ANOTHER ONE LEAVES THE NEST.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

They grow up so fast. One day, it's freckles, 10-speeds and the Woodland Hills Little League. The next, a gunslinger's mustache, dirt bikes and the Milwaukee Brewers.

And now - where have the years gone? - Robin Yount is on TV delivering a speech in Cooperstown, N.Y.

One day, a Valley boy. The next, a man of the world.

The big promotion takes a son out of town. Sure, his mother is proud, but why couldn't he be hers forever?

So it is for the San Fernando Valley, and for this athletic cradle known as Greater Los Angeles, as we say goodbye to another of our babies today, as Yount goes into the Baseball Hall of Fame with Nolan Ryan, George Brett and Orlando Cepeda.

Goodbye? He hasn't died, no. Instead he's been taken by death's smooth-talking cousin, immortality. He's gone from the Valley to a high, high mountain, baseball's Olympus.

Yount hasn't called the Valley home for years. He and the whole Yount family live in Arizona now.

But until this afternoon, we had a piece of him. He was our child, our quiet superstar, our little secret.

It reminds me of a wry discussion of Canadian pride I heard once on the radio. The speaker was from north of the border himself. He observed that no Canadian ever let the mention of a countryman pass without remark. ``Paul Anka! He's Canadian, you know.''

The show's host was Jewish. He said it was the same in his old New York neighborhood. ``Sandy Koufax

He's Jewish, you know.''

For 20 major-league seasons that was us. ``Robin Yount! Taft High, you know.''

Now, the world knows, because it's boning up on the Hall of Fame biographies.

Worse than being in on our secret, the world really couldn't care less.

One of the cable sports networks ran a lengthy Yount profile the other night. It told us how he broke in at 18. Recounted how he led the 1982 Brewers to the World Series. Unspooled his 3,000th hit, a clean line drive over the second baseman's head. Trotted out the essential Yount factoid, that he and Stan Musial and Hank Greenberg are the only men to win Most Valuable Player awards at two positions. Gave us Paul Molitor saying Yount was his most ``influential'' teammate and Brett saying he enjoyed playing against Robin so much that he named a son after him.

It never mentioned if Yount had a childhood or an adolescence. As far as the TV knew, he began in Milwaukee and he winds up in Cooperstown.

Was it this way when Don Drysdale (Van Nuys) went into the Hall of Fame? And Jackie Robinson (Pasadena)? Probably, although their connection to the Dodgers tethered them to home.

Is it this way in other towns that produce great men of the athletic world? Probably, although it's harder to forget that Ryan is the greatest thing ever to come out of Refugio, Texas.

The difference is that in contrast to Greater Refugio, the Los Angeles area produces a disproportionate number of sports stars. We go through this all the time.

John Elway leaves Granada Hills, puts down social and commercial roots in Denver, and never comes back, no matter how much the promoters of Los Angeles' NFL future beg him to.

We don't produce championships here in Los Angeles. The Dodgers and Lakers haven't won a title since 1988. The Kings and Clippers haven't won a title at all. The Raiders won our last pro-football title in '84.

But we produce champions. The fields of Los Angeles grow more baseball players than crabgrass. At the start of this season the major-league 40-man rosters contained 79 who were born in Los Angeles County. All those Mark McGwires, Tony Gwynns and Nomar Garciaparras, perhaps future Hall of Famers themselves.

There are so many, it's even hard for us to keep track.

A couple of years ago, I was about to put the final paragraph on a column about the odd career path of Larry Dierker, recently named the Houston Astros manager after 14 years in uniform and 17 in the broadcast booth. Only when I opened the Baseball Encyclopedia to check a stat was I reminded of Dierker's local connection.

He'd moved on, pitched a no-hitter, won 20 games, become a big-league manager. Where he came from was forgotten.

Larry Dierker! Taft High, you know.

L.A., CRADLE OF BIG-LEAGUERS

Woodland Hills-reared Robin Yount isn't the first L.A. County product to make the Baseball Hall of Fame and he won't be the last. You could field a more-than-respectable lineup of L.A. natives currently in the major leagues. Here's such a team based purely on place of birth:

Catcher - Mike Lieberthal (Glendale), Philadelphia Phillies.

1st base - Mark McGwire (Pomona), St. Louis Cardinals.

2nd base - Jeff Kent (Bellflower), San Francisco Giants.

3rd base - Todd Zeile (Van Nuys), Texas Rangers.

Shortstop - Nomar Garciaparra (Whittier), Boston Red Sox.

Outfield - Tony Gwynn (Los Angeles), San Diego Padres; Tim Salmon (Long Beach), Anaheim Angels; Eric Davis (Los Angeles), St. Louis Cardinals.

Starters - David Wells (Torrance), Toronto Blue Jays; Russ Ortiz (Encino), San Francisco Giants; Kevin Appier (Lancaster), Kansas City Royals; Scott Erickson (Long Beach), Baltimore Orioles.

Bullpen - Trevor Hoffman (Bellflower), San Diego Padres; Robb Nen (San Pedro), San Francisco Giants; Rod Beck (Burbank), Chicago Cubs; Scott Radinsky (Glendale), St. Louis Cardinals. Manager - Larry Dierker (Hollywood), Houston Astros.

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Box: L.A., CRADLE OF BIG-LEAGUERS (See text)