MINOR LEAGUE NOTEBOOK / MIKE DiGIOVANNA : Former Teammates Are Keeping Alive a Friendly Rivalry

They were friends and teammates for years, forming one of Orange County’s most prolific high school pass/catch combinations in football and a potent one-two punch in baseball.

Now they are foes who do battle in the double-A Eastern League, J.T. Snow for the Albany Yankees and Robbie Katzaroff for the Harrisburg Senators.

The former Los Alamitos High three-sport standouts are used to being rivals--they played against each other in college when Snow was at Arizona and Katzaroff was at UCLA--so it wasn’t a novelty when their teams met in Harrisburg, Pa., last week.

But they still find it kind of strange to be in opposite dugouts.

“It’s pretty weird,” said Snow, a first baseman who is the son of former Ram receiver Jack Snow. “In high school we were always on the same team, working together. Then we went off to college and competed against each other, and here we are again.”

The two don’t get to spend much time together these days, but they have remained good friends, visiting each other in the off-season and going out to dinner when the other’s team is in town.

They also get to chat when Katzaroff, a speedy center fielder, reaches first base against Albany.

“We kid a lot when I’m holding him on,” Snow said. “I’ll tell him that if we get in a brawl, I’m coming after him. And when he’s leading off, I try distracting him by talking, but it hasn’t worked. He’s stolen quite a few bases against us.”

Said Katzaroff: “He doesn’t really bother me. When he talks, I just talk back.”

Katzaroff and Snow didn’t even have to speak to communicate on the football field--that’s how well they knew each other’s moves in high school.

Snow, the Los Alamitos quarterback, completed 150 passes in 1985, and 97 of them went to Katzaroff for 1,340 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Katzaroff’s marks are all Orange County single-season records.

“It was amazing because we thought alike on the field,” Snow said. “I knew what he was going to do and he knew what I was going to do. By the second half of the season, guys were double- and triple-teaming him, but he’d find a way to get open.”

The two parted in the winter--Snow played basketball and Katzaroff played soccer--but were reunited in the spring on the baseball team, for which Katzaroff batted leadoff and Snow hit second. That arrangement provided mutual benefits.

Katzaroff set a county record in 1986 with 51 hits, breaking Lenny Dykstra’s mark of 50, and Snow hit .418 with 23 RBIs, most of those runs scored by Katzaroff.

“I’d see a lot of fastballs because everyone was worried about him stealing bases,” Snow said. “We always seemed to be working together in high school.”

They’re not anymore, but at least the two get to see--and admire--each other’s work.

“It’s fun to compete against him, but it’s not always fun when he hits the ball all over the place,” said Katzaroff, whose Harrisburg team took two of three games from Albany last week. “We’re still good friends, though. I want to see him make it, and he wants to see me make it.”

Add Snow: Once an organization that relied heavily on free agents, the New York Yankees have started a youth movement that emphasizes promotion from within, a development that excites Snow.

The team’s philosophy is reflected on this year’s Yankee roster, which includes rookie regulars Bernie Williams, Pat Kelly and Hensley Meulens and rookie starting pitchers Scott Kamieniecki, Wade Taylor and Jeff Johnson.

“The mood in the organization is pretty upbeat,” Snow, 23, said. “Even guys in double A have played with guys who are on the Yankees now. We see them doing well and it gives us confidence.”

Snow, a fifth-round pick in 1989 who played two seasons at the Class-A level, is having the kind of season that could warrant a promotion to triple A next year.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound switch-hitter is batting .271 with 25 doubles, nine home runs, 56 RBIs and 58 runs scored.

“I’m hitting with a lot more power than I did in high school,” said Snow, who started three seasons at Arizona. “I was still raw in high school--I was more of an athlete playing three sports--but when I went off to college, I really got to work on baseball.”

Add Katzaroff: The 5-8, 160-pounder has shined in the Montreal Expos’ organization and, like Snow, could earn a promotion soon.

Katzaroff, who bats left-handed and throws right-handed, is batting .300 with 125 hits and 74 runs. He also has 37 RBIs and 28 stolen bases.

Last year, his first professional season after graduating from UCLA, Katzaroff led the short-season, Class-A New York-Penn League in batting with a .364 average and set a league record with 107 hits. He also had seven triples, 57 runs and 34 stolen bases.

“Going from short-season A ball to starting in double A is like going from double A to the major leagues,” said Mark Mattern, Harrisburg’s radio announcer. “It would be a tremendous jump to be in triple A after only 1 1/2 seasons. But this guy can hit.”