THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Birmingham Tries Novel Approach

Who says that baseball and literature don’t mix?

They do at Birmingham High, where Coach Wayne Sink read to his team Monday at practice.

Reading? At baseball practice? You’d think the only printed word on the diamond would be the lineup card.

But it’s not as strange as it might sound. Sink wasn’t reading Shakespearean sonnets. He was reading from David Halberstam’s latest book, “The Summer of ‘49,” a chronicle of the pennant race between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees in 1949.

Of particular interest, said Sink, was a passage in which veterans of the proud, tradition-laden Yankees browbeat 22-year-old Yogi Berra for loafing after he hit a popup. Sink also wanted his players to hear a passage in which an injured Joe DiMaggio, after playing both ends of a doubleheader, asked aloud how Berra, a fresh-legged rookie, could beg out of catching the second game.

“There’s something to be learned,” Sink said. “There was an ethic there. There was a real dedication to work.”

With six Valley Pac-8 Conference games left and Birmingham leading the Mid-Valley League, Sink is hoping that the spring of ’90 will prove worth chronicling in the annals of school history.

Timely addition: Heath McElwee, who transferred to Granada Hills from L. A. Baptist a month ago, has been inserted into the Highlanders’ pitching rotation after a strong showing in the Holt-Goodman tournament last week.

In two appearances, McElwee, a sophomore, allowed one earned run in seven innings and was three for seven at the plate.

Utility man: Need an explanation for Poly’s 14-3 record?

Consider the play of Rodrigo Dorame, a runaway winner for the team’s Mr. Versatile Award if they choose to give one.

Dorame is leading the team with 20 runs batted in and was batting .412 with 21 hits in 51 at-bats before Wednesday’s win over Reseda.

While those contributions might seem more than enough to please Coach Jerry Cord, Dorame, a right fielder and designated-hitter, also is the No. 2 starting pitcher in a two-man rotation. Dorame, a junior, is 3-0 with a 2.30 earned-run average in 24 1/3 innings.

Royal watch: Edward Smith, a transfer from El Paso, Tex., made his pitching debut for Royal last week in the Chino tournament. Smith, a 6-foot, 185-pound senior right-hander, hadn’t pitched in almost two months but allowed just five hits in four innings.

“At times, he blew the ball by people,” Coach Dan Maye said. “But you could tell he was a little rusty. His pitches were barely missing.”

Smith started Wednesday against Simi Valley, working six innings in a 6-4 loss. He gave up seven hits and five walks but struck out six.

Ineligible: North Hollywood, making a run for second place in the East Valley League, will do so without the services of starting center fielder Duane Braxton and first baseman Craig White, both of whom are academically ineligible.

Braxton was hitting .428 with a home run and five RBIs.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Brian Murphy and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.