Major Promotion: Radinsky Takes Big Step Up in Class : Baseball: Former Simi Valley High pitcher is among a handful of area players to reach the big leagues this year.

How best to describe a one-year leap from Class A baseball to the major leagues? Perhaps with comparisons. Such a jump would not be unlike Gerald Ford qualifying to play in the Masters. Or Exxon being honored next year as Corporation of the Year by a sea otter preservation group.

Scott Radinsky, who once threw fastballs for Simi Valley High, has made such a turnaround. Last year he was pitching in Class A ball in South Bend, Ind. Today, he demonstrates his stuff as a relief pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. Only one other pitcher in the last decade has made the remarkable leap from Class A ball to the majors in less than a year--Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets.

Radinsky was helped this spring by the owners’ lockout, which resulted in a temporary expansion of major league rosters from 24 to 27 players. But he was also helped by his own performances during four years in the minor leagues.

He brought with him a 90-m.p.h. fastball that terrified hitters in high school. Then he added a sharp curve and a deceptive changeup.

Last year at South Bend, he compiled a 7-5 record with a sterling 1.75 earned-run average. The White Sox invited him to training camp because of that ERA, and he showed them it was no fluke.

Radinsky, 23, appeared in the first three White Sox games this season and picked up the victory in one. He now works on the same staff as former Notre Dame High star Jack McDowell and former Royal High ace Eric King.

While Radinsky’s jump was the most dramatic, he’s not the only area player making his major league debut this spring.

Perhaps the most anxiety-ridden effort was turned in by pitcher Howard Hilton, who was a standout for Hueneme High and has earned a spot on the St. Louis Cardinals’ staff.

Hilton, 26, who also played at Oxnard College and the University of Arkansas, turned in a solid year at the Triple A level in 1989 but had a disastrous outing during spring training against the White Sox two days before the Cardinals’ final roster cuts. In two innings against Chicago, Hilton gave up three runs and walked four. He seemed headed for another year at Louisville.

But the Cardinals, riddled with injuries to their staff, gave Hilton the benefit of the doubt. He earned a place on the roster just four years after leaving Hueneme.

Another pitcher who has made the jump to the big leagues is Steve Wapnick, a former Moorpark College star who was named to the Detroit Tigers’ pitching staff. Wapnick was drafted in 1985 by the New York Yankees and, after playing at Fresno State, was drafted again by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987. After being released late last year, he was picked up by the Tigers in December and won a place on the club during the abbreviated spring training season.

Todd Zeile, from Hart High and UCLA, was signed by the Cardinals in 1986 and is expected to make the biggest splash among the area’s major league players this year. A catcher, Zeile has been named by at least two magazines as the leading candidate for Rookie of the Year honors in the National League.

Zeile, 24, of Valencia, played for the Cardinals last August and September and so impressed the organization that it allowed five-time All-Star catcher Tony Pena to leave as a free agent.

Zeile, who is married to former Olympic gymnast Julianne McNamara of Encino, appeared in 28 games in the major leagues last year, but is still officially a rookie.

But even as some were succeeding, at least one Valley player apparently was giving up baseball. Former Kennedy High star Phil Lombardi, 27, who played in parts of four major league seasons with the Yankees and Mets, announced his retirement after learning that he would be the Atlanta Braves’ third-string catcher. He had been picked up by the Braves earlier this month after being waived by the Mets.