WOODLAND HILLS : Little Leaguers Warmed Up for Opening Day

Jeff Katz doesn’t understand why his heroes are in the doghouse instead of the dugout.

“If I could play in the majors, I’d do it for free,” Katz said. “If you love the game, why do you need the money?”

Katz is no hypocrite. He does play the game for nothing. He’s in Little League.

On Saturday, Katz, 11, will join other ballplayers for the Woodland Hills Sunrise Little League’s 40th opening day ceremonies, which will begin with a morning parade down Ventura Boulevard.

The regular Little League season started this week throughout the San Fernando Valley.

The Woodland Hills Sunrise league has produced a lot of quality players in four decades, including ex-Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Robin Yount.

Katz plays in the Little League’s majors for the Astros, a team that also has Kaiulani Welch, 11, the first girl to reach the top level in a decade. Other levels include intermediate, minors, juniors, and T-ball.

“Everyone wanted to push her into softball,” said Kaiulani’s mother, Jocelyn Welch, “but she wanted baseball.”

It wasn’t always easy for Kaiulani, who plays the outfield. Boys, not the most sensitive souls at that age, said she threw like a girl. She came home in tears, but never thought of quitting.

“Sometimes I’d threaten them or yell back at them,” she said. “But once I found out that I was better than some of them, they’d stop.”

At practice, the Astros are very supportive of each other. The team’s biggest booster is manager Jeff Palmatier, who doesn’t hesitate to use psychology as a motivating device.

“The Dodgers think they’re gonna kick our butts,” he told his team before a practice last week. The Astros were scheduled to play the Dodgers last Saturday, but the game was rained out.

Yount, a certain Hall of Famer, still treasures his Little League experiences.

“Of all my memories in baseball, those were some of my favorite,” he said. “I was drafted by a manager I didn’t know, and, to this day, we’re still close friends.”

He also recalled the time when baseball wasn’t a business, when baseball caps meant more than salary caps.

“Fortunately, it’s still a game at the Little League level,” he said. “It’s gotten away from that at the Major League level. The game is being sucked right out of it.”

The league plays at three fields at the corner of Victory Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue.