2001 DAILY NEWS BERNIE MILLIGAN 25TH ANNIVERSARY: WEST ALUMNI: OLD-STARS HAVE LOVE FOR GAME.

Byline: Lee Barnathan Staff Writer

In the Pierce College bullpen Saturday, there was Dan MacNeil, who pitched for Taft in 1979. Next to him was Tim Thompson, who pitched for Grace Brethren last year.

L.A. Baptist graduate Mike Romero played in 1981, the year Chatsworth's Steve Kracow was born.

``For a guy to play the year you were born, I've never experienced anything like that,'' Kracow said.

If there was one thing Bernie Milligan West alumni enjoyed about their practice on Saturday was the range of ages represented.

MacNeil, wearing his hair long and ears pierced four times, joked around and talked about the need for beer. Thompson, his hair bleached blond, was more serious.

Yet Thompson considered MacNeil a baseball player like himself.

``It's neat to see these guys with the same love as when they played,'' Thompson said. ``Watching pregame, they're legit.''

Kracow couldn't get over how he was practicing with people old enough to be his father, yet who shared a Bernie Milligan Game experience.

--He's a gamer: Of the three catchers on the roster, only Frank Mutz showed. But only Canoga Park's Ron Russell, who played shortstop in the 1983 game, donned the gear and caught in the bullpen. Russell knew what he was doing because he had played catcher in the minor leagues.

Russell said he also thinks he can give his pitchers an edge come Saturday.

``You don't know how great it'll be (Saturday) to tell (East batters), 'I don't know where it's going,' '' Russell joked.

--Back to Pierce: Romero returned to the field in which he played in college for the first time since he left Pierce in 1984. Other than small trees growing behind the outfield fence, little had changed, he said.

``It's still as bad now as it was then, 17 years ago,'' he said.