Coach for Littlest League Will Leave Big Cleats to Fill : Woodland Hills: Ed Streeter retires after decades of teaching tykes good sportsmanship and athletic skills in T-ball play.

Ed Streeter and baseball manager Sparky Anderson have a lot in common.

Both were savvy strategists who put ball-playing teams called the Reds on the map with an impressive set of league championships.

But Anderson, who took Cincinnati to two World Series championships in the 1970s, probably never had to call time out to lend a hankie and some comfort to a player crying over a missed ball. For Streeter, it was a routine play.

“He was always one to put his arm around a youngster who needed support at the time--somebody who didn’t feel good about his performance, who felt he let himself down,” said attorney Andy Laubach, a former shortstop and third baseman for Streeter.

Laubach, 31, is among hundreds of former ballplayers Streeter has coached over a career spanning 28 years and several league championships--mostly with teams called the Reds.

But the familiar red polo shirt and Cincinnati cap won’t be seen on the baseball diamonds at Shoup Avenue and Miranda Street any longer. After nearly three decades of turning oft-bewildered 7- and 8-year-olds into able young athletes, the elder statesman of T-ball has finally hung up his cleats at the Woodland Hills Recreation Center.

“For years and years I went to every practice and every game,” said his wife, Carol Streeter. “People have asked me, ‘Which one is yours out on the field?’ And I say, ‘Mine’s the one with the gray hair.’ ”

Her husband, who worked as an engineer with Hughes Aircraft for 21 years, was often so intense about his team’s performance that he would lie awake at night, agonizing over a loss earlier in the day, she said.

But despite Streeter’s thirst for victory, those who have worked with or played under him agree that he exerted no pressure on his players, that he was the first to emphasize sportsmanship and putting out one’s best effort. In an age where youngsters are often bullied into winning by overzealous parents who themselves throw everything from glares to punches at their kids’ opponents, Streeter managed to maintain a healthy attitude.

Patience such as Streeter’s is especially important in T-ball--a league designed for inexperienced players who are allowed to hit the baseball from a tee-like stand at home plate if they are not yet coordinated enough to connect with a softly thrown underhand pitch.

“He is very competitive--he really wants to win. But you never knew it as a kid,” said Chaney Sheffield, 41, a Woodland Hills lawyer who was Streeter’s assistant for three seasons. “He always had the right attitude about it. If he lost in a game he felt he should have won, he never went around ragging on the kids. . . . He’d say, ‘Look, fellas, they really deserve a cheer; they did better.’ ”

Now 62 and retired, Streeter began coaching T-ball in 1969, when one of his sons entered the league. Although he rose with his son through the ranks of the older teams, the appeal of working with the tykes called him back to the T-ball dugout.

“T-ball is more fun than any sport at any age,” Streeter said during a telephone interview from his Rancho Santa Fe home in San Diego County. “The game is very fast. There’s a lot of action. And of course the kids, well, when they start out they’re not very good at it--kind of a comedy of errors--but by the end of the year, why, they are very good at it.”

Competent enough, in fact, where “you get an occasional double play”--a triumph for kids who begin the season colliding like billiard balls while fielding, he said.

Coaches who have worked with Streeter credit his ability to simplify baseball and his easygoing but motivational style for the successful record he compiled over the years.

“We got to see Ed do his magic--it really is something to behold,” said Sheffield. “The guy would take these kids and command their attention continuously, and at the same time didn’t overemphasize intricate parts of baseball and kept it interesting and fun.”

One of Streeter’s greatest strengths, Sheffield said, was knowing how best to distribute his team’s assets--which player to put in which position, both on the field and in the batting lineup.

“He knew exactly what he wanted to do with these kids,” Sheffield said. “It’s up to the coach to make all these kids do well. He’s taken some teams that may not be deep in talent and made them do well.”

Including one squad that went on to sweep the league championship--with two highly competent girls in the key defensive positions of first and second base. It was an equal-opportunity team that Streeter himself, an unassuming man who confesses to a spotty memory, cites as one of the best in his career.

“He was great with the girls, great with the guys,” Sheffield recalled. “He was dedicated to these kids learning how to play baseball well by keeping it simple.”

Though no longer in Woodland Hills, Streeter still has the coaching bug. He has contacted schools in his new neighborhood to volunteer in their sporting programs.

His wife is still rooting for his efforts because, she said, “I know he’ll be a grouch if we don’t find him the opportunity.”