He Hunts Stars That Sparkle on Diamonds : Baseball: Chuck McMichael’s opinion can make the difference between success and failure for young players.

Chuck McMichael’s tastes are simple.

After spending 10 years combing the country in search of the next Bret Saberhagen or Bo Jackson, McMichael longs for nothing but the barest necessities.

“Great bat speed, good runners and the sun--that’s what I enjoy,” says McMichael, a scout for the Kansas City Royals. “I wish I had more time to fish and hike and do the other things I like, but baseball won’t allow it.”

McMichael, a former pitcher at the University of La Verne, is on the road more than 200 days a year for the Royals, watching and evaluating ballplayers that aspire for a career in the major leagues.

In the past 10 years, McMichael, 34, has risen from part-time area scout in Southern California to a Phoenix-based national cross-checker for one of baseball’s most highly regarded organizations. As a national cross-checker, McMichael’s main responsibility is to determine in what order prospects should be drafted.

Two weeks ago, as he perused the talent on display at Jackie Robinson Stadium during a series between USC and UCLA, McMichael reflected upon his baseball career, which began at Hoover High in Glendale and has included stops at the University of Arizona, La Verne, the minor leagues and, finally, scouting.

“I’m usually hanging around with guys (scouts) that are between 50 and 65--and that’s a tremendous benefit,” McMichael says. “These guys in scouting and player development are the heroes of the game with 15 to 30 years of experience that I can draw from.”

McMichael, a left-handed pitcher/center fielder, was named 4-A player of the year in 1975 after he compiled a 16-2 record and led Hoover to the Southern Section title.

Chosen in the 10th round of the free-agent draft by the New York Mets, McMichael opted to attend Arizona where he was a member of the Wildcats’ 1976 NCAA championship team.

In 1977, he was 6-2 with a team-low 3.00 earned-run average, but injured his knee playing summer ball in Alaska. The injury forced McMichael to redshirt his junior year and, after surgery and rehabilitation, he transferred to La Verne to complete his final two seasons of eligibility and was signed by the Royals as a free agent.

McMichael played in the Gulf Coast Rookie League in 1980 then compiled a 7-1 record and 3.43 ERA at Charleston in the Class-A South Atlantic League in 1981.

When his contract for the next season arrived during the winter, McMichael expected to open the envelope and learn of his promotion to a higher Class A team or Double-A. Instead, he received a player-coach contract.

“I called back to Kansas City and said I still thought I was a prospect,” McMichael recalled. “They basically told me, ‘Well, we think you’re a prospect--a prospect as a manager.”

The news only managed to drive McMichael out of baseball and into his father’s contracting business. However, about six months after spring training ended, McMichael was back on the phone to Kansas City.

“I told them, ‘Hey, I made a mistake, What can I do?,” McMichael said. “That’s when they mentioned the scouting thing.”

Under the tutelage of veteran scouts such as Al Kubski, Rosie Gilhausen and Guy Hansen, McMichael’s career advanced quickly.

“It was pretty obvious from the start that he had a good chance to be a good scout,” Hansen said. “He had the ability to take what he saw and put it on paper, giving the cross-checker a good vision of what he was coming to see.”

Today, McMichael is on the receiving end of those reports, thereby necessitating long separations from his wife, Janice, and their five children, as he double checks the work of area scouts by seeing high school, college, minor league and major league games as well as visiting the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.