Transient’s Body Found Under Bleachers : Investigation: Police believe the man, whose identity is unknown, was murdered several hours before members of a softball team found him.

On a picture-perfect Sunday morning, in a place filled with weekend athletes and picnicking families, the body of a transient man was discovered under the bleachers at the Bolsa Grande High School football stadium.

Police investigators believe that the man was murdered several hours before he was found at about 8:30 a.m. by members of a softball team. By late Sunday evening, they still had no clue as to the man’s identity. He was believed to be in his 30s.

After interviewing students and others, investigators said they believe that the man had been living in the area--the school grounds, a nearby park and freeway underpasses--for the last several months.

“It looks like he’s been hit on the head with something, but it’s hard to tell at this point,” Police Sgt. Mike Handfield said. “He’s been seen in the area before, and he’s been chased away by school officials from here before.”

The grisly scene was more sad than frightening to the students and others who went about their leisurely Sunday as police officers and coroner’s investigators sorted through the meager belongings of the nameless man.

“It’s just sad that people have to be homeless in the first place,” said Mark Christensen, who had come to the campus to help his 14-year-old daughter train for the Bolsa Grande track team.

His daughter, Jennie, said she remembered seeing a homeless man pushing a shopping cart near the school recently. “He just sort of kept to himself,” she said.

Indeed, the death was more a sign of how the homeless have become a common sight at neighborhoods like this one, where the expansive athletic training fields of the Bolsa Grande Matadors abut middle class homes and shopping centers.

“I haven’t seen anyone on the school grounds, but I have seen some (homeless) guys around,” said Anthony Gomez, 15, a freshman at Bolsa Grande. “It’s pretty much a normal part of life.”

Said Handfield: “It’s not really uncommon because of the proximity of the park, but we don’t really have a problem.

“We patrol the park pretty well, and if we discover people living there, we move them out,” he said. “The school officials don’t want them here during the session. I’m sure they’re empathetic with their plight--everybody is--but I don’t know what to do about it, except make sure they’re not breaking the law.”

Handfield said the dead man may have been camping under the bleachers to shelter himself from the rains of the last few days. The worn red bleachers are backed by aluminum that keeps the underside area dry.

It was Jacobo Villarreal and Filimon Bustamante, both of Santa Ana and members of the Triple-A Mets softball team, who found the man.

Their team was preparing to play the Tecolotlans, another team in the Golden City Softball League. The teams were playing on a field next to the football stadium, separated from the back of the bleachers only by a chain-link fence.

“I was running to warm up before the game, when I saw my kids playing on top of the bleachers,” Villarreal said. “I ran over to yell at them to get down. I got near the fence, and that’s when I saw the man.

“His color didn’t look so good, and then I saw a bloody hand,” he said. He called Bustamante, who was limbering up nearby.

“We got closer, and we could see a cut in his throat, and blood on his nose,” he said. “As soon as we saw the blood, we told the kids to get away.”

The man looked unkempt, they said, and broken glass was strewn beside him, with some shards scattered on his face.

They ran to tell someone to call police, and then waited for police.

The police initially wanted to cancel their game, but team members persuaded police to let them play. “They said as long as our balls didn’t hit their patrol cars, we could go ahead.”

“I was kind of nervous at first because I found a body in there,” Villarreal said. “I’m left-handed, but I put Ben-Gay on my right hand because I wasn’t thinking straight. And then I couldn’t find my glove, and someone told me it was in my back pocket.”

As investigators sifted through piles of worn blankets and clothing and a shopping cart full of recyclable bottles and cans, trying to separate evidence from the man’s possessions, the scene at the school and the park went on as if nothing had happened.

The tinny melody of “Home on the Range” blared from an ice cream truck, mixing with the sounds of softball players cheering one another and a father, stopwatch in hand, encouraging his daughter as she ran around the track.