COLUMN ONE : Big-League Pressures in Senior Softball : Baby boomers have injected competitive drive--and questionable spending--into what used to be more social outlet than serious sport.

It was the eve of the Senior Softball World Championships, and the Huntington Beach Seacrest Mavericks were vying for the coveted title. But they needed 47-year-old pitcher Mark Olson--and they needed him to be 50.

On tournament day, Olson said, he was slipped a copy of a birth certificate aging him three years. Someone also doctored the ages of two other Maverick players, who helped humiliate the competition, 31-8, last year in Chicago.

The Mavericks cherished their 14-karat gold championship rings over the winter, but then the ruse was uncovered and the team was stripped of its title. The three players were suspended for life, league officials said.

Olson, for one, remains unrepentant: “Players all over the nation are too young. We were just the ones caught.”

Welcome to the hardball world of senior softball, where explosive growth has forever changed this once leisurely pastime.

Much of it has to do with demographics. As they do with pretty much everything else, aging baby boomers are swelling the senior sports ranks and introducing competitive drive to what used to be a social gathering disguised as an easygoing exercise regimen.

These younger weekend warriors--mostly males--want a gut-busting workout. They want to hit every ball out of the park. They want to win.

Add to that the surprising amount of money at stake in one of the fastest growing sports in the nation. Far from the days when players’ T-shirts would boast the names of local supermarkets, now companies such as Louisville Slugger kick in tens of thousands to underwrite teams and titles, all in an effort to take advantage of new sales opportunities.

From Palm Springs to Tallahassee, cities bid well more than $100,000 to play host to four- to eight-day senior softball tournaments, with the leagues using the proceeds to cover expenses and team prizes.

The games are said to reap a $5-million to $6-million boost for the local economy by the time free-spending adults come to play softball and then to play tourist. Leagues also make thousands charging membership fees--and more for players to enter championship matches. Basic membership fees can be as little as $15, but travel and lodging for championship play can run into the hundreds of dollars.

Softball standouts are courted for their on-field prowess, lured by perks including luxury hotel suites and steak and lobster dinners. And it’s all legal.

What’s prohibited is forging birth certificates, fudging residency records and paying cash directly to players. But league leaders acknowledge that payouts are quietly employed by powerhouse teams as an added incentive. For example, home runs and exceptional tournament play may earn some under the table bonuses.

“You can make some serious money--what with $500 per weekend tournament and another $100 for each of the 15 to 20 home runs you hit that weekend,” Olson said.

The payouts often come from enthusiastic team boosters as well as sponsors. Money also flows into the sport from wealthy business owners who have always dreamed of owning their own sports team. Some get a kick out of putting themselves into the starting lineup, while others are content to recruit players, said Bob Mitchell, president of Senior Softball-USA, the nation’s largest senior softball league.

The problems have reached such a pitch that the sport’s seven national leagues are holding a softball summit in February to decide the game’s future.

“Any time you have national honors, your picture in the paper, a ring on your finger, there’ll be people who will do what they have to to get what they want,” said Ridge Hooks, executive director of the Senior Softball Hall of Fame and a summit organizer. “That’s just human nature.”

Still, Hooks wonders where the sport went wrong:

“Who would have ever thought senior softball would get to this?”

White Trousers and Black Bow Ties

Senior softball began in the 1930s, the brainchild of recreation directors in St. Petersburg, Fla. Players in the first game--it was the Kids versus the Kubs--walked between bases and sported white trousers and black bow ties, more interested in socializing than in the final score.

That image is one of the reasons the sport didn’t gain momentum until the 1980s, when a handful of organizers backed the first national titles and piqued the interest of competitive types. Promoters then began marketing a more aggressive version of the game to affluent, aging adults who wanted no part of shuffleboard.

The seven U.S. leagues now in operation make little effort to coordinate national tournament dates or rules of play, resulting in endless conflicts. Pennant names illustrate how the leagues try to one-up each other--Senior Softball World Series, Senior Softball World Championships.

Most leagues require players to be at least 50 years old, but beyond that, requirements vary. Some leagues demand that players live within certain communities, while others have no residency requirements.

Senior softballers, serious and not-so-serious alike, have grown to 1.4 million, up from 1 million players just a decade ago.

“In terms of active sports, it’s the biggest senior sport around,” said Thomas B. Doyle, vice president of the National Sporting Goods Assn., which tracks sports participation.

The largest concentration of players--about 250,000--is in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, with their balmy temperatures and sizable retirement communities. A new league was recently launched encompassing 400 existing Southern California teams.

Local hotshots include the Placentia Fairway Ford dealership team, which boasts that it has won 17 national titles in five years while playing in various tournaments.

The team, which consists exclusively of players 65 and older, includes Robert “Duf” Sfreddo, who has a .700 batting average. Another standout is Steve Hill, a 6-foot-4 first baseman who played with the Baltimore Orioles in the 1950s, said Carlos Becerra, the team’s manager.

“It’s difficult to find 65-year-old people who can play and travel and are healthy. You have to pick them from all over,” Becerra said, adding that he spent more than $100,000 to cover this year’s team expenses.

The money came from the owner of the dealership, who is a team player, as well as other sponsors.

But Sam Sapienza, the manager of a New York team, said big money threatens to destroy the game’s spirit.

Sapienza, 59, issued a Jerry Maguire-style mass mailing in January, urging fellow senior softball leaders to help return the game to its simpler roots.

“This is supposed to be the twilight of our careers, the fun time of our lives,” he wrote shortly after losing two star players to the competition. “I am happy just breathing each day. I don’t want to worry about teams with money stealing my players. . . . When will it stop?”

One of his former players, star second baseman John Davide, 51, said he took an offer he couldn’t refuse. The Long Island resident now plays for a team in San Jose and travels to his games in style. Recently, Davide’s wife joined him at a Fort Lauderdale tournament where they had their own hotel suite--all expenses paid.

“I was tired of digging deep into my pockets to play softball,” Davide said.

Tales of Paying $100 for Each Home Run

Some league officials disagree about whether traveling expenses should be out of bounds. But nearly all agree that the biggest problem is the dicier expenses--the bonuses, the cash awards.

Stories abound of players negotiating to have teams cover their child support payments, or holding out for thousands of dollars for tournament performance. Everyone has a tale about a player who gets $100 for home runs.

Vicky Oltean, recreation manager for the city of Palm Springs, says she’s seen it all.

“Buying players has got to be one of the biggest controversies,” said Oltean, who has been running national softball tournaments for 13 years. “People have money, and they’re willing to spend it to win.”

League officials say they are helpless to stop it.

“These guys are smart. They don’t write any of the contracts down; it’s just an ‘understanding,’ ” said Mitchell of Senior Softball-USA. “You can’t act on ‘understandings.’ ”

The new edge has soured 81-year-old Elmer Lloyd of Fullerton on the sport. After more than 15 years of play for a team called the Anaheim Dodgers, he says he prefers his memories from an earlier time, when it was enough to just love the game.

“Our playing is all about exercise. We’re not interested in setting any records,” he said.

Doubts About Upcoming Summit

Players agree that something must be done, but many doubt that the February summit will result in a consensus, especially given a longtime rift between the directors of the nation’s biggest senior softball leagues--Mitchell and Ken Maas, president and founder of the Michigan-based National Assn. of Senior Citizen Softball.

Mitchell, 69, contends that the best way to cultivate senior softball is to run it like a business. He does just that, with a Sacramento-based in-house travel agency that plans worldwide vacations for teammates. He plans to launch what he says is the first clothing line for senior softball players.

“I want to see senior softball raised to a level of a professional sport. . . . It’ll be more meaningful that way,” Mitchell said.

Maas, 77, favors a grass-roots approach. He offers free brochures to help seniors start their own teams and leagues, believing that you don’t need to raise a lot of money to have fun.

“I didn’t do this to make a dime,” he said. “I did it to promote the whole program.”

The problems in senior softball led 77-year-old Lou Hastings, the manager of the Anaheim Dodgers, to quit tournaments 10 years ago. He had begun to notice the hyper-competition and players who didn’t look their age.

“From that time on, I never took any teams up to tournaments. It has turned a complete 180 degrees from what we originally started out here for--fun, fellowship, exercise, camaraderie,” he said. “This wasn’t what we had in mind at all.”