Dodgers Get the Message Across With 10-4 Win : World Series-Bound Club Trounces Vocal Mexican National Team in Exhibition Game

It didn’t take long to ascertain that a language barrier was going to pose formidable problems in Tuesday’s baseball game between the San Fernando Valley Dodgers and the Mexican national team. The first hint came during pregame warm-ups.

Dodger assistant coach Kevin Murphy, who is also the Valley College head coach, sent a towering drive off his fungo bat. In the outfield, Mexican outfielder Tirso Trunco was jogging. The ball and Trunco’s head appeared to be on a collision course.

“Heads up, heads up,” Murphy bellowed at Trunco, who heard the loud screaming and stopped and looked at Murphy. “Heads up,” Murphy shrieked again as the ball began its descent from about 200 feet.

Trunco tilted his cap back and then waved at Murphy. A second later the ball whistled past his ear, missing his skull by about a foot, and slammed into the ground. When Trunco returned to earth, he had become bilingual. Or at least he now understood what “heads up” means in English.

The Dodgers, who leave for the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan., on Saturday, won the game, 10-4. It was sponsored by Baseball Diplomacy, Inc., an organization headed by Andy Liberman of Santa Monica and set up to promote peace through baseball. Originally called Bats Not Bombs, Liberman’s group was formed last year and quickly organized a series of games between the Nicaraguan national team and several colleges in California.

Mexico, unlike Nicaragua, is on speaking terms with the United States. But a few more games like Tuesday’s contest at Cal State Northridge and that might change, too.

The game also featured a shouting contest between the non-English speaking Mexican squad and the non-Spanish speaking Dodgers that brought warnings to both sides. There were four balks that caused minor uproars--one resulted in the ejection of Dodger Manager Jim Benedict by a Mexican umpire--and three head-high pitches that sent batters face-first into the dirt.

But the most volatile incident occurred in the fifth inning when Dodger pitcher Mike Bodack balked home a run that tied the score, 4-4. Benedict charged the umpire and bellowed for 10 minutes, bringing catcalls from the Mexican dugout. As he finally turned to walk away, he said something that the Mexican umpire must have understood and was quickly bounced out of the game. Benedict again charged the umpire, tearing his own hat from his head and going nose to nose with the umpire before the other two umpires were able to restrain him.

Peace through baseball.

Tickets for the game were advertised at $7.50 each, which is 50 cents more than the box seats at Dodger Stadium, where the Los Angeles Dodgers played the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night. The ticket pricing that Liberman set up virtually guaranteed a slim crowd, but five minutes before the start of the game only five people were in the stands at Matador Field. The crowd eventually swelled to 43, but they were only charged $4 for admission.

The Dodgers, who won the Golden State League to clinch a berth in the NBC World Series, took a 3-0 lead in the second inning on run-scoring singles by Rene Rivera and Mike Cruz and a run-scoring balk. Mexico tied the score in the third off starter Darrin Beer, who was forced from the game in the fourth inning when he was struck on the right wrist by a line drive.

The Dodgers took a 4-3 lead in the fourth and broke the game open with a three-run fifth inning on RBI singles by Greg Fowble, Mike Bible and Lorenzo Lesky after Cruz led off with a double.

San Fernando Valley capped its performance in the sixth when Rick Allen hit a two-run homer and Bible followed with a shot over the same section of the left-field wall.

The Dodgers (28-6-1) will depart for Wichita, hoping to improve on last year’s seventh-place finish in the World Series. The team formally accepted a bid to the tournament Monday, despite being about $3,000 short of the $8,000 needed to meet expenses during the 13-day trip.