AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL / STEVE ELLING : Van Nuys-Notre Dame’s Leveque Enjoys Sweet Smell of Success

Everything else--and this appears to be statistically provable--ranks a distant second.

The best part of pitching for left-hander Chris Leveque isn’t earning the victory, throwing a shutout, playing with the rosin bag or nailing that pain in the neck on the other team with a heater in the ribs.

For Leveque, judging by his actions, the best part is . . . The Whiff!

Leveque, a starting pitcher for Van Nuys-Notre Dame, has a weird, inexplicable habit. In fact, it defies logic to such a degree that Leveque himself cannot explain its origin or evolution.

Simply, Leveque smells the baseball before every pitch. Yep, he takes the ball, holds it up to his nose and inhales like a Hoover vacuum.

“I don’t know why I do it,” Leveque said. “I guess I started when I was little, maybe about 12 or so. I don’t even realize I do it most of the time.”

Harold Miner, the former USC basketball standout, had a similar quirk. Miner used to press his nose against people, places and things--and also had a hard time explaining the behavior.

“He’s a pretty weird guy,” Leveque said.

But it’s a safe bet that Miner was never called for traveling while going nose to nose with a defender. Leveque has been called for a balk while smelling the horsehide as he stood on the rubber.

Leveque, nicknamed “Sniffer” by his teammates, said that not all baseballs are created equal.

“Some smell different,” he said. “But most are the same.”

Leveque, though, is hardly the same pitcher he was in the spring. He is 4-0 with an earned-run average of 0.32 this summer and has struck out 22 in 24 2/3 innings for Van Nuys-Notre Dame, the lone unbeaten team in District 20 at 11-0. Leveque has given up one earned run.

Last spring as a junior at Notre Dame High, Leveque at times tended to exude a most malodorous air. Leveque (pronounced Luh-VECK) posted a respectable ERA of 2.88, but was 2-4, thanks in part to poor control: He issued 25 walks in 41 1/3 innings.

Teammates, in jest, dubbed him “LeWreck.”

“He isn’t LeWreck any more,” Van Nuys-Notre Dame Coach Jody Breeden said. “If anybody’s responsible for us being where we are, it’s him.”

The mouse that roared: Verdugo Hills catcher Kirk Hagge, at 6-foot-4, strides to the mound to discuss pitching strategy with left-hander Jim Parque.

Hagge orders Parque to throw the fastball. Parque refuses and tells Hagge to go back behind the plate. Hagge asks Parque if he still purchases his clothing from the Winnie the Pooh collection. Parque calls Hagge a backstop with ears.

Hagge picks up Parque and throws him into right field. . . .

It never happened, but it could: Parque, who will be a junior next fall at Crescenta Valley High, is 5-5 and weighs 110 pounds.

“They’re the Mutt and Jeff of the district,” Verdugo Hills Coach Kelly Magee said.

The diminutive Parque, more often than not, has kept the hitters in the park. The off-speed specialist is 3-1 with an ERA of 4.07.

Retoolin’ down the basepaths: When Woodland Hills West stomped its way to the Legion World Series title in 1989, the lineup featured a slew of players who were capable of hitting the ball into the next ZIP code.

The team included Del Marine, Ryan McGuire, Bobby Kim, Jason Cohen and Carl McFadden, to name a few.

West continues to contend for titles at the district level and beyond, but the opposition’s accelerated pulse is now largely attributable to West’s breakneck team speed.

After 13 games, West has 59 stolen bases in 61 attempts. One West player, Mike McLean, was tossed out at second when he slowed after believing he heard the team bench yell, “Up,” meaning that the ball was hit in the air. West’s Randy Wolf was thrown out at second two weeks ago by Hagge.

Deep threat: His youth league coach was ready to blow an artery. Brad Fullmer had just been hit by a pitch but didn’t want to lose his at-bat, so Fullmer somehow convinced the plate umpire that the ball had missed him.

The coach was miffed--until Fullmer homered a moment later.

Fullmer, an outfielder and third baseman for Sepulveda, is still hitting the long ball. In the spring, he launched 10 at Montclair Prep. On Saturday, he hit three during a 16-4 victory over Burbank.

In three games over the weekend, Fullmer was eight for 12 with four homers and 12 runs batted in. Fullmer, who will be a senior in the fall, is batting .625 (25 for 40) with five doubles, three triples, six homers and 25 RBIs. All are team highs.

Routine 9-3 putout: Cesar’s salad day had just begun in wonderful fashion when the impossible happened. Impossible, at least, as far as Cesar Martinez of Van Nuys-Notre Dame was concerned.

In his first at-bat against Panorama City on Saturday, Martinez sent a one-hop rope to right field and trotted to first base. The ball arrived before he did, however, and Martinez was subjected to a healthy dose of flak from his teammates.

There were extenuating circumstances. The right-field foul pole at L.A. Baptist, site of the game, stands about 280 feet from home plate. Consequently, the Panorama City right fielder was playing shallow enough to gun down Martinez on a close play.

It ended up ruining a perfect day. Martinez hit safely in his next five at-bats as Van Nuys-Notre Dame swept a doubleheader.

The right stuff: Call Pete Redfern irrepressible.

The Valley North coach--a former All-City Section star at Sylmar High, All-American at USC and major league pitcher with the Minnesota Twins--may be bound to a wheelchair, but his spirit appears boundless.

Redfern was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident in 1983, but his re-involvement in the sport has been a lift for lots of people.

Last spring, for instance, while serving as the volunteer pitching coach at Chatsworth High, Redfern was fooling around near the pitcher’s mound when he caught the attention of Coach Tom Meusborn.

Redfern drove from the pitching rubber toward home plate in his electric wheelchair, then asked Meusborn with a grin, “How did you like my follow-through?”

Redfern’s latest gag is one of his best. The coach has a player affix the wire screen used to drag the infield to the back of his wheelchair, then goes about cruising the basepaths.

“I’m having a lot of fun with this team,” Redfern said.