Pair Hits Fork in Road to Yankees : Baseball: Don Sparks and Bob DeJardin were teammates at Loyola Marymount and played together some in the pros. Now they’ve split up again.

It happened so quickly that Don Sparks didn’t have time to say goodby to Bob DeJardin, his good friend and long-time teammate.

When the phone rang in Sparks’ hotel room in Canton, Ohio, at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday several weeks ago, the voice on the other end was telling Sparks to pack his bags for nearby Columbus.

He was being called up to triple-A.

“It had no notion it was going to happen,” Sparks said. “I thought it was going to be another joke, where the coaches call you down to the lobby with all your luggage for nothing.”

Sparks took a 20-second shower, threw some clothes into a bag and headed to the lobby. But it wasn’t a joke. The car was waiting outside to take him to Columbus--only a step away from the big leagues.

He’s been at Columbus ever since, splitting up--at least temporarily--a partnership between Sparks and DeJardin that has spanned much of the past four years.

Sparks and DeJardin were teammates at Loyola Marymount in 1987 and ’88. Sparks was the third baseman with the booming bat; DeJardin the switch-hitting, slick-fielding shortstop.

They were selected by the New York Yankees in the June 1988 draft--Sparks in the fifth round and DeJardin in the eighth. Sparks spent the rest of that summer in the class-A Carolina League at Prince William, Va., and DeJardin headed north to Oneonta, N.Y., a class-A team in the New York-Penn League.

The two were reunited last year at Prince William, then were promoted this season to the Yankees’ double-A affiliate at Albany-Colonie of the Eastern League.

Sparks and DeJardin spent most of the year sharing a house in Burnt Hills, N.Y., about 20 minutes outside of Albany.

Sparks’ car is still there, and so are most of his clothes. He has no idea how he is going to retrieve them.

“I’ve got one bag of clothes,” Sparks said. “It looks like I’m going to be doing a lot of wash for a while, but I’m not complaining.”

Sparks was called to Columbus after the Yankees put outfielder Claudell Washington on the disabled list and recalled third baseman Mike Blowers from Columbus to replace him.

For a while, at least, Sparks gets to travel on airplanes.

DeJardin is still riding buses on the long road trips--although Albany-Colonie’s bus is air-conditioned and has three television sets. Still, it might not be long before DeJardin and Sparks are back together again.

“I’m pumped up for Don,” DeJardin said. “He’s a good friend. Hopefully I’ll get my shot soon.”

Sparks has not taken long to make an impact at Columbus. He has two hits in seven at-bats, both of them doubles.

“I don’t want to be thought of as a young pup just coming up, who’s kind of scared about getting a chance,” Sparks said. “When I put on the uniform, I want to be part of the team, and I want to help out the team.”

In 58 games at Albany-Colonie, Sparks was hitting .277 with three home runs, 10 doubles and 24 runs batted in. When Sparks was called up to Columbus, Albany-Colonie had a five-game losing streak, which is why Sparks thought the coaches might have been playing a trick on him to help lighten up the situation.

Sparks, a standout at Millikan High in Long Beach, put too much pressure on himself in 1988--his first year in professional baseball.

He ended up hitting only .247 the summer after setting a Loyola school record--broken this year by Rick Mediavilla--with 105 hits as a senior.

But Sparks’ coaches at Prince William helped turn him around. They said he only needed to get some at-bats under him to get used to the wooden bats at the long-distance road trips.

The next year at Prince William, Sparks was re-teamed with DeJardin on the right side of the infield. He responded by hitting .281 with six homers and 65 RBI.

He has also been experimenting with glasses since he can’t find a pair of contact lenses to correct his astigmatism. The glasses help Sparks pick up the rotation on the curve ball.

“When that fastball starts looking like a curve ball, and the curve starts looking like a fastball, it’s time to get some glasses,” Sparks said.

If all goes well, Sparks could find himself in Yankee Stadium by the end of the season.

The Yankees have experimented with three third basemen this season--Randy Velarde and rookies Blowers and Jim Leyritz--with varied results. Blowers committed four errors in one game.

“I’m trying not to think about it, too much,” Sparks said. “I can’t control whatever moves the Yankees make, so I’m just going to play real hard here and try to have some fun.”

This season has been especially enjoyable for DeJardin, who has been successful hitting against Eastern League pitching.

DeJardin is Albany-Colonie’s starting shortstop and leadoff man and is hitting .282 in 43 games after missing the start of the season with a sore arm.

A graduate of Mater Dei High, DeJardin was a .324 hitter in his four-year career at Loyola.

He was signed by then-Yankee scout Chris Smith, who took over the head coaching job at Loyola a week after signing DeJardin.

DeJardin hit .278 last year at Prince William and hit .295 in 1988 at Oneonta.

Albany-Colonie is a far cry from Oneonta, a college town where DeJardin was booted out of his campus apartment when the students returned from summer break. DeJardin spent the rest of the summer living in a portable trailer at Oneonta’s home field.

DeJardin is a contact hitter whose blend of speed and fielding savvy could earn him a ticket to Columbus in the near future. He has been promoted steadily through the Yankees’ ranks so far.

“I’ve made another step each year,” DeJardin said. “I think the Yankees are happy with my play. They’ve treated me great so far.”

Still, DeJardin and Sparks have their share of minor league horror stories.

Most of them revolve around Prince William--and the bus from hell.

“It was grueling,” DeJardin said. “It would break down all the time and we’d just be stuck there, sitting on the side of the road.”

The air conditioner didn’t work too well either, which can be a big problem in the South during the summer.

“At first it was like, ‘Welcome to the minor leagues,’ ” Sparks said. “After a while, though, you get tired of it and start mumbling under your breath.”

Sparks recalled a time when Prince William’s bus broke down on a road trip and the team was stranded for five hours at a car dealership, waiting for the mechanic to come along to fix the bus.

“That was scary,” Sparks said. “Guys were getting hungry and mad. After a while you started seeing guys hanging all over these brand new cars, and playing games with them.”

Through it all, DeJardin and Sparks have had each other to lean on--until Wednesday, at least.

“I show a little more emotion after a game than Don does,” DeJardin said. “Don’s a fun guy to be around with his dry sense of humor. He’d help to keep me loose. Nothing seems to bother him, even if he had a bad night.”

They also helped each other battle homesickness. During the winters, they live within a 15-minute drive of each other, so on the long bus rides around the east they would talk about home--DeJardin missing his fiancee and Sparks missing his family and friends in Long Beach.

“There were times when you’d just want to jump on the first flight home,” Sparks said. “So we’d look to each other for support.”

Until the Yankees make a move with DeJardin, the two might be a little more lonely.

“I’m just going to keep on playing, waiting for my shot,” DeJardin said.