Road Trip for Real Fans : Looking for the lost innocence of baseball? Try a stadium-to-stadium tour of the California League, where the seats are cheap, the players are up close and the barbecue is mouthwatering.

The fun begins long before the first pitch is thrown each night at Municipal Stadium, home to the city’s California League baseball team ever since the proud old grandstand was built half a century ago for $80,000.

Driving up to the stadium, where such players as George Brett and Jose Canseco honed their skills before moving up to the big leagues, visitors see a colorful billboard that takes a swipe at last year’s bitter major league strike.

The board is dominated by two drawings--one of a San Jose player proudly swinging a bat and the other of a major league player in a business suit, glumly heading to a negotiation session. To drive the point home, bold letters declare, “San Jose Giants Players Don’t Carry Briefcases.”

Last year’s strike between ballplayers with million-dollar contracts and owners with fat bank accounts disillusioned so many fans that attendance is down about 25% in the majors this summer.

But there’s a way baseball lovers can return to the purity and innocence of the game they fell in love with as kids . . . and enjoy a delightful vacation at the same time.

At San Jose’s Municipal Stadium, or one of the more than 100 other minor league parks around the country, baseball is far more intimate, the players more approachable and the tickets cheaper than at major league stadiums.

The appeal goes beyond the compactness and relaxed atmosphere of fields such as San Jose’s stadium--where the most distant seat from home plate would be considered breathtakingly close to the action in a major league ballpark--to the challenge of spotting future major league stars.

For about the same price as a box seat at Dodger Stadium, you can enjoy a smoky, down-home barbecue while watching the game from picnic-table benches in San Jose. Or for about half the price of parking alone at Anaheim Stadium you can sit under the stars in the cool Mojave Desert air and watch a game at Maverick Stadium, where hot dogs are $1 and a large beer is $2.50 (at Dodger Stadium, you’ll pay $4.50).

Those are some of the reasons my wife, Kathi, and I have attended dozens of minor league games over the years, driving 90 miles from our home in Sherman Oaks to see the Bakersfield Blaze or High Desert Mavericks three or four times a season, sometimes even when the Dodgers are playing only 15 miles away.

But recently we decided to make a vacation out of our minor-league mania. In May, we set out on a tour of California League parks, attending five games in five days, starting at the rickety old parks in the north and ending in the newer, more ambitious, multimillion dollar complexes of the south.

Since we wanted to start in San Jose, our first step was phoning the California League office for a schedule so we could map our route. This is essential because only half of the 10 teams are at home any given week.

To add to the adventure, we decided to stay at the same motels as the teams, who travel by chartered bus--not private jet--from city to city during the season, which stretches from early April through Sept. 3.

Each park has its charms, but my advice is to try to include San Jose in any itinerary--that barbecue is worth the trip alone--and either of the league’s flashy new Southern California showcases, Rancho Cucamonga or Lake Elsinore.

Try also to visit High Desert, the park with the loveliest natural setting, and Bakersfield, an especially cozy facility that holds the dubious distinction of being one of only two parks in America that was built in the wrong direction. Home plate faces the sun, which means the starting time of games over the years has often had to be delayed until umpires could look straight ahead without squinting.

Don’t feel intimidated about talking to the coaches and scouts.

For most, including former major league player and manager Jim Davenport, baseball is more than a game of runs, hits and errors. It’s also a game of memories, and they like sharing them with fans.

“The best player I ever saw . . .,” Davenport, now a coach with the San Jose Giants, said as we started up a conversation with him after watching his players take batting practice. “I’d say Willie Mays. He could do everything. . . . There was one time in Philadelphia, where . . . “

Day One, San Jose

We arrived at Municipal Stadium in time to catch the end of batting practice for the evening game. The stadium gates were open, so we just walked in on this warm, quiet afternoon and had the grandstand pretty much to ourselves.

The minor leagues are training grounds for the majors, with the various leagues designated triple A (the most experienced players) to Class A (one step up from the rookie leagues). The California League is A, and the odds are that, at most, only one or two players per team will ever graduate to the majors.

But it’s easy to spot the hot young prospects. They carry themselves with such confidence and poise that they look like they were born to play the game.

Dante Powell, the No. 1 pick by the San Francisco Giants in the 1994 college draft, exudes that confidence, and he hit the ball with such effortlessness during batting practice that it was a joy just watching him.

Afterward, we strolled over to an area behind the grandstand where pro team logos are painted on the walls. My favorite nicknames were from the Midwest and the South Atlantic leagues: the Battle Creek Golden Kazoos, the Quad City River Bandits, the Albany Polecats.

At the end of the walk, we found a barbecue stand, where for between $6 and $8 per person you can get mouthwatering chicken or ribs. The food here tastes more home-cooked than anything you’ll find in the fast-food franchises at Dodger Stadium. And the service and setting are as friendly as an old-time county fair.

Rather than watch the game from the picnic area, which has a limited view, we chose a seat in the stands behind Ron Perranoski, the great Dodger relief pitcher from the ‘60s. Perranoski works for the San Francisco Giants now, and he was on hand to check out San Jose pitching prospects.

Perranoski, who once won 16 games in a single season for the Dodgers, looked pleased until a reliever gave up a mammoth three-run home run late in the game.

“Ron Perranoski would never have given up a pitch like that,” I told my wife, loud enough to catch the ear of the former Dodger.

Perranoski turned and replied optimistically, “He’ll learn . . . he’ll learn.”

Day Two, Stockton

One of the added pleasures of touring the California League is the chance to explore the state’s smaller cities, especially the old downtown sections where you can frequently find interesting antique shops.

Before the two-hour drive to Stockton, we checked out antique shops on San Jose’s San Carlos Avenue. We love funky classics (old Coke machines and jukeboxes), but didn’t end up buying anything.

If we had looked long enough we probably could have found something from the early days of the Stockton Ports, whose stadium was next on our itinerary. The team’s history dates back to the 1890s, and the locals boast that Ernest Lawrence Thayer wrote his legendary poem “Casey at the Bat” after seeing a game in Stockton. In the 1880s, or so the story goes, there was even a Stockton team called the Mudville Nine, the fictional town of the poem.

There was no mud this night at Billy Hebert Field, a comfortable old 3,500-seat facility in the city’s vast Oak Park recreation complex that is home to the Ports. But you can see references to Casey everywhere, from the Casey team mascot to the Casey BBQ area. While the food is not nearly as tasty or (at more than $10 for a meal) as bargain-priced as the San Jose barbecue, its picnic area along the left-field line affords you a better view of the game.

The Ports are proud of its many between-inning fan contests, from the bat race, where two fans spin seven times in a circle and then try to hold their balance while they race to third base, to the “Strike-O” contest, where a fan tries to throw baseballs through a hole in a sign a dozen feet away.

Don’t expect big prizes though. Where fans at Dodger Stadium some nights have a dozen chances to win a trip to Paris or a car, fans in the Cal League usually have to settle--at best--for a trip to Los Angeles and a set of spark plugs. I’ve even see fans race up the stairs to claim a coupon that delivers free French fries at a fast-food chain, or a free blood pressure test for senior citizens.

Day Three, Bakersfield

It’s 3 1/2 hours down California 99 from Stockton to Bakersfield, and another 12 miles east of town to the Rio Bravo Resort & Fitness Hotel, whose grounds include 18 tennis courts, an 18-hole golf course and two big swimming pools. The living is so easy that even the league umpires stay here along with the players. (They usually lodge at separate hotels to avoid bumping into each other after a particularly tense night.)

Before the game, we found several excellent antique stores on 19th Street in downtown Bakersfield, two- and three-story shops as big as an old Woolworth’s. Indeed, one of them--Five and Dime Antiques Mall--is housed in an old Woolworth’s. They are stocked with everything from classic Coke signs to a ‘40s theater lobby popcorn machine.

Sam Lynn Ballpark, two miles north of downtown on the banks of the Kern River, is the home of the Bakersfield Blaze and the park has the worn, passed-by feel of the antiques back in town. There are portraits on the back of the concrete grandstand to remind you of the former Dodgers who once played there, including Don Drysdale. The city has reconditioned the park in recent years, adding a 50-foot-high sunscreen in center field to help get the games started on time.

After years of seeing all the top Dodger prospects come through Bakersfield, local fans must have felt something like the old Brooklyn fans when the Dodgers switched allegiance this year to the San Bernardino Spirit. The chief reason: the Spirit is building a larger, modern park.

Like Stockton, the Blaze offers a score of contests and stunts, including a popular taco-eating competition. The team also brightens things by playing records or sound effects during the game--such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” after one of the home team players steals a base.

Day Four, High Desert

Like every other park we visited, John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” was played at Maverick Stadium in Adelanto, a 2 1/2-hour drive from Bakersfield. That expression of eternal optimism may be the best song ever written about baseball, but the Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling” would be a better anthem at the stadium.

That’s because everything is so serene when the sun goes down at the park, whose only neighbors on an isolated stretch of U.S. 395 near Victorville are Joshua trees and scrub brush. The cooling winds, the lovely backdrop of the San Bernardino Mountains and the star-filled nights make every game an enchanting experience.

It seemed like folly when local city officials decided five years ago to build the park, given that Adelanto only has about 15,000 residents. But the Mavericks drew fans from throughout the high desert region, shattering Cal League attendance records by drawing more than 200,000 fans its first year.

Day Five, Lake Elsinore

The Lake Elsinore Storm ballpark, 90 minutes south of High Desert, is the architectural wonder of the California League. Known as the Diamond, it is designed to resemble old-time stadiums such as Baltimore’s Camden Yards. Built for about $20 million, the Diamond opened in 1993 and is so modern inside that it includes luxury sky boxes and gourmet sandwiches served in a 400-seat restaurant and sports bar.

Watching the Storm trounce the visiting Riverside Pilots, I couldn’t help but gaze around the Diamond and remember all the times as a child in rural Louisiana that I dreamed of someday going to a major league game. I’d listen to the games on the radio at night and marvel at the stories my uncle and aunt would tell each year following their pilgrimage to St. Louis to see the Cardinals play.

Sitting there, I wondered why, now that I can see major - league games most any night, do my wife and I find it more enjoyable to drive around the state watching players no one ever heard of.

As the Pilots came up for their last at-bat, I thought about the week’s trip--and its rewards. Sure, it will be a thrill someday to watch one of the hot Cal League prospects circling the bases in the big leagues.

But I’m sure when I do, I’ll think back to an even sweeter time: the afternoon my wife and I sat in San Jose’s stadium and watched young Dante Powell hitting the ball so gracefully in pursuit of his dreams.

In that moment, we realized that we’re not in love with the grandeur of the major leagues. We’re in love with the game--and the minor leagues are where you feel closest to baseball the way it should be.

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GUIDEBOOK

Getting Behind the Plate

Getting tickets: For California League games, reservations aren’t generally needed in Northern California parks, but they are a must if you want reserved seats behind a dugout or home plate in the larger Southern California parks. Reserved seats usually cost $5-$6, general admission seats $3-$4.

Contacting ballparks: Bakersfield Blaze, telephone (805) 322-1363; High Desert Mavericks, tel. (619) 246-6287; Lake Elsinore Storm, tel. (909) 245-4487; Modesto A’s, tel. (209) 529-7368; Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, tel. (909) 481-5000; Riverside Pilots, tel. (909) 276-3352; San Bernardino Spirit, tel. (909) 881-1836; San Jose Giants, tel. (408) 297-1435; Stockton Ports, tel. (209) 944-5943; Visalia Oaks, tel. (209) 625-0480.

Where to stay: A good way to get a sense of life on the road in the minors is to stay at the same motels as the teams. We found these motels to be clean and efficient, but modest and rather colorless. But the rates are economical, which is why the teams select them. Besides standard room discounts available to members of auto clubs and seniors groups, among others, some motels have special “team family and friends” rates, which they’ll sometimes extend to fans (ask when reserving).

Here are the motels’ non-discounted rates for a double room. Bakersfield: Rio Bravo Tennis & Fitness Resort, $108 (tel. 805-872-5000). High Desert: the Holiday Inn in Victorville, $68 (tel. 619-245-6565). Lake Elsinore: Lakeview Inn, $35 (tel. 909-674-9694). Modesto: Vagabond Inn, $46 (tel. 209-521-6340). Rancho Cucamonga: Best Western Heritage Inn, $69 (tel. 909-466-1111). Riverside: Holiday Inn, $99 (909-784-8000). San Bernardino: Radisson Hotel, $82 (909-381-6181). San Jose: Best Western Gateway Inn, $73 (408-435-8800). Stockton: Stockton Inn, $72 (tel. 209-931-3131). Visalia: Thrift Lodge, $45 (209-732-5611).