YOU'RE OUT AT THE OLD BALLGAME THAT'S WHAT THREE LOCAL MEN ARE HOPING WILL HAPPEN SOON.

Byline: Eugene Tong Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - They have the enthusiasm and financial backing - they just need the right spot to build their own field of dreams.

The independent Golden Baseball League is trying to establish a professional franchise here for the 2007 season.

``Imagine a player that graduated from Hart High, goes to college, doesn't make it in the majors, plays for a Santa Clarita minor league team - he'll be a local hero,'' said Craig Duswalt, who is spearheading the effort.

The Pleasanton-based league just completed its inaugural season, with plans to expand throughout the Southwest over the next two years.

The eight teams competing this year include the Surf Dawgs of San Diego, the Fullerton Flyers and a traveling crew from Japan called the Samurai Bears.

David Caval, the league's chief executive officer and co-founder, said Santa Clarita seems ideal - it has a strong connection with the summer pastime through its high school and youth leagues, and the sought-after demographic of young upper-middle-income families.

All it needs is a place to play and sell concessions, including beer.

``That's the area Santa Clarita is deficient,'' Caval said. ``To really make it work, the third piece needs to be a facility. That's where we are focused on right now.''

It's a challenge that has turned Duswalt, general manager of the still-unnamed baseball team, into a developer.

``There are a million different ways to go right now,'' said Duswalt, who owns a modeling and advertising agency and is a director at Newhall's Repertory East Playhouse. ``We're in the infant stages of trying to acquire some land and build a stadium.''

Earlier proposals to house the team at College of the Canyons or the William S. Hart PONY Baseball and Softball Complex now seem like long shots because of beer-sale restrictions.

The college's foundation, which controls all alcohol sales at the college, can only grant permits 48 times a year to events that directly benefit the institution. An alcohol license for the PONY league complex might require extra scrutiny, since it's a youth facility, city planners said.

``All the efforts of converting an existing venue - the problem is serving beer,'' Duswalt said. ``It's definitely family-oriented, but it is part of baseball. They drink beer with their hot dogs.''

Caval estimates that each family of four visiting Golden League games spends about $40 on tickets and concessions. With admission at $5 a head, food and drink sales could make up at least half of each night's revenue.

Duswalt said he is searching for property and has pitched the idea to builders who might want to develop a 4,000-to-10,000-seat stadium. He must have a plan by November to make the 2007 season - it takes at least 18 months to build the stadium and to form and market a team.

``We envision building a stadium and someone building retail around it,'' he said. ``Maybe a hotel near there, maybe some retail shops that people can go to when they're off games - some kind of destination.''

Rick Gould, Santa Clarita's Parks, Recreation and Community Services director, agreed a local minor league has economic advantages.

``The cities that I've been in touch with in general look at minor league baseball as an economic engine that could help improve business in restaurants and hotels, that kind of thing,'' he said. ``And it provides family fun. It's fun to go to the game.''

Gould said past minor-league proposals in the city have struck out.

``You have to wait and sit back and wait for them to develop,'' he said. ``It's premature to say the city is committed to anything at this time. ... There has always been interest. You've got to get all your ducks in a row and get some work done.''

For Caval, the Golden League is a new spin on the old ball game.

``More and more people are seeing that the minor league level is where the old-time and traditional baseball, where the heart and soul, is kept,'' he said. ``With the major leagues, it's gotten so expensive for families to attend games, and it's difficult for children to connect to the players.

``Coming out of the game, 50 or 60 people won't remember the score. But you hear how 'My son got to dance with the mascot.' ... It's a family entertainment product.''

Caval and co-founder Amit Patel drafted the league while students at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. The league raised about $5 million in seed money from investors including ``Wheel of Fortune'' host Pat Sajak, who has a weekly baseball show on Internet radio. Sponsorship from grocery giant Safeway secured $3 million.

Caval then set up the teams in suburbs that he believed had an untapped baseball passion.

``The trend of the minors is to put minor league teams in the suburbs,'' he said. ``You're relatively close to major league area, maybe you're in the exurbs and suburbs, where it's sort of hard to get to a major game. California would be perfect for that.''

Average attendance this year is roughly 1,400 each game, Caval said. The break-even point is about 1,800 per game, which he hopes to hit by 2007, when the league could be expanded to 14 or 15 teams.

But for local accountant Lloyd Sreden, whose own son played for Hart High School's varsity baseball team, it's about more than the numbers.

``I think the kids can relate better to minor league players,'' said Sreden, a member of Duswalt's advisory committee. ``They play much harder. They're not afraid to get dirty - they have to get to the majors.''

Eugene Tong, [phone]

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Chad Kreuter, College of the Canyons baseball coach Chris Cota and Craig Duswalt are but three of the people pushing the formation of minor-league baseball teams in outlying suburbs.

David Crane/Staff Photographer