BASEBALL MANAGING DOT COM COMPUTER LAPTOP HAS BECOME ESSENTIAL FOR JETHAWKS' PARENT.

Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer

Before Mark Parent took the job managing the JetHawks this year, nobody told him he needed to know how to use a laptop.

It's perhaps a sign of the times that the worlds of the point and click and the hit and run have collided, but like it or not, the information age has established its presence in the minor league clubhouse.

``We report on every game,'' said Parent, pointing to the screen of his computer, which has a grid for coaches to complete with stats such as the number of pitches thrown, how many of which were balls or strikes, a breakdown of types of pitches that were thrown and room for player evaluations.

The reports also feature in-depth performance assessments of all aspects of field play and how players do in their at-bats. Additionally, there is a section for reports on impressive opposing players.

Evaluating players' performances has always part of the job. But what was previously done by phone, or, more recently, by fax, is now done in cyberspace.

The lack of familiarity the JetHawks coaching staff has with computers can at times lead to stressful moments.

One such moment occurred earlier in the week, when before a game against the Visalia Oaks at Lancaster Municipal Stadium, the JetHawks' coaching staff was in a frenzied search for a report by pitching coach Scott Budner before a game.

Parent and hitting coach Dana Williams scrambled and scrolled through file after file looking for the document, but apparently someone had made a wrong turn on the information superhighway.

``It just got lost in the shuffle and I just had to do it again. It was no big deal,'' Budner said. ``It's the computer age, I'm not a computer expert yet.''

Said Parent: ``We're baseball players. We didn't learn to type things like that. When you spend so much time typing it in, and you don't like doing it in the first place and then it gets lost, then you get (mad).''

Budner, who was in the clubhouse Monday night rewriting the report until about 1 a.m., said it probably would have taken someone better versed in computer and typing skills less time, and noted that he didn't know how to turn on a computer until his 9-year-old daughter showed him a week before he left his home in Jacksonville, Fla., for spring training.

``Computers to me are like walking into the middle of Russia,'' he said. ``I'm clueless.''

And while he was able to joke about the incident after the fact, when asked to describe the level of frustration caused by losing the computer file on a scale of 1 to 10, Budner said it was about a 28.

Parent said the advantage of using computers is that he and fellow coaches have access to information and game reports at the click of a mouse. But he also said there's a downside.

He believes that although computers are more efficient, the human element of communication seems to be lost.

``Sometimes when you're talking, stuff comes off a lot easier than it does through your hand or through your computer,'' he said.

--Williams back: First baseman Peanut Williams, last year's team MVP, will be activated on Saturday.

Williams had surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow in mid-May. He had been on a rehab assignment at Peoria, Ariz.

In other roster moves, catcher Travis McClendon has been called up to Double-A New Haven, Conn., on a temporary assignment. Also, pitcher Melqui Torres will be recalled from low Single-A Wisconsin. Torres, who started the season at Lancaster, will start Saturday.

--Chalk talk:! A recent controversy involving the Atlanta Braves organization alleged painting of a wider chalk box to help catcher Javier Lopez set up a bit wider off the outside part of the plate, has reached the Antelope Valley.

Before Tuesday night's game against Visalia, the JetHawks ground crew painted in the catcher's box with chalk for what is believed to be the first time.

A directive was sent to the 16 minor league presidents on March 23, instructing umpires to make sure the catcher's box is laid out before each game, according to Jim Ferguson, media relations director for the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.

Ferguson pointed out that the catcher's box controversy in Atlanta occurred on the night of the 23rd and that the memo had been sent to the league presidents earlier that day.

The memorandum to the minor-league presidents was based on a similar memo dated March 28, which was addressed to major league general managers, field managers, umpires, and supervisory staff, from Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball's executive vice president.

The March 28 memo cites Official Playing Rule 1.04, which regards proper positioning in the catcher's box.

Ferguson speculated that the Atlanta controversy may have given umpires and ground crews an added sense of urgency with regards to properly chalking the catcher's box.

Before Wednesday night's game at Visalia, the Oaks' ground crew did not paint a catcher's box behind home plate.

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Photo: JetHawks catcher Travis McClendon has been a steady addition to the team after spending the 1999 season with the Western Baseball League Zion Pioneerzz in St. George, Utah.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer