THE WRITING ON (AND OFF) THE WALL LEAGUES OF THEIR OWN.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

If no one else is putting in the effort to pass it on, then who? If Francisco Balderrama didn't care enough to inspire the students of his Chicano Studies class at Cal State Los Angeles to collect all the oral history they could to go along with other artifacts on the city's rich heritage of Mexican-American baseball going back to the 1930s, then why should anyone else have?

If the curators of the California African American Museum didn't decide it was worth setting aside a wing to acknowledge the impact of the Negro Leagues, and of black players from all over that began forming their own teams in the late 1800s, then when was the right time?

We easily get caught up in celebrations of Los Angeles baseball history that are put on at our big-league parks, whether it be the Dodgers' ongoing 25th anniversary of an improbable World Series title or the Angels giving away Bartolo Colon action figures for his Cy Young-winning performance last season.

But start a conversation about the life story of baseball in Southern California, and the roots undeniably spread to the Latino and black players who united under restrictive conditions and harsh prejudices to absolutely enjoy competing on both the amateur and professional levels, and now you're speaking in volumes that resonate louder.

There's a modest arrangement of display cases with photographs and other memorabilia in a cove of the JFK Library on the Cal State L.A. campus in the heart of East L.A. It's not there simply to acknowledge the existence of Latino baseball in the local barrios, but to go beyond the achievements of what Fernando Valenzuela once was able to shine a light on.

There's a team photo of the Carmelita Chorizeros, considered to be the New York Yankees of the area from the late '40s through the '60s, and the nine Pena brothers who once played in a game for them. Read the names of local legends like Babe Ornelas, Charlie Sierra, Joe Gonzalez, Al Padilla and Jorge Yorba. Make note of Conrad Munatones, a third baseman/outfielder/pitcher who went from Roosevelt High to UCLA to become the first L.A.-born player to sign with the newly arrived Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958.

As for the African-American baseball movement, we've got rightful claim to Jackie Robinson. But it goes beyond his breaking the major-league color barrier almost 60 years ago.

Walk through the CAAM exhibit that sits among the trove of history that fills Exposition Park, and discover that the year after Robinson left UCLA, and the year before the Dodgers signed him, he was a member of the Negro League's famed Kansas City Monarchs in 1945. That was the first, and only time in his life, he played for a segregated baseball team.

Before he made it to Ebbets Field, Robinson joined a pitcher from the Homestead Grays named Johnny Wright as invitees to the Dodgers' minor-league camp in Vero Beach, Fla., in 1946 as members of the Montreal Royals. That itself was something for blacks to embrace.

"The spikes of their recently shined baseball shoes cut a new and unique niche in the sturdy pillar that symbolized the national pastime's historical advancement in this country," wrote famed black sportswriter Wendell Smith in a 1946 Negro League yearbook that's part of the CAAM display. "This was an occasion of profound significance. ... the fixed color barrier came crashing down like a giant oak in a virgin forest."

We are reminded that when Robinson retired from the Dodgers the year before they moved to L.A., three of the 16 major-league teams still were all white.

We go back and read about how Latino citrus pickers in the Inland Empire not just bonded while playing for company-sponsored baseball teams, but it helped them unionize for better working conditions.

We digest this all, and want to learn more.

"The history of baseball within Los Angeles has not received the attention that humanities scholars have devoted to the evolution of the game in other cities, so it's often been eclipsed or virtually ignored," says Terry Cannon, executive director of the Pasadena-based Baseball Reliquary that collaborated with the CSLA on the Mexican Baseball exhibit.

"In this multi-cultural, multi-ethnic city, America's largest and most diverse melting pot, baseball created a unique sense of shared values, beliefs, customs and language in nearly every immigrant or displaced community that settled here. It provided stability and a permanence otherwise missing in their lives. It became the locus of an extraordinary outpouring of community fervor.

"Now, as former residents of these communities disperse or die, personal memories and histories disappear. The importance of these ongoing projects is a natural extension of the Reliquary's philosophy."

If Cannon and his group isn't committed to excavating, examining and exchanging ideas on the diverse and dynamic baseball chronicles of this region, then who will?

We volunteer to help pass it on.

WHAT'S GOING ON 

Exhibit: "Mexican-American Baseball in Los Angeles: From the Barrios to the Big Leagues"

Where: Cal State L.A.'s JFK Memorial Library's first floor north wing (free admission); Mon.-Thurs.: 8 a.m.-10p.m., Fri.: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat.: 9a.m.-7 p.m.; Sun.: 10 a.m.-8p.m.

Runs: Through June 9

More information: www.baseballreliquary.org; www.calstatela.edu, [phone].

Exhibit: "The Negro Baseball Leagues: The National Pastime in Black and White from 1967-1955"

Where: California African American Museum, 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, L.A. (free admission); Wed.-Sat.: 10a.m.-4 p.m.; first Sunday of each month: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Runs: Through Aug. 16

More information: www.caamuseum.org, [phone].

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) Slumping: Entering the Weekend, New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui was in a 2-for-19 skid with no RBIs in the past week.

- Bryan Fowler

(2) KOBE BRYANT

(3) TIM LEIWEKE

(4) LARRY BROWN

(5) STREAKING: Entering the weekend, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols had hit six homers and driven in 10 runs over his previous four games.

(6) - Frankie Muniz, Actor and long-time Clippers fan from "Malcolm in the Middle," who claims to someday want to own the franchise.

Box:

(1) WHAT'S GOING ON (see text)

(2) sunday punch

By Tom Hoffarth