BASEBALL / GARY KLEIN : Glendale’s Odekirk Making Another Pitch to Get to the Major Leagues

Rick Odekirk refuses to knuckle under.

A left-hander from Glendale, Odekirk, 31, is pitching for independent Reno in the Class-A California League with the hope that his knuckleball will earn him one more shot at the major leagues.

Odekirk pitched at triple-A Oklahoma City for the Texas Rangers organization in 1988 and at triple-A Colorado Springs for the Cleveland Indians in 1989 before undergoing shoulder surgery that forced him to miss all of last season.

“I talked with several clubs (before this season),” Odekirk said. “And they all said that they wanted to make sure my shoulder was OK and could hold up before offering me a contract. That’s what I’m trying to prove here.

“It was tough to come back to A-ball, but I realized quickly that it was a good move.”

Odekirk is 1-6 for Reno, but his won-loss record is misleading. He has a 3.95 earned-run average pitching in a home ballpark that is generally considered a hitter’s haven. He also has pitched into the seventh inning holding leads several times, only to see a younger relief pitcher allow inherited runners to score.

Nevertheless, he remains as optimistic as he was in 1986 when--after failing to advance further than double-A as a fastball pitcher in the Oakland Athletics organization--the Rangers signed him as a free agent on the condition that he throw knuckleballs 80% of the time.

“Everyone I meet wants to play catch with me,” said Odekirk, who got some brief instruction from then-Rangers pitcher Charlie Hough. “There are a lot of guys with great knuckleballs when they’re playing catch in the outfield. It’s another thing to get on the mound with batter an umpire and a real game situation.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I had a chance to pitch in the big leagues. I do think my one shot is going to come.”

He’s on first: Rich Aude is comfortable in his new position as the starting first baseman for Salem (Va.), the Pittsburgh Pirates’ affiliate in the Class-A Carolina League. But the former Chatsworth High standout is still uncomfortable with expectations others have when he steps into the batter’s box.

“Everybody expects me to hit home runs,” said Aude, who is batting .283 with no homers and 20 runs batted in in 152 at-bats. “But I’ve never really been a home run hitter like everyone thinks I should.”

Last season, Aude batted .234 with six homers and 61 RBIs. He also had a team-high 23 doubles.

This season, he was splitting time at first with Ron Shelton, who leads the organization with 11 homers and 44 RBIs and recently was moved to the outfield.

Aude, the Pirates’ second-round draft choice in 1989, probably forced the move by batting .410 during a recent 10-game stretch.

“I’ve made a few adjustments in my swing and I’m making better contact,” Aude said. “And I’ll have some home runs at the end of the year. I know they’ll come.”

All-star season: Former Westlake High standout Mark Gieseke has been selected to play in the California League all-star game Tuesday in Palm Springs.

Gieseke, who plays for the High Desert Mavericks, a Class-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, was named to the team as a utility player after batting .309 with four home runs and 24 RBIs.

Last season, Gieseke batted .270 with four homers and 60 RBIs in the California League and was hoping to make the jump to double-A Wichita (Kan.) in the Texas League. However, before this season, Gieseke, 23, was not sure if he would ever play baseball again.

He underwent exploratory kidney surgery to find the cause of internal bleeding and missed most of spring training.

“I was laying in bed for three weeks,” he said. “I wasn’t too worried at the time about baseball. I was more worried about my health.”

But now Gieseke is thinking again about his career. Last season, he played five games for triple-A Las Vegas when there was some shuffling within the organization, and he batted .227 with a double and two RBIs.

“You never know what can happen,” he said. “You just have to be ready to go when the time comes.”

Back from the bayou: Keyaan Cook returned from Baton Rouge, La., to his family’s home in Canoga Park this week after helping Louisiana State win its first NCAA baseball championship.

Cook, 20, batted .277 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 87 at-bats for the Tigers, who swept unbeaten through the College World Series at Omaha.

Cook played in LSU’s 15-3 second-round win over Fresno State and belted a triple.

“(The World Series) is like a baseball Christmas or Fourth of July party,” said Cook, who attended Montclair Prep and is the younger brother of defensive back Toi Cook of the New Orleans Saints. “It couldn’t have been any better.”

Upon their return from Omaha, the LSU team was greeted by 400 fans at the airport, then received a police escort to its home stadium where a crowd of 6,000 waited.

Next season, Cook probably will be moved from designated-hitter to second base.

In a few weeks, Cook and the Tigers will fly to Washington to meet President Bush.

“Everything that I wanted to happen, did this year,” he said. “Next year should be even better.”

Recommended reading: The worst feeling a ballplayer can experience is intimidation. Once he feels overmatched by an opponent or the task at hand, he loses.

The same could be said for baseball fans who feel intimidated by Roger Angell, perhaps the finest chronicler the game has known.

Angell’s essays on baseball have appeared for years in the “The New Yorker,” for which he is senior fiction editor. But don’t let Angell’s well-deserved reputation and literary credentials scare you.

Angell’s “Once More Around the Ballpark,” (Ballantine, $18.95) is a highly readable collection of essays that offer an eloquent insight into the game. Some of the pieces have appeared in Angell’s four other collections.

“The Arms Talks,” which examines the revolution in pitching, is especially good. So is “No, But I Saw the Game,” an examination of baseball movies.

Like all of Angell’s books, this one deserves a place in your baseball library.