RECREATION : Embracing THE Mystique : National Adult Baseball Assn. Enables Local Players to Rediscover the Pastime of Their Youth

The uniforms are not exactly, well, uniform. The fields are not well kept. The play is sometimes slow and sloppy. The crowds? What crowds?

But this is baseball, not softball, and that’s all that matters.

For about 600 area players, ranging in age from 18 to 60, the National Adult Baseball Assn.’s arrival has meant new life.

“People who never thought they’d play (baseball) again now have a chance,” said David Bame, manager of the Santa Susana White Sox. “They can be heroes for their wives and relive their youth.”

The NABA, which began in 1986 with 12 teams in San Diego and now includes 15,000 players in 90 chapters across the country, sprouted this year in chapters based in Thousand Oaks, Ventura and the San Fernando Valley.

Ted Severns, a 28-year-old former Moorpark College player, started it all, in Ventura County anyway. Severns grew tired of softball. When he read about the NABA, he called the national office and asked if there was a league in Ventura County.

Yes, as soon as you start one, he was told.

So he did.

Severns called meetings, which spawned tryouts, which spawned a league. Joe Zavala was so enthused at one of Severns’ meetings that he started the Ventura chapter. They threw the first pitches in the San Fernando Valley League in late June.

This being the first season, they started late. It normally would run from March to September, with the state and national tournaments in October. The beauty of those events, by the way, is teams don’t have to win anything to participate. Chapter champions pay no tournament fee, but for $18 a player, any also-ran can register on a first-come-first-served basis, show up and try to win national championship rings. Really, they give out rings.

The championship games are played at major league spring training facilities, a few steps up from the high school fields the local NABA chapters play on every Sunday.

To try for some semblance of “big time” baseball, a few local teams have limited commercial sponsorship that helps pay for equipment and uniforms, but most of the money comes out of the players’ pockets. The fee in the Thousand Oaks chapter is $65 per player, plus a team equipment and uniform fee that ranges from $65-$90 per player. Each team also pays $35 a game for umpires.

The Thousand Oaks league has 17 teams. The San Fernando and Ventura chapters have 12 and 11, respectively. Each chapter is further divided into divisions, with teams playing only within their division.

The 18-and-older “A” division includes players whose experience ranges from high school baseball to stints in professional baseball. An 18-and-older “B” division is for lesser players--some haven’t played since Little League.

The range of skills in the 30-and-older division is spread as wide as some of the players’ midsections.

What most of the players have in common is this: softball burnout.

“Baseball is our American heritage,” said Mike Micheli, NABA founder and national director. “None of us grew up trading softball cards.”

Enough history, though. To fully understand the NABA, spend a day watching.

*

9:15 a.m.--The debate rages on. Manny’s El Taco Indians are supposed to play the Santa Susana White Sox in an 18-B game on the junior varsity diamond at Royal High. Problem is, only seven Indians have shown up. While the White Sox contend the game should be a forfeit, the Indians argue the field is unplayable anyway. A 25-foot-wide mud pit sits between first and second.

Royal has relegated the NABA to the junior varsity field--tall grass, chunky infield and all. The school doesn’t allow the NABA on the varsity field because, “They didn’t trust us. They think we are just some drunken bums out here,” Severns says.

He has lined up high school fields at Simi Valley, Camarillo, Royal and Newbury Park, but problems persist. On one occasion, a team showed up for a game only to find an American Legion game underway. Simi Valley’s field is no longer be available because of remodeling. Severns is trying for Moorpark College. In the Ventura league, the problem is worse. The only fields Zavala uses are at Buena, Nordhoff and Ventura highs.

9:31--The soggy condition of the infield at Royal is moot, however, because the Indians are still short a player. Apparently, two are water-skiing and one is in Las Vegas. They forfeit, but the teams decide, what the heck, they’ll play five innings anyway. Just for kicks.

9:33--White Sox catcher Jeff Phillips, 24, straps on his equipment and says to daughter, Courtney, 2 1/2: “Give daddy a kiss. I’ve got to go play.”

9:44--Indians’ pitcher James Bernau, 19, finally manages not to hit the backstop on his third warm-up pitch. “I’ve got to get used to this mound,” he says.

10:01--Bernau ends the inning by diving off the mound to grab a comebacker. He fires to first base from his knees. Looks like Bernau, a former Thousand Oaks High player, is a pretty good athlete after all.

10:14--Home plate umpire Russ Morgan, 20, asks Indian catcher Brett Stein: “So, how do you think I’m calling them?” Morgan proudly declares he is the youngest in the Tri-Valley Umpires Assn., which handles the NABA games. Morgan is out on this sweltering Sunday morning trying to improve. Can’t load trucks at the Frito-Lay factory forever, he figures. “I’d like to go to the pros,” he says.

10:48--A ground ball darts past Sox shortstop Keith Donaldson, who kicks his leg out and falls in a split position as the ball goes by. “Hey, Keith, you forgot the pirouette,” Phillips says.

11:04--Indian outfielder Mike Picard chases a ball around a tree in right field. A tree in right field? A run scores and the White Sox lead, 7-1, or something like that.

11:24--That’s five innings. Despite some mild arguments from the Indians, who still say the field is unplayable, the umpires leave.

12:01 p.m.--The 18-A game at Simi Valley High also is a forfeit, but, again, they are playing anyway. Kevin Puckett of the Newbury Oaks White Sox is being serenaded by calls of “elevator shaft,” from his opponents, the Simi Pirates. Even the umpires are on his case. That’s “elevator shaft” as in, “You couldn’t hit a ball out of an . . . “

Puckett, a 30-year-old contractor, says he is going long on this one, even pointing to the outfield fence. He rips a ball about 50 feet over the left field fence. Pirate Manager Russ Stephans is unimpressed.

“I think he calls one every time he comes up,” he says. “It’s kind of like a blind chicken gets a kernel of corn every now and then.”

12:45--The Pirates are preparing to play again--one team always has a doubleheader because there are only five teams in the 18-A division of the Thousand Oaks chapter--and Stephans is lucky: he has enough players so that he can fill out the lineup card without his name.

“I can hardly throw,” Stephans, 33, says. “I’ve had six major surgeries, two on my knees, two rotator cuff and two more on my shoulder.”

The injuries drove Stephans, who works for the Auto Club of California, out of professional baseball after a seven-year career that included a one-week stint as a backup catcher with the Kansas City Royals in 1983. During that week, he never appeared in a game. The guy played less than Moonlight Graham. For him, the highlight of his career came when he was sent back down to Omaha to make room for someone named Gaylord Perry.

“I was replaced by a Hall of Famer,” Stephans says. “That was cool.”

1:15--The Pirates and High Chiefs are playing a real game. Both teams have enough players. The Pirates’ Pat Cheek drills a two-run home run to center field in the second inning.

“That would have gone out of Jurassic Park,” Pirate pitcher Chris Daste says. Fitting, Cheek’s nickname is Jurassic. A former football player at Moorpark College and baseball and football player at Pierce, Cheek is 6-foot-4 1/2 and weighs, “a biscuit over 300,” Daste says.

1:26--Stephans, to home plate umpire Rick Freeman: “Isn’t that a strike?” Freeman: “The rule book says nipples to knees.” Stephans: “He’s got high nipples.”

High nipples?

1:44--Daste homers to center. The Pirates, overcome with laughter, chant: “Urine check!”

1:56--In nearly an hour, they have played an inning and half. The High Chiefs are on their third pitcher. It is 12-2 or something. Enough of this. Back to Royal.

2:14--The Newbury Yankees and the Boltmen--what’s a Boltman?--are in the middle of a 30-and-older game. These guys look like a ball team. The uniforms match, the first team of the day with that distinction. For most of the teams, adorning everyone in the same jersey and cap is challenge enough.

2:37--Rick Severns, Ted’s older brother and player-manager of the Yankees, is standing off first base, looking at his shoes when he is picked off. Moments later, he is coaching first base when another runner is nearly picked off.

“The worst thing is now I have to hear about it from him,” Severns says as he points to his 13-year-old son, Jay, who is loving every minute of it. “It’s cool,” Jay says. “He makes the same mistakes I do.”

2:47--Dr. Alan Rashkin lines a two-run single for the Yankees. Rashkin, a 49-year-old orthopedic surgeon, played baseball at the University of Wisconsin. Like the others, he was bored with softball, so he took his phone and his beeper and his glove to the ballpark.

3:01--Don Volz of the Boltmen dribbles into a 6-4-3 double play. He seems to take forever to get down the first base line. But give him a break--he’s 60 years old. Volz is the oldest member of the Thousand Oaks chapter of the NABA. A retired airline pilot, he was talked into playing by his 30-year-old son John, now a teammate.

“Guys looked at me and said, ‘What’s the old man doing out here’ ” Don Volz says. “I said, ‘I’m in pretty good shape. Give me a shot.’ ”

Volz, who will later make a diving catch in left field, points out he is hitting over .300. And not legging out any hits either.

“It’s a real kick,” John says of having his father on the team. “When he came out here, we weren’t sure if he’d be able to hack it. But at 60, he’s still going strong.”

3:39--The Yankees call on Eric Exner to close out the victory. Exner, who played at Moorpark and Claremont-Mudd, is 30 and still has what you can accurately call a fastball. He blows away the last hitter on a called third strike. “His curve is as hard as my fastball,” Rick Severns says. Jay interjects: “His changeup is as hard as your fastball.”

Exner, who joined the Thousand Oaks league after one too many drive-by shootings near the field in Pacoima where he used to play, also played for the Poly High team that went to the City championship game in 1978, losing to John Elway’s Granada Hills team at Dodger Stadium.

Exner points out that Poly beat Darryl Strawberry’s Crenshaw team on the way to the final. He has something else on Strawberry today: He plays more often.

4:33--Back at Simi Valley, an 18-A game between the Conejo Valley Black Sox and the Westlake Cardinals is under way. Ted Severns manages the Black Sox. Severns, incidentally, would probably be thrown out of a game just for handing an umpire his business card. Severns works for an optometrist.

4:50--Severns will have no problems with the umpire in this game, because it is his teammate, Scott Ninneman, who has volunteered to fill in because the regular umpires left to work a Little League tournament at Hart High. “They didn’t understand there was another game,” Severns says.

Ninneman, a 30-year-old contractor, ought to be playing. He pitched for parts of four seasons in the Chicago Cub and Baltimore Oriole organizations. He “retired” after the Cubs released him in 1986 and his options were to continue playing in Mexico or get a real job.

“It was hard,” Ninneman says of leaving pro ball. “It’s the only thing I ever wanted to do. I had played since I was 7 years old. When you do something that long and all of a sudden it’s over with, it’s tough to take.”

Ninneman then hit the softball circuit. He had hardly picked up a baseball until Severns told him about the league he was forming. Now, Ninneman can hardly put the ball down.

“It’s like I want to play every day,” he says. “Just getting up there and pitching is great. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I started playing again.”

5:33--This game has a more serious air than the others. There is little joking or goofing around. “It’s not your typical beer drinking league,” Ninneman says. “Everyone is out there to win.”

5:45--The Black Sox’s Kevin Medeiros hits a three-run homer to dead center, drawing applause from the gathering of a dozen or so fans. After he returns to the dugout, he packs up his gear. Gotta be behind a bar by 7.

6:11--Jon DeGennaro is coaching third base for the Black Sox. His fly is open.

6:12--Jim Bell doubles to right, scoring two runs. Bell, 37, is believed to be the oldest player in the 18-A division in the Thousand Oaks chapter. A veteran of two minor league seasons in the Minnesota Twins organization, Bell doesn’t play with the 30-and-olders because “I’m not ready to concede yet.”

6:16--The Black Sox inning finally ends. Suddenly, the teams realize that no one knows the score. “Let’s call it 12-0,” Cardinal Manager Kevin Case says.

Sure, the Black Sox say.

6:32--What inning is it, the sixth or the seventh? “The fifth,” Ninneman says, “but I could have missed one.”

7:40--Black Sox win, 14-3. Or something like that.

*

The teams don’t always have enough players. And the fields aren’t always in great shape, or for that matter, available. As far as organization goes, well . . .

“This is the first year and they haven’t quite gotten all the kinks out yet,” says Greg Young, manager of Manny’s El Taco Indians.

It really doesn’t matter, though. One observer, watching the Indians and White Sox trip over themselves on the cow pasture that is the junior varsity field at Royal High, puts it best:

“These guys don’t care what the field is like,” he says. “They are just happy to be playing.”