Baseball

The good news is that Manhattan Beach will have a bigger and better middle school by September 1998. The bad news is that the new school, to be built next to Polliwog Park on Redondo Avenue, will take out two playing fields heavily used by baseball and soccer teams.

Despite objections from residents who said they are concerned that rowdy children will overrun their neighborhood, the City Council voted this week to allow a company to proceed with a plan to open indoor batting cages in the south-central part of town. The council's action upheld a Planning Commission decision that had been appealed by La Habra Gables Homeowners Assn., which represents 107 townhomes.

Bill Sizemore considers himself a sponge, soaking up baseball knowledge wherever he can, then dispensing it to players willing to learn. His mission has taken him to remote places, from Alberta, Canada, to Elmira, N.Y., to Ridgecrest, Calif. Sizemore, hired last week as baseball coach at Thousand Oaks High, brings experience in the professional, college and high school ranks to his new post.

For one summer Cordero was the Little League equivalent of Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddox and Bert Blyleven rolled into one. The smooth-throwing right-hander had a great fastball and curve, and threw nothing but strikes. Well schooled in the art of pitching by his father, Charlie, who pitched in college, Cordero was practically unbeatable in 1990; 21-2, including a 10-1 record as the Cypress All-Star team came within one game of playing for the Little League World Series title in Williamsport, Pa.

When I was a kid, times were hard in this country, but I remember, once a year, around income tax time, the papers would print a Page 1 story about the biggest wage earners in society. It would always be Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM studios, or Alfred P. Sloan, head of General Motors. They would put the dollar figure they earned in the cutlines below the pictures, and they are fixed in my memory. I remember Mayer headed the list one year with, like, $729,412.

Ground was broken this week for the development of two baseball diamonds for young people at Bishops Canyon landfill, a site once used in the construction of Dodger Stadium in Elysian Park. The diamonds, scheduled to be completed in spring, will provide the only formal baseball recreation area for youths in Elysian Park. None of the five high schools in the area has a baseball diamond.

In the ambulance, Brian Jordan comforted his son. They were on their way to Cardinal Glennon Hospital, in downtown St. Louis. The child is only 2. His dad still wore his Cardinal baseball uniform. At the ballgame, little Bryson had fainted. He was in something called the "Junior Cardinals" room, a combination playpen and day-care center for children of the players. It was warm in there.

Dave Serrano was named Thursday as an assistant baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton, filling the vacancy created when George Horton was promoted to head coach. Serrano, 32, who pitched for the Titans in 1986, was pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Tennessee for the last two seasons. The Volunteers reached the College World Series in 1995 for the first time since 1951. Serrano will have the same duties at Fullerton.

Phil Pote stands dwarfed among the dirt and steel and grumble of the earthmovers, and rarely has a man looked so big. This churned-up bit of Los Angeles Southwest College is going to be a tidy little corner of hope one day, he just feels it, the way an old scout can look at a kid and feel his fastball. Pote is only $150,000 short. And what's $150,000 to a guy who has spent a lifetime picking up gems from the streets of South-Central Los Angeles? He wanted to call his project "Field of Dreams."

Scott Drootin, co-coach at Calabasas High the past four years, has been hired as baseball coach at Chaminade High. He replaces Denny Barrett, who resigned in June to become coach at Glendale College. Drootin, 43, teamed with coaching partner Rick Nathanson to lead Calabasas to Frontier League titles in 1993, '95 and '96, including undefeated league seasons the past two years. In 1995, the Coyotes were 25-0 before losing a playoff opener to Rialto. Drootin will continue to work as a walk-on.