Baseball Die-Hards : Lure of Old-Fashioned Hardball Led Bauman to Form Age 30-and-Over World Series Team

Some day, after his cleats have been thrown into the closet for the final time and his favorite glove falls irreparably apart, Bill Bauman may well be remembered as something of a baseball pioneer.

Bauman, 40, is a messiah of sorts for those who worship baseball and live to play good old-fashioned hardball. Bauman, a sporting goods salesman with a love for tradition, is supplying new life for over-the-hill hardballers who, try as they might, never got their fill from slow-pitch versions of the grand old game.

Bauman is the organizer and manager of the West Coast Walloping Weasels, a still-being-formed 30-and-over team from the Valley that will compete in the the Men’s Senior Baseball World Series on Nov. 3-6 in Tempe, Ariz.

It is the first step, he hopes, toward the possible formation of a bona fide league in the Valley.

“We’ve got two-thirds of the team,” said Bauman, who lives in Mission Hills. “We’re going to take about 30 players and we’re still looking for about a half-dozen pitchers.”

That’s pitchers who throw overhand. In the MSBL, the name of the game is baseball. The organization’s motto is, “Don’t Go Soft, Play Hardball.

The MSBL is the brainchild of Steve Sigler of Jericho, N. Y., who started a league on Long Island in 1986 and has watched his organization grow to 23

leagues in 20 cities. Next year, Sigler estimates there will be as many as 70 leagues.

“When you think about it, it’s not really a question of why, but rather why not? The real attraction is playing baseball again with your contemporaries,” said Sigler, 40.

The MSBL World Series is a 32-team tournament. There will also be a team from the Dominican Republic and, possibly, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Former major leaguers Luis Tiant, Al Hrabosky, Rico Carty and Ron LeFlore will be among the participants. The vast majority of the organization’s players, however, are former high school and college players and guys like Bauman, who in 1965, was aced out of a position in the Santa Monica High outfield by Rick Monday.

“I’m going to manage,” Bauman said. “But if need be, there are a couple innings left in my right arm.”

After reading about the MSBL, Bauman contacted Sigler in June about entering an unaffiliated independent team in the World Series. Sigler said he allowed Bauman to enter the tournament--while declining other requests from independent teams--after Bauman said he would either join the Southern California-area MSBL, which includes three teams from Los Angeles and three from Orange County, or help start another league in the Valley.

Thus far, Bauman said assembling a team for the World Series has been relatively easy.

“I knew a half-dozen guys and they knew three others,” said Bauman, who holds open practices every Sunday at 5 p.m. at Alemany High. “It was kind of a snowball effect.

“Among others, we’ve got six lawyers, five insurance agents and three guys who work part time as umpires. The first few weeks of practice, we had to see who could still hit and throw the ball.”

Many of the players who showed up for the first workout never came back. Mike Kale, an attorney and second baseman from Northridge, was among those who stuck it out.

“You can find a softball team anywhere,” Kale said. “But finding a hardball league is a much different story.”

Kale, 35, played in a hardball league with Nicaraguan expatriates for four years in Hawthorne and participates in the L. A. County Municipal League, where there are no age restrictions.

Kale, however, was looking for something a little more serious. When he heard about Bauman’s team and the trip to the World Series, he showed up for practice.

“Everyone has had this dream in their head of being discovered, of having a professional team calling him up and saying, ‘Hey, we saw you playing at the park and we think you could fill a need for us,’ ” Kale said. “We don’t have those illusions anymore, but we’re not going to give up this opportunity.”

Playing hardball again means different things to different people. For some, it is a return to yesteryear, when dashes around the bases were not threatened by pulled muscles--and cardiac arrest.

“I hate to sound corny, but it appears I’ll be able to pick up where I left off and lose myself in the baseball fantasy,” said Jamie Barry, a 35-year old real estate developer from Van Nuys who was an infielder in the California Angels’ organization. “It’s also a chance to compete against people from all over the country.”

For others, it is simply a chance to again experience camaraderie and competition.

“I never thought I’d get the chance to be in a baseball situation like this,” said Stu White of Woodland Hills, a 37-year-old insurance agent and former pitcher at Fairfax High . “I wanted to take the train to Arizona to get that old-time feeling, but everyone wanted to fly. They want to be in the major leagues.

“I’m sure everyone is going to get lots of playing time and that’s the key. Everyone is going to get their taste of baseball.”