RAGS ARE THEIR BAG; CHATTER HAS LONG BEEN INTEGRAL PART OF BASEBALL.

Byline: Chris Branam Daily News Staff Writer

As the Thousand Oaks High pitcher missed slightly with each pitch, the whoops and hollers came louder from inside Royal's dugout.

Then, the Highlanders started in with a high-pitched yell, as if each player had just sucked helium into his lungs. Ball. Ball. Ball. Another walk.

Then, with the raise of his left hand, the home-plate umpire signaled that enough was enough.

Royal was winning on the field and in the dugout. The Highlanders' bench had landed a major ego boost by rattling the Lancers.

Only in baseball.

Yogi Berra, that most famous of talkers, was also known for getting inside of batters' heads with his incessant chattering behind the plate. Berra also once said baseball is ``90 percent half-mental.''

He was 100 percent right about the mental part. Chattering from the bench is a time-honored tradition in baseball, one that has been around for at least a century - though no longer at the professional level.

When high school baseball players can ``outchatter'' the other team, it can provide an emotional lift that sometimes carries over on to the field. Having a lively dugout means so much, especially in the playoffs.

``Two years ago, when we had Adrian Mendoza, we went up to play at Santa Barbara,'' Royal coach Dan Maye said. ``They were really going to try and outchatter us. Adrian was on the mound. Their bench was making this `woo, woo, woo' sound. Our kids started doing the same exact thing. Now both dugouts are doing the exact same chant.

``All of a sudden, by the second inning, their kids stopped doing it, and our kids did it the whole game.''

Royal won that regular-season game.

Tom Morefield, Chatsworth's center fielder and leading home-run hitter, said he likes chatter.

``It brings out the intensity in the game,'' he said. ``Even the batter, it seems to pump him up.''

Chatter's origin is unclear. The first time the term ``chatter'' appeared in print was in 1891, in the New York Post.

Throughout the years, baseball has embraced chatter. And even though the Dickson Baseball Dictionary defines it as ``lively, often meaningless talk spoken for team morale,'' the main reason why high school players chatter from the dugout is to disrupt the opponent.

``Ragging is an art,'' Agoura coach Bruce Beck said. ``At this level (high school), I have not seen boys who can rag. These days, they seem to take it personally.

``When I was at Pepperdine, we beat teams because we could disrupt them and take them out of their game. We were brutal. When we played USC, the excitement of that game was enhanced because both teams were standing on their seats and screaming at each other.''

Thousand Oaks coach Bill Sizemore said the tradition of yelling something when the pitch is thrown, which even some coaches do, is a detriment to the game.

``There is no place for it in high school,'' he said. ``Some coaches do it as part of their repertoire. I think it's bush league and it's not appropriate.''

The Southern Section, and most coaches, parents and athletic directors, agree.

The section requires each athlete and coach to sign a code of sportsmanship.

``We have concerns about issues like (ragging),'' said Bill Clark, an assistant commissioner for the Southern Section. ``Cheering should be in a positive nature. I don't think telling a guy that he's ugly or something like that is positive.''

Stan Charnofsky, a Cal State Northridge professor who played at USC and in the New York Yankees' farm system, said he no longer appreciates ragging like he did when he was involved in the game.

``It degrades the human,'' he said. ``We had names for people. I don't like it when it's personal. You defame a human being and I don't like that.''

Crespi coach Scott Muckey, who has won 218 games in 11 seasons with the Celts, said he thinks chatter is overrated.

``Nobody ever won a championship with their mouths,'' he said.

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Photo

Photo: Kennedy High baseball players yell out chatter from their dugout during a game against Cleveland.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News