PRO BASEBALL / JEFF FLETCHER : Lamb Still Keeping His Head Above Water

David Lamb and his Albany (Ga.) Polecat teammates are in the midst of what has become a 28-day trip, and they aren’t too upset about it.

“It’s pretty smelly down there (in Albany),” said Lamb, a former Newbury Park High shortstop. “There were coffins (from flooded graveyards) floating around and snakes everywhere.”

Because Albany has been flooded by the recent devastating rains in the Southeast, the Class-A Polecats of the South Atlantic League have temporarily moved their home games to Chattanooga, Tenn.

“We’re pretty much satisfied to be up here,” Lamb said from his hotel room in Chattanooga. “It would be a mess if we played there and no one would want to go to the games anyway.”

Friday was the first day the roads to Polecat Park were opened since the flooding began. Lamb said what was an eight-minute drive from his apartment to the park became a two-hour excursion.

All Lamb knows about Albany is what he’s seen on television or heard from club officials and wives of teammates. The Polecats were on the road when the flooding began and haven’t been home since.

“The whole thing got pretty messy,” he said. “We were lucky we were on the road.

“We saw some things on CNN. It’s pretty disgusting. You’ve got to feel bad. There are 30,000 people without homes back there, so we’re not doing that bad playing out here.”

The week-long home stand scheduled to begin Wednesday was moved to Chattanooga. The Polecats then hit the road and won’t return to Albany until July 29, nearly a month after they left for what was supposed to be a 10-game trip.

“I only brought enough clothes for that trip,” Lamb said. “I’m definitely going to have to do some laundry pretty soon.”

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Driven: Shortstop Mark Loretta was supposed to be the area’s only representative in the double-A All-Star game Monday in Binghamton, N.Y., but a funny thing happened.

Loretta, a St. Francis High graduate, and two of his El Paso teammates were on the way to fill up the gas tank before the Diablos’ game Sunday, but their car ran out of gas a block from the station. The three pushed the car the rest of the way.

Loretta was standing outside the car, steering through the window, as he attempted to align the vehicle next to a gas pump. But the car began rolling backward and Loretta’s left knee was pinned between the car and a bar protecting the pump.

Loretta, 22, said the knee was only slightly bruised, but it kept him out of action for a few days.

But Loretta, who was hitting .313 at El Paso, couldn’t have played in the double-A all-star game anyhow--because on Monday he was promoted to triple-A New Orleans.

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More all-stars: Ottawa catcher Tim Laker had the best game among the four area players who participated in the triple-A all-star game Wednesday night in Nashville, Tenn.

Laker, a Simi Valley High graduate, was two for three with a double and two runs batted in, leading the National League affiliates to an 8-5 victory.

Buffalo’s Rich Aude, a Chatsworth graduate, was hitless in three at-bats for the National League and Vancouver’s Garret Anderson, of Kennedy, was 0 for 2 for the American League.

Vancouver left-hander Andrew Lorraine, of Hart, gave up one run in two innings for the American League.

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Taking the heat: When Nate Dishington learned that the St. Louis Cardinals were sending him to Chandler, Ariz., site of the team’s rookie-level Arizona League team, he knew he was in for a tough summer.

“You wake up at 5 a.m. and play in 110-degree heat,” Dishington said. “They say, ‘If you can play there, you can play anywhere.’ ”

The Arizona League, in which teams play scorching day games in front of crowds in the dozens, is considered one of the least-attractive leagues for pro players. But the Cardinals wanted Dishington, a second-round pick out of Hoover High last year, to work on his hitting and catching in a pressure-free environment, he said.

It seems to have worked. Dishington, 19, was hitting .267 through Thursday, after batting above .300 for much of the season. In his debut last season at Johnson City, Tenn., Dishington hit .157 with 52 strikeouts in 121 at-bats.

“It’s been a big adjustment,” Dishington said. “It’s a big jump from high school to the pro level and there’s nothing really to prepare you for it.”

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American dream: One year after defecting from Cuba to pursue a professional baseball career, shortstop Rey Ordonez is quickly moving along in the New York Mets’ system.

Ordonez, 23, was promoted this week to Binghamton of the double-A Eastern League after leading Port St. Lucie of the Class-A Florida State League in several offensive categories.

He was leading the club in batting (.309), hits (97) and doubles (21), and was fourth in RBIs (41), despite hitting second in the lineup.

Ordonez, who had been living in Sylmar, defected last July while the Cuban team was playing at the World University Games in Buffalo.

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Short hops: Former Providence standout Jeff Cirillo, recently promoted to the Milwaukee Brewers, drove in the go-ahead runs with a pinch-hit double in the ninth inning Thursday against Minnesota. Cirillo, 24, who hit .309 at triple-A New Orleans, was hitting .107 in 12 games with the Brewers before Thursday night.

“You reach barriers at every level,” Cirillo told the Associated Press. “Every level you climb in this game you have to prove yourself again. If you can hit in Class A, nobody assumes you’ll hit in Class AA until you show you can do it. And the same thing is true here.” Cirillo homered and had three RBIs on Friday night. . . .

Roger Salkeld, 23, was demoted from the Seattle Mariners’ rotation to triple-A Calgary on Sunday. But, unlike his two earlier demotions, this was not because breaks in the schedule allowed the Mariners to do without a fifth starter.

This demotion was performance-based. Salkeld, a Saugus High graduate, was 2-5 with an earned-run average of 7.04. In 55 innings, he allowed 69 hits and walked 41.