The High Schools : Low Knickers, Lots of Stirrup Bring Plodding Look to Baseball Fashion

Baseball is a sport in which the opportunities for a uniformed player to make a fashion statement are few and far between. Sure, a guy can wear his hat at a rakish angle, get creative with the eye black or possibly wear a tattered jersey underneath his uniform top. Otherwise, things are, well, fairly uniform.

Yet like a woman’s hemline, the length of the stirrups offers a rare avenue for sartorial statements. And lately, the trend in stirrups is the more visible the better.

This has not always been the case. Many fans used to think that former major-league outfielder George Hendrick--who wore the inseam of his knickers and stirrups so low that almost no sock was visible--was slightly offbeat. Players tended to want their pants tailored to fit just below the knee and their stirrups to ride just as high.

Many a mother of a Little League or high school player was asked to make an alteration to stretch the sock length to the limit.

Thin was in. The objective--to look sleek and speedy.

“We used to have our moms add elastic so they would stretch even farther,” said Chatsworth Coach Bob Lofrano, who played at Chatsworth in the late 1960s.

Over the last couple of seasons, however, several Chatsworth players have adopted the Hendrick look, as have players at Kennedy and San Fernando.

“It’s like it is with songs,” Kennedy shortstop Gino Tagliaferri said. “Ever notice how many songs today are remade from the old ones? It’s the same thing with the uniforms--it’s a cycle.

“And it looks good, like the uniforms did in the old days. The George Hendrick-Pete Rose look is in.”

Chatsworth--for the first time in Lofrano’s 10-year tenure--and Kennedy switched from white to black shoes this season. Lofrano admits that the Chatsworth combination--black shoes and navy-blue socks worn at the ankle--is hardly one that would frighten most catchers.

“It’s the real slow look,” Lofrano admitted. “No greyhounds here.”

Some Chatsworth players loop the stirrup around their foot before pulling it up their leg. Tagliaferri said he prefers to cut 2-3 inches from the bottom of the stirrup, and then sew it back together.

Chatsworth players say that the end result looks funny to some, but they insist that a team with sock can wear its socks however it wants. Chatsworth is ranked No. 7 in the nation by USA Today and has won 14 consecutive games.

“We’re a team that doesn’t really pride itself on speed,” junior pitcher-first baseman Reed McMackin said. “Most guys who can mash wear ‘em low. I think it looks good.”

McMackin said the trend at Chatsworth started last year and he credits his brother, Rex, a 1988 graduate, with starting the no-hose-barred look. Then again, at 5-foot-8, Rex didn’t have much leg to work with.

“With those stumps, he might have been first,” said Lofrano, who wears his socks at medium height and who questions Reed McMackin’s historical accuracy. “But usually, these guys see a college or pro player doing something first, and then copy it.”

It only hurts when I look at the stats: San Fernando Coach Steve Marden had just finished some serious hand-wringing and self-analysis when he came to the conclusion that things aren’t nearly as bad as he had imagined.

Sure, San Fernando has struggled at times en route to a 11-3-1 mark, but the three losses were by a combined total of four runs. And the Tigers--who historically have had to manufacture runs through the bunt, hit-and-run and other “little ball” approaches--were batting .371 as a team before exploding for 15 runs Tuesday against Poly.

“Now that I think about it, I think maybe I’ve been too hard on them,” Marden said. “We haven’t had a team that hits this well in a long time, if ever, so that gets to me sometimes. I guess I start expecting too much.”

Add San Fernando: Marden swears he does not like the long ball, that he prefers a team that makes contact over the free-swinging variety.

“I don’t like home runs much,” Marden said, “because they’re usually followed by a string of oh-fers.”

Good thing.

When senior catcher Rudy Sanchez homered in San Fernando’s 14-2 win over Taft on Monday, it was the team’s first in 13 games.

All-American graffiti: When 11 new players joined the San Fernando varsity this season, they found the returning lettermen waiting to administer one of the rites of spring.

Hazing. With marking pens.

This year’s initiation ritual consisted of the veterans writing messages to the rookies on the underside of the newcomers’ caps.

“We give each team the opportunity to bring a new tradition into the program, something that reflects their personalities,” Marden said. “This was their choice.”

Marden said the write rite turned out all right. And considering some of the possible alternatives, this initiation ceremony was tame.

“I told them just to scribble something, then leave the poor guys alone,” he said.

Filling the void, and then some: When Kennedy leadoff batter Mike Schlesinger graduated after last season, he created a hole in the lineup that seemingly would be difficult to fill. Schlesinger, an All-Mid-Valley selection, batted .443 and scored 22 runs in 1988.

Mike Murray, a senior third baseman, has more than picked up the slack, however. Murray has hit in 13 of 16 games and drawn 21 walks. Murray, who bats in the leadoff position, is 21 for 46 (.456).

“He’s got a great eye and he doesn’t strike out a whole lot,” Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado said. “The way he goes is pretty much the way we go.”

Murray has already scored 22 runs and seems certain to eclipse Gino Tagliaferri’s team high of 28 last season.

Settling down: Since opening the season with a 5-4, four-hit victory over Chatsworth, Notre Dame’s Cary Wichmann had struggled with his consistency.

Despite a 5-0 record, the Knight sophomore had an earned-run average of 5.15 entering last week’s game against Westchester in the second round of the Redondo-Palos Verdes tournament.

“Cary had given up a couple of big innings earlier in the season,” Notre Dame Coach Bob Mandeville said. “So his ERA was kind of misleading. He hasn’t been able to always put together seven strong innings. But he looked very good against Westchester.”

Wichmann scattered five hits to beat the Comets, 8-2, and lower his ERA to 4.60.

Cardinal sin: Channel Islands is 0-6 in the Marmonte League, the Raiders’ worst start in Coach Don Cardinal’s 23-year career.

“I can’t remember that ever happening,” Cardinal said.

Channel Islands’ hitters have struggled with runners in scoring position, leading Cardinal to conclude that a few well-placed hits would have made the difference in two or three losses. The coach seems to be taking it in stride, however.

“If you ain’t got the horses, I don’t care who you are, you ain’t getting it done,” he said. “My kids are playing about as good as they can play, so I go to bed and go right to sleep.”

Staff Writers Tim Brown, Steve Elling and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.