came totally prepared,” Todd said. “You have to in a situation like this.

“I like to get the autographs of people who are famous,” he said. “And this is a cool one. She’s--well, she’s awesome! And so was this, ‘cause I got to meet her.”