KELLY STATUE MAY BE YEAR AWAY

Now that the shoot-out at the San Diego Unified Port District is over, when can San Diegans expect to see the controversial Ellsworth Kelly sculpture? Not anytime soon, according to Kelly. Reached in New York, the world-renowned minimalist artist said that the actual fabrication of such a monolith--65 to 68 feet high and his largest sculpture to date--will take months.

Last week’s go-ahead by the port commissioners ended months of feuding heightened by a small but highly vocal phalanx of artists, gallery owners and just plain citizens who strongly objected to either Kelly’s design or the port’s selection process of using a small blue-ribbon committee of art and design experts. The next step is for Kelly and the Port District to execute a contract. Kelly then must have the slim stainless steel blade manufactured.

For 15 years, Kelly has used Lippincott Inc. of North Haven, Conn., to build his sculptures. Kelly will not personally mold the metal. Using his drawings and scale models, artisans at Lippincott fabricate the sculptures. Kelly will be personally involved in the process, however. “A lot depends on the pouring of the steel,” he said. “The steel business isn’t what it once was. Sometimes what they send isn’t what I like. That can take time.”

The size of the sculpture also could be a factor. “Usually,” Kelly said, “the largest steel (available) is only 40 feet.” If Kelly can’t find a full-sized length, the blade will have to be welded. “I’ve been working on it for almost a year now. This is the original concept I started with. I hope to install it a year from now. I hope it will be by next August.”

RADIO BASEBALL: Should the remainder of the major league baseball season develop into a management-player balk, radio station KFMB-AM (760) is prepared to fill the gap. “Fantasy Baseball” will fill the airwaves if the threatened Aug. 6 players’ strike occurs.

First broadcast by Padre announcers Jerry Coleman and Dave Campbell from the San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium parking lot during the 1981 baseball strike, “Fantasy Baseball” combined a sports foray into the realm of radio’s “theater of the mind” with a live audience of 3,200 invited guests who pulled up beach chairs and partied in the stadium parking lot throughout the imaginary game.

“We don’t want to get too anxious about doing ‘Fantasy Baseball’ because we hope there won’t be a strike,” KFMB spokesman Joan Hiser said, “but we’re ready if it comes.” KFMB, which broadcasts all the Padres’ games, created “Fantasy Baseball” and “Fantasy Football,” trademarked concepts, as a promotion device when the regularly scheduled programming was disrupted by strikes.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to exploit every aspect of the game: the vendors, umpires, personalities,” Hiser said. In the 1981 edition of “Fantasy Baseball,” the Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the bottom of the 9th inning by a score of 4-2 with the Padres’ first triple play in 25 years.

“This city has some wild and crazy people, and they have to vent their frustration if there’s a strike,” Hiser said. “We really haven’t had to make contracts. It’ll all fall into place. The players will be in town. We may have some of them on the program. It depends on what the sentiment is. Hudson and Bauer (KFMB’s morning drive hosts Mack and Joe) will probably be emcees. It helps to have a sense of humor in times of stress and trial.”

Meanwhile, as the stress builds, the station keeps playing local composer Glenn Erath’s ‘50s-style rock anthem, “It’s Up to Uebe,” which maintains that the situation is “out of Reagan and Bush’s league,” and only one person can solve the problem, “The Boss,” baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth.

CHALLENGE MONEY: The San Diego Opera’s largest private grant to date--a $300,000 challenge grant--has been received from the James Irvine Foundation. Designed to spur the opera’s fund-raising efforts for the next two seasons, the funds are designated to implement the company’s five-year artistic expansion plan, outlined in December by general director Ian Campbell.

Campbell’s vision includes chamber opera, beginning this year with Peter Maxwell Davies’ “The Lighthouse,” directed by Old Globe Theatre artistic director Jack O’Brien at the Globe. Campbell’s program also includes developing the opera’s 35-member board of directors. Campbell has been “cultivating a stronger board since April, selecting individuals with leadership characteristics and the ability to assist in generating funds,” according to a press release. Special strength may be required should the current opera negotiations with the local chapter of the American Federation of Musicians not jell into an amicable pact. The bargaining sessions going on in San Diego and Los Angeles are the opening curtain on the first season when San Diego Opera performances and San Diego Symphony concerts will conflict.

TAPED TESTIMONY: Composer-writer Kenneth Gaburo’s “The Testimony Project” comes to San Diego this week. A compilation of videotaped responses to the “question concerning human sacrifice in the event of a nuclear war,” the project continues Saturday at Gallery 536, at 536 5th Ave. from 6 to 10 p.m. and at the San Diego Public Library, 8320 E St., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 10. During those times individuals may make their own taped statements.