Competition Calls Them Back

The competitive fire burns even after reality bites like a cold shower. Therein lies the quandary for former college and professional athletes.

Scott Sharts and Chris Parker, among others, have gone to extraordinary lengths to delay throwing in the towel for good.

Crowds no longer cheer them and they aren’t paid. But they’ve found ways to compete in the sports they love, to share a touch of glory with longtime friends and teammates.

Sharts, a former Cal State Northridge All-American baseball player who played three years in the minor leagues, helped the Simi Valley Pirates to the National Adult Baseball Assn. World Series championship last week.

Parker, a former Northridge and Arena Football League quarterback, is leading a group of mostly former Matador football players into NFL Air-It-Out four-on-four flag football competition at Balboa Park this weekend.

“We go out there with the intention of winning and are very serious, but we also just like throwing the ball around,” said Parker, whose teammates are Dan Coleman, Robert Guillen, Damon Orlando and Danny Fernandez, who played for the San Francisco Giants’ triple-A affiliate this past season.

The NABA and NFL Air-It-Out are national organizations for adults who refuse to stop playing kids’ games. Win enough and you can call yourself a national champion.

The Simi Valley Pirates do. They posted a 48-3-1 record during a six-month season, winning a local league to qualify for the 19-team World Series, held in Phoenix.

Most players hold down full-time jobs, so making games at the week-long series required great effort.

After missing the first three games, Sharts drove all night to accompany the team. Without getting a wink of sleep, he pitched a complete-game, 2-1 victory over Oklahoma in a game that began at 7:30 a.m. Simi Valley trailed in the bottom of the ninth and faced elimination, but rallied for the winning runs.

“I was yelling and screaming in the ninth that I didn’t drive all this way to play one game and drive home,” Sharts said.

Simi Valley defeated Baltimore, 10-7, in its next game behind the pitching of Trevor Leppard and hitting of Kevin Nykoluk to advance to the final against Portland.

Scott Ninneman, 30, a former minor league right-hander from Newbury Park High, pitched eight innings of the final, an 11-8 victory.

Greg Santos, a former Simi Valley High player, led the team in hitting with a .700 series average.

Another recognizable member of the team was Scott Radinsky, the Chicago White Sox reliever who is home in Simi Valley recovering from Hodgkin’s disease. Radinsky played first base for the NABA champs, delivering several key hits.

Radinsky made only two pitches in the tournament, saving a victory over New York.

“When we were celebrating right after winning it, Radinsky yelled out, ‘Who needs the White Sox? This is my World Series,’ ” said Russ Stephans, the team’s manager.

Radinsky, of course, will return to the White Sox, but the others plan to continue with the NABA.

“Getting together with these guys is great,” Sharts said. “I’m already looking forward to next season. I know I won’t get baseball out of my system.”

For Parker, 29, and his pals, football is the game they can’t leave behind. Parker, Coleman and Guillen were Northridge teammates in 1986.

NFL Air-It-Out, a widely popular event sponsored by two prominent beverage companies, enables them to remain in the same huddle.

“We do it for the fun of it, but we want to win one of these darn things,” said Coleman, who has played in Air-It-Out tournaments for three years.

The winner of the tournament, which concludes today, plays at the L.A. Coliseum for the state championship against the winner of an earlier tournament in Irvine.

The state winner qualifies for the 19-team Air-It-Out Super Bowl, to be held in Orlando, Fla., in March.

The Super Bowl champion plays a team of NFL All-Stars, which last year included Roger Staubach, Terrell Buckley, Glyn Milburn, Anthony Carter and Cris Carter.

“Our goal is to win the whole thing,” said Parker, whose three-year Arena football career was ended by a knee injury in 1992.

“I’m still not cleared by a doctor to play. When I walk, my knee hurts. When I sit, my knee hurts.”

Air-It-Out is non-contact football, and the knee doesn’t stop Parker from throwing tight spirals, so . . .

“This is a way to stay competitive,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing I miss.”