Sitting down for a spell

Mike Sciacca,

Zany is the perfect word to describe Penny Baker.

If she were playing the game of Scrabble, it would be worth xxx?

Hey wait a minute: Penny Baker o7 isf7 playing Scrabble.

Every Tuesday evening at the International House of Pancakes

restaurant on Beach Boulevard, Baker runs the Huntington Beach Scrabble

Club, a gathering, she says, of just about every character you can think

of.

“We have doctors, students, bums . . . you name it, they come and

play,” she said with a laugh. “We have our regulars but we also get

visitors, like a doctor from Sparks, Nevada and folks from such places as

San Jose and New York. It’s a fun night.”

They gather for what can turn out to be a four-hour Scrabble-fest each

Tuesday. Seasoned players pay $2 to play four games. Baker says that the

fee is waived for newcomers.

The leisurely evening includes food, drink and the ability to think.

They aren’t in it for the winnings -- lottery scratch-off tickets are the

prize, although a winning ticket there could amount to the greatest

Scrabble payoff ever.

The game of Scrabble has been around since 1948. The National Scrabble

Assn. represents about 10,000 word game enthusiasts throughout the United

States and Canada and sanctions 175 local tournaments each year

throughout the U.S.

“We’re in it for the serious fun,” says Baker, who coyly avoids

mentioning her age. “We teach and coach our new players and try to get

them interested in the game. It seems once they do become interested they

get hooked. Most of the fun is the camaraderie we have.”

The fact that Baker owns, runs and participates in the game of

Scrabble is a “hoot in itself,” she said, because she is dyslexic.

“I’m not that bad, though,” said the Leisure World resident. “I’ve

been playing for what seems about a hundred years but I’m not a top

player. I’m not a good speller, either, but this game has helped me out

in that regard.”

Baker purchased the Huntington Beach Scrabble Club from Geneva Akers

13 years ago. The club itself was founded in the early 1970s and first

found a home in Los Angeles before settling in Huntington Beach in the

late 1980s, said Paul Trachtenberg, the club’s co-director for the past

seven years. It is one of the oldest Scrabble clubs in existence ranking

34th on a list of 524 clubs nationwide.

To own a club, Baker said, a prospective owner/director has to pass a

test that is issued by Scrabble headquarters -- “It’s not a hard test,

really,” she scoffed -- in New York. New owners/directors also need to be

versed in the game’s rules and regulations as well as learn how to run a

club.

But Baker isn’t landlocked: she also runs Scrabble cruises and

participates in Scrabble tournaments.

“Scrabble is played just about everywhere,” she said. “There are

several tournaments and clubs worldwide. What I’m hoping -- or my aim,

anyway, is to make Scrabble as popular as chess and bridge. It’s a great

game to play for all stages and ages of life.”

While Baker is aiming high, she knows the reality: in the past, she

said, a night of Scrabble might include 30 to 40 participants at the

club. Now, she says, the numbers have dwindled and she is “lucky” to get

12 to 16 people on a Tuesday.

“What has happened recently is that there are too many other clubs

going on now,” Baker said. “It takes people away from our club,

especially those who have to travel to Huntington Beach just to play.”

Baker once owned and ran two Scrabble clubs, but gave up her

Bakersfield club. She says she will continue to operate the Huntington

Beach club, as long as there are challenging words she can come up with.

“We have all sorts of contests like longest word, sexiest word, you

name it,” she said again, with a laugh. “We play by the rules, but try to

make Scrabble as fun as we possibly can.”