High School Baseball Mired in the Dark Ages : Financial Obstacles Block the Path of Programs Willing to Trade Sunshine for the Spotlight

They have battled for months--through preseason, tournament and league competition--to earn the right to play under the lights for a CIF title.

The City Section baseball playoffs, which begin Wednesday, conclude with an illuminated 4-A championship game June 4 at Dodger Stadium. The Southern Section, with playoffs beginning today, wraps up its season with the 4-A championship game at Dodger Stadium two nights later.

Valley-area teams that make the finals will have traveled a sunlit road to the stadium spotlight.

That’s because only a handful of schools and parks from Burbank to Simi Valley have lighted facilities that allow high school games to be played at night.

Burbank is a beacon in what is otherwise a modern-day heart of darkness. Burroughs, located in Burbank, is the only Valley-area high school with a lighted baseball field on campus. Bell-Jeff and Burbank highs play home games at night at Northwest Park and Providence uses Burroughs and Olive Park.

“I don’t know what it is but playing at night creates a much more disciplined environment,” Burroughs Coach Paul Heaney said. “The players seem to get up for it more. With a night game, the players can go home, get something to eat and come back to school ready to play. We’ve had less physical errors than in day games. We play a much tighter brand of baseball.”

There are a couple of other Valley-area parks with lights, but the condition of the lamps and the fields are unsatisfactory for night games.

El Carriso Park in Sylmar has lights, but it also has an infield surface as hard as cement. Pacoima’s Paxton Park is lighted, but its backstop configuration--constructed to keep foul balls from dropping into a nearby wash--makes coaches stay away both day and night.

Valley baseball, therefore, is a Chicago Cub fan’s dream: baseball, with plenty of sunshine and cool, early evening breezes. Unfortunately, there are few fans who can free themselves from work to attend afternoon games.

“We double or triple our attendance when we play at night,” Bell-Jeff Coach Hal Krug said. “It gets everyone involved. Parents are able to come out and see their sons play. A lot of times, they’ll go down the right-field line and set up picnics. It’s great.”

For most coaches, however, finding a place to play at night is no day at the park. The biggest obstacle, of course, is the money it takes to construct and operate light towers.

“I’d love to see night baseball in the Valley,” said Canoga Park Coach Doug MacKenzie, whose teams have never played a night game in 37 years. “But I can’t see anything happening unless we luck out and get some Olympic funds for Birmingham.”

If there is a Shangri-La for Valley-area coaches, it is Birmingham High.

Lights for Birmingham’s Ramirez Field, which is regarded as the best high school facility in the Valley, have been on the mind of Birmingham Coach Wayne Sink since the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee installed a new track at the Van Nuys campus.

“An area as big as the Valley, something like 1.3 million people, to not have that kind of facility for everyone to use is atrocious,” Sink said. “But things are slow, you have to talk to people. It’s not a matter of going to one guy and saying, ‘Is this OK?’ ”

The Amateur Athletic Foundation is the caretaker of 40% of the $240 million surplus that was generated by the 1984 Olympics. The foundation, which was created to help dispense funds to needy recreation and educational programs, dispensed more than $5 million in grants last year.

Two years ago, Sink submitted a proposal to the foundation. It estimated that $150,000 would be needed to outfit Ramirez Field with lights. The request was turned down because “they didn’t want to give to an individual school because it would establish a bad precedent,” Sink said. “We’re still looking at the possibilities for the future.”

Judith Pinero, vice president for programs for the AAF, affirmed that there can be a problem when a request comes from a single school.

“Our jurisdiction is for all of Southern California,” Pinero said. “We receive hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of proposals. Everyone has projects that are of interest to them. I know how good it would be to have a San Fernando Valley facility. If there’s a new dimension to the project, we’d be happy to hear it.”

Cal State Northridge is another site that Valley-area coaches see as ideal for area-wide use. Matador Field is already home to CSUN’s baseball team and several high school playoff, tournament, summer league and all-star games.

CSUN Athletic Director Bob Hiegert said the last time the school looked into the possibility of lights was five years ago. The estimated cost was a prohibitive $120,000-$150,000.

“It would be ideal for us, and the location is perfect for the Valley,” Hiegert said. “I would think that if our program continues to grow, along with college baseball in general, lights would become more realistic.

“We would love to have promotional games where you could bring in a Miami or Arizona State for a night game. There are several high school all-star games that could also produce money.”

The thought of high school baseball as a revenue-producing sport might seem ridiculous to those who have driven by playing diamonds during the afternoon and seen sparsely populated bleachers.

Long Beach schools, however, have been playing at night and making money for more than 20 years.

Four Moore League teams play a twi-night doubleheader every Friday night at Blair Field in Long Beach. The games draw 500 to 1,000 fans, who pay as much as $3 per ticket.

“Most people think baseball is a killer as far as money not being made,” Millikan Coach Dan Peters said. “But we charge at all the games and all the schools divvy up the money at the end of the year. It’s been a real big plus for us financially and in terms of community support.”

Getting support for the installation of lights at a high school or community park has proven difficult.

In Simi Valley, where there are no lighted baseball fields, the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District formed a 33-member citizen advisory committee and has heard testimony from various interest groups.

When Rancho Santa Susana Park is finished, it will include six lighted softball diamonds and several soccer fields, but no baseball field.

“When you take public testimony, you get a lot of adult softball and soccer enthusiasts who are very vocal,” said Rick Field, chairman of the district’s board of directors. “To the best of my knowledge, we have never had anyone come down and say it’s in the best interest of the community to have a lighted baseball field. Even if they did, that doesn’t guarantee there would be one because we have to balance the needs of the community.”

Last year, the Ventura County Gulls minor league baseball team expressed interest in moving to Camarillo if the Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District would approve the building of a stadium at Freedom Park in Camarillo. Plans submitted by the Community Stadium Assn. were rejected three times.

The Camarillo High baseball team is considering playing its home games in Pleasant Valley Park next season because of a freeway construction project that will eliminate the high school’s diamond.

“It’s a shame there isn’t a lighted baseball field with suitable dimensions for a high school game,” Camarillo Coach Ken Wagner said. “Especially in a town like this. If Camarillo and Rio Mesa played twi-night doubleheaders like they do in Long Beach, we’d get a lot of people and make some money for our programs.”

Hart Coach Bud Murray said that a similar impact would be felt in the light-less Santa Clarita Valley, where rivalries exist between Hart, Canyon and Saugus high schools, games could be played at night before hundreds of fans.

Saugus, in fact, already has already begun a drive of sorts that is spearheaded by Bill Bolde--an assistant baseball coach and fund-raiser who has raised $40,000 for facility improvements in the past two years.

“I’ve already priced the lights out at $90,000,” Bolde said. “I’d like to think that we’re capable of raising the money, I’m just not sure how many roadblocks may get in our way. The people who live in the houses along the field may not want them and I’m not sure how the district or the rest of the league feels about it.”

Professional scouts admittedly are selfish and anxious to see the Valley-area emerge from the Dark Ages. Night baseball means more time to see more games. And more games means more chances to see prospects.

“Some kids have problems with night vision,” White Sox scout Craig Wallenbrock said. “Professional baseball is played at night. If you’re going to invest a lot of money in a player, you want to know he can play under the lights.”

Rick Magnante, who scouts most of California for the Detroit Tigers, said the facilities for night baseball up north are far superior to those in the Valley-area.

“I think it’s a travesty that a talent-laden area like the Valley does not have more good facilities where night baseball can be played,” said Magnante, who watches more than 225 games a year. “It’s odd, especially in a predominantly upper-middle class area like the Valley.”