PARKS AND RECREATION NOTEBOOK : Not All Hard-Hitting Senior Softball Players Are Still in High School

Every few weeks, a couple of ballclubs called the Browns and the Senators play against each other at Hjelte Park in Encino. If the names sound as if they’re from a different era, they are. So are the players.

They are part of the senior citizen division of the San Fernando Valley Municipal Softball League. It includes six teams and nearly 90 players aged 55 and older, and although the rules are slightly more relaxed than for the Valley’s 2,000 other teams, the spirit of competition is not.

“We take the game very seriously,” said Sam Schiff, who has managed the Senators into first place this summer with a 7-2 record. “Everyone is out there to win. It’s very, very competitive, and the games are always close.”

Schiff, a 71-year-old appliance salesman, has been playing softball since he was eight years old and growing up in Monticello, N.Y. Even a heart bypass operation in 1981 didn’t slow him. In 1982, in fact, he led his team to a senior softball national championship in Las Vegas.

Ben Kronmal, 73, plays left field for the Browns. He had bypass surgery in 1984, but five days later he was out on the diamond, diving for anything he might get a glove on.

“My doctor was scared to death,” Kronmal said. “I don’t understand why I feel so young, but what the hell. We tell people we’re seniors, and right away they think we’re tottering. They have this grandfather image, that we can barely walk. But then we go out there, and they are amazed.”

“He’s really something. He makes catches that a young fellow couldn’t make,” said Lillian Schindler, who often watches the games.

Kronmal said he doesn’t think about getting hurt, but the Parks and Recreation Department management is concerned about the health of their elderly athletes. The department has prohibited sliding and allows teams to substitute freely.

“It’s terrific exercise,” said Red Legs pitcher Sol Brill, 76, one of the league’s oldest players. “If you have any aches or pains, once you get on the softball field you forget aches and pains. You don’t have a care in the world.”

The game helps most of the seniors keep their bodies, as well as their social lives, in tune. “It brings a few oldtimers out of the woodwork,” said Mario Cano, 57, a sewer contractor who manages the third-place Red Legs. “They still like to get involved. It gives them something to look forward to.”

Said Les Friday, who manages the fifth-place Browns: “I have to hit a home run to get to first base and the arms don’t work like they used to, but we have a lot of fun. It’s a kind of camaraderie. You get some guys out there who gripe on everything. But we’re too old to fight.”

Most of the players said the game keeps them feeling young and they will continue to play as long as their bodies will carry them around the bases.

“You must work to enjoy life. This way you look forward to every day,” Kronmal said.

Briefly

The Southern California Cricket Assn. has 445 members on 13 teams in the Valley. The teams play from April to November on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. at UCLA and Caltech--and at parks in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Orange counties. The competitors, aged 18 to 60, are almost all ex-citizens of such countries as Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Trinidad, the Netherlands and Sri Lanka. . . . The Adult Tennis League, a program for men and women aged 18 and older, will coordinate 12 men’s doubles and 12 mixed doubles teams to play from August to October at the Balboa Tennis Complex. The cost is $60 per team. There will also be an instructional league for juniors, using Olympic funds. It will be open to children ages 8 to 18 at the following recreation centers: Van Nuys Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Lanark, Sepulveda, Valley Plaza and Paxton. . . . Sylmar Park will offer basic rescue and water safety classes, as well as advanced life saving and skin diving, this summer. It will also have a junior guard program, skin diving and swim teams. . . . Valley Plaza Park’s summer program includes ice skating, basketball for teen-agers and adults, open table tennis and aerobics for teens and adults. . . . Victory Vineland is offering gymnastics, jiujitsu, basketball, soccer, wrestling, swimnastics, and jazzercize this summer.