RAINING OUT A SEASON COMMUNITY FIGHTS TO KEEP KIDS' BASEBALL GROUNDS OPEN.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

SYLMAR - Weeks before the Dodgers and Angels lace up their spikes for spring training, Los Angeles is close to clinching its biggest victory of the baseball season.

The winners would be hundreds of East San Fernando Valley 6- to 16- year-olds whose season is threatened by storm damage to a road leading to the Sylmar Independent Baseball League fields.

The heroes would be a league president with the never-say-die spirit of Kirk Gibson, a politician who has the sport in his blood, and neighbors who know this is more than a game to the kids.

But the victory is going to be a nail-biter, if it is completed at all.

``I know we're in an uphill battle,'' said Fred Duran, president of the non-profit SIBL, a nearly half-century-old organization that claimed participation by more than 800 boys and girls last year. ``The clock is ticking. I'm frustrated.''

The crisis started Jan. 9, during the worst of the recent record rainstorms. The Pacoima Wash's rushing water overflowed its natural banks and chopped a hundred feet out of the unnamed two-lane road that runs from Harding Street to SIBL's six baseball and three softball fields.

A league fund-raising tournament among Valley traveling teams had to be called off last weekend, and fear rose that if red tape delaying the road's repair isn't lifted soon, this month's sign-ups and February's tryouts will be affected and the season scheduled to open March 5 will be wiped out.

``It's devastating,'' Duran said outside the fields constructed in the late 1980s on wasteland near L.A. Mission College and El Cariso Golf Course, a few miles northwest of the 118-210 freeway interchange. ``We've got to keep these gates open for the kids.''

Duran's determination seemed to be paying off this week when it was announced that City Councilman Alex Padilla's staff has met with the Army Corps of Engineers, the city Department of Public Works and the city Bureau of Street Services to seek ways to restore automobile access to the fields.

Padilla spokesman David Gershwin said Padilla - himself a former SIBL player who pitched for San Fernando High and MIT - hopes to arrange for the road on the east side of the fields to be repaired and for the league to use an entrance through the neighborhood on the west in the meantime.

``SIBL is a linchpin of the community,'' Gershwin said of the organization, whose name is pronounced ``Sybil'' by the locals. ``We want to help.''

But the last time the gate at Gridley Street and Simshaw Avenue was used regularly, homeowners angered by the traffic forced the 1988 season to be moved to El Cariso Park and made the league agree to use the now-damaged road instead.

Wednesday, when the Daily News knocked on doors within two blocks of Gridley and Simshaw, residents said they are willing to put up with a traffic increase temporarily so the kids can play ball.

``How long is 'temporarily?' '' said Barbara Flemming, a 40-year resident of a house three doors from the SIBL gate. ``When it involves the city and private (interests) as well, sometimes 'temporary' stretches into years.''

``It wouldn't bother me if it was just this season,'' said Margaret Ford, a 41-year resident of the neighborhood. ``This (storm) has been a terrible disaster for a lot of people. (I) walked around there the other day and couldn't believe what happened (to the road).''

Jesse Jasso, who has lived around the corner from the fields for eight years, said neighbors have been bothered by motor-scooter riders and downhill speeders on Simshaw. Jasso suggested posting law-enforcement officers in the area on days the league uses the gate.

``Unless they could guarantee that, I'd say I'm on the 'no' side,'' Jasso said.

The ball fields are the best thing to happen to the debris basin next to the Pacoima Wash. According to local lore, the land used to be a dumping ground for stripped automobiles and even the occasional murder victim.

SIBL moved to the site in 1988 after 31 years on property that became Mission College. The 23-acre facility was built by players' fathers and other volunteers who knew what a place to play means to the community about 25 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

The leagues, which range from Clinic level for toddlers and T-Ball for 6-year-olds to Pony League for 14-and-unders and Colt League for older teenagers, charge from $45 to $150 a player. After shrinking to about 350 participants a few years ago, the team rosters totaled more than 800 last season, Duran said. The difference has been improved field maintenance and more parental involvement, he said.

SIBL graduates include Pete Redfern, the former USC (1973-75) and Minnesota Twins right-hander; Crystl Bustos, the U.S. Olympic softball third baseman; and legions of minor-leaguers and college stars.

``There's a lot of support there for you,'' said Eddy Camacho, 22, a New York Mets prospect who played SIBL ball at ages 12 and 13 before pitching at Sylmar High and Cal State Northridge. ``It kept me out of trouble.''

Founded in 1957, SIBL has been part of the L.A. baseball scene for one season longer than the Dodgers.

``It's up to us to keep going what those guys started,'' said Duran, 50, a plumbing contractor who was a SIBL player and has put all six of his children through the leagues. ``There's not too much to do here (in the Sylmar area). There are no malls here, no movie theaters. You always hear, `This kid's been shot, this kid's been arrested. ...' Where better to stop things like that than at a ball field?''

Said Rick Marks, a big, bearded man who is the fields' caretaker: ``To the kids, it means everything. It means everything to me. I want it to be the best place in the world for kids to play baseball.''

The morning after the road fell, Duran hit the soggy ground running, demanding to know who is responsible for the repairs. Duran was told to relax by bureaucrats saying everything would be all right. He said no, that parents put off by uncertainty would move to other leagues.

``Everybody started throwing their hands up,'' Duran said. ``That's when I got scared.''

Has anybody seen a whole season rained out before?

``This is a caring community,'' Duran said. ``But if no one listens to us, we've got problems.''

Last weekend, life went on for the golfers at El Cariso, for the joggers and dog-walkers on the concrete path that winds between the golf course and the ball fields, and for the residents of the tile-roofed houses in the gated developments across Harding Street.

Meanwhile, Duran looked on worriedly as a few parents registered their kids for baseball and softball at a table set up at a padlocked gate.

He has been heartened by offers of help, one from Ruben Gutierrez, a SIBL coach whose CCS Demolition in Sylmar has the equipment to pave a new road.

``But,'' Gutierrez said, ``we need a lot more help than I can give.''

It's going to take teamwork - by the league, government and community - to pound out this victory.

``I think we're going to be OK,'' said Dan Rosales, Padilla's chief field deputy.

``It's to the point,'' Duran said, ``where it's 'Don't tell me. Show me.' ''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Sylmar Independent Baseball League president Fred Duran, left, and Martin Torres survey damage to the road leading to baseball fields where Aaron Nunez, above, and his brother Eric play.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

(3) FRED DURAN

President of SIBL is trying to save a league that is participated in by around 800 kids.

Map:

Access road damaged

DAILY NEWS