HUNTINGTON BEACH : Home Run Derby to Support Manager

Little League players on Sunday will hold a home run derby for Jim Surdock, a longtime Seaview Little League manager who has been hospitalized with a rare virus, according to youth baseball officials.

The derby is scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. at LeBard Field.

The players will solicit pledges of money for each home run they hit. Each will receive 15 pitches from a machine.

All players 13 years old and younger are eligible to participate.

Surdock, 46, a building contractor, was stricken with Guillain-Barre syndrome, an acute neurological disorder that involves partial paralysis of several muscle groups, friends said. The disorder affected Surdock’s lungs, requiring him to be placed on a respirator for a time, fellow manager Stan Shwam said.

Surdock, who managed last year’s all-star Seaview League team, has been taken off the respirator and has been removed from the intensive-care unit at a hospital in Long Beach, Shwam said.

However, the rehabilitation period is expected to be extensive and costly, and proceeds from the home run derby will help defray expenses, Shwam said. A raffle will also be held.