Star Goes to Bat for Children With HIV : In the conservative, tradition-bound world of baseball, Beck says he drew a few puzzled looks when he became involved with an AIDS charity in 1991.

There were four of us in the living room: Rod Beck, his pal Michael DeGrandis, myself and ESPN. We were talking baseball, which this year means talking about labor negotiations. We also talked about sick children. But even then, we were talking baseball.

If you’re a baseball fan, you probably are familiar with Beck. The San Francisco Giants star, a native of Van Nuys, may be the best reliever in the game. He and DeGrandis have been friends since the second grade. Time and again our attention would turn to the giant 60-inch TV screen in DeGrandis’ Burbank home, waiting for ESPN, the all-sports channel, to provide updates on the baseball strike negotiations.

If it weren’t for this bizarre, maddening dispute between the haves and haves--the only have-nots being the fans--Beck would be with his team, not here. As one dismayed fan put it, taking sides in this feud is like choosing between Beavis and Butt-head. The owners’ position, as a pundit noted, is: “Stop me before I spend again!” But it’s hard to imagine Woody Guthrie singing about the plight of oppressed ballplayers.

Perhaps Rodney Roy Beck--this 26-year-old man with a million-dollar arm who happened to be my first-round pick in a fantasy baseball league--could help me understand.

But the pitcher had something else on his mind. He wanted to talk about children infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, and a place called Camp Sunburst.

Now, to look at Rod Beck, this may seem an unlikely subject. He’s a big man whose Fu Manchu mustache suggests a permanent scowl. With a few tattoos, he could blend right in with the Hells Angels. Orel Hershiser he’s not.

But off the field, wearing a T-shirt that declares “Baseball Is Life,” Beck speaks softly, promoting the crusade against HIV. This star on Grant High’s city championship in 1986 was visiting the Valley to promote “Remember the Children,” a daylong charity auction of sports and entertainment memorabilia scheduled for Nov. 13 at The Castaways in Burbank. Proceeds from the event, sponsored by the Burbank Board of Realtors, will benefit Sunburst Projects, a nonprofit agency that sponsors a family retreat in the Sierra foothills for children with HIV.

There’s a waiting list for Camp Sunburst, he says. “It’s easy for a healthy family to send kids to summer camp. But the stigma attached to the disease, they can’t go to regular summer camp.”

The night before, Beck had plugged “Remember the Children” in an interview on ESPN. That morning, he gave a presentation on Camp Sunburst before the Burbank Board of Realtors. The next morning, he was planning to make his charity pitch on a morning drive-time radio program.

In the conservative, tradition-bound world of baseball, Beck says he drew a few puzzled looks when he became involved with an AIDS charity in 1991. Giants management was encouraging players to work in community causes, but a list that was circulated did not include any HIV agencies. With his wife, Stacey, Beck searched for an agency in which his involvement might make a difference, and hooked up with Sunburst. Since then, he’s helped the agency by making public service announcements and personal appearances. More than $10,000 in donations have been raised in exchange for Rod Beck autographed photos.

They are now busy trying to enlist sports and entertainment figures in the cause. Beck’s teammates Barry Bonds and Matt Williams, for example, have donated jerseys, and Wayne Gretzky has donated a hockey stick. The Burbank realtors are trying to drum up interest from Hollywood figures. Beck and DeGrandis are optimistic that event will raise money and consciousness.

“The more people who take a look at the disease, and a good look at themselves, they realize that this is something that affects everybody,” Beck says.

“And the only people who can stop it are the people here.”

It may not have sounded like it, but we were still talking baseball. Babe Ruth, according to legend, would promise to hit a home run for a sick child--and the Babe would deliver. This isn’t so different.

Thankfully, baseball is a big subject. And as we waited for an update on negotiations from ESPN, we talked the way fans might. Beck, who grew up rooting for the Dodgers, pointed out that the Giants were trailing L. A. by only 3 1/2 games when the season was halted--”and our last three games are against L. A.” He like the Giants’ chances . . . if only the season would resume.

Then along came ESPN’s Peter Gammons, larger than life on the 60-inch screen. The news, it seemed, was basically no news. The standstill continued.

Soon ESPN segued to another story--a feature, as it happened, about Glenn Burke, a former Dodger outfielder who is broke and dying of AIDS.

“How long was he in the majors?” asked the man in the “Baseball Is Life” T-shirt.

We weren’t sure. However long Burke played, Beck figured, it wasn’t long enough to qualify for a pension.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311.