DATE: Monday, August 4, 1997                TAG: 9708040101

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Bob Molinaro 

                                            LENGTH:   65 lines

IR MUSTANGS: THE LITTLE TEAM THAT COULD

The season that ended so well for a team of 9- and 10-year-old Indian River baseball players almost didn't begin.

Over the weekend, the band of Mustang all-stars went to Pleasant Garden, N.C., outside Greensboro, for a zone tournament.

This was after they already had won their district championship. And then the sectional. When they captured the regional tournament, the Mustangs were one step from the Pony Baseball World Series in Irving, Texas.

They didn't make it. The players are home now. But everyone associated with Indian River Pony Baseball, and anyone familiar with the obstacles the kids and parents had to overcome, has reason to feel good about the way it all worked out.

``It's extra special,'' Mustangs manager Bud McCarron says. ``We've come a lot farther than anyone thought we would.''

To realize just how far, it helps to know the story behind this season, how Indian River Pony Baseball overcame a traumatic turn of events.

``There was talk between seasons,'' says McCarron, ``that we might not even have a league this year.''

Why? Because the former treasurer for Indian River Baseball embezzled a reported $19,000 from the Little League.

Indian River Baseball, the smallest league in Chesapeake with about 400 players, found itself $10,000 in debt. At the end of the '96 season, there wasn't enough money left to hold a banquet or buy trophies for the players.

The former treasurer was sentenced in January. He was ordered by the court to repay the league at the rate of $750 a month.

It was too little too late for this year, though. Over the winter, the league needed more than $5,000 it didn't have simply to pay a sporting goods store. Facing the '97 spring start-up, Indian River was running on empty.

``The kids handled it OK,'' says McCarron. ``They just want to play ball and have fun. But it's been kind of rough on some of the parents.''

As McCarron's all-star team kept winning, parents and league officials had to raise funds on the fly. They scrambled to come up with travel expense money that was missing from the league treasury.

``Sometimes, we had only a couple of days to get the money,'' McCarron says.

McCarron, 42, is a layout inspector at the Ford Motor Co. plant. As a kid, he played for Indian River Pony Baseball. He saw the league grow to about 30 teams, then almost come apart because of the selfishness of one man.

``He's paying it back each month,'' McCarron says. ``But in the meantime, it still hurts the kids.''

When news of the embezzlement got out, Indian River benefited in small ways from the kindness of strangers. A group of children in Virginia Beach donated $217 raised from a yard sale. An Alabama businessman passing through Hampton Roads read about the league's misfortune and sent along a $100 gift.

The contributions were appreciated, but they didn't begin to put a dent in the problem.

With another season bearing down on them, league officials sought ways to economize. According to Kevin Riddick, McCarron's all-star assistant, the younger Pony players used rubber-center baseballs instead of the more traditional cork-center. It saved a few dollars.

``Some of the uniforms weren't the best, either,'' Riddick says.

By making do, Indian River gave the children another season of baseball. And in return, the all-stars delighted the community, going farther than anyone expected.

It is proof, perhaps, that the Pony league is rich, after all. Rich in spirit.

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