DATE: Saturday, August 16, 1997             TAG: 9708160588

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:   82 lines

FOR THE ROADSTERS, THE LIMBO IS A DANCE, NOT A FATE

Before the big game they, well, limboed - right there in front of the dugout, a bunch of laughing Virginia Roadsters shimmying under a bat as music blared from the ballpark speakers.

Then, as they were introduced for their last home appearance of the regular season, each Roadster received a red rose as she ran out to the third-base line, a gift from a secret admirer.

That's what Thursday night was at War Memorial Stadium. Limbo and laughs. Hearts and flowers. A standing ovation from fans 1,000 strong, then an hour of autographs to return the favor, following a 9-2 trouncing of Durham, the Roadsters' quarry in the Women's Professional Fastpitch softball playoff chase.

A fine farewell.

Unless the Roadsters gain enough victories this week in Charlotte and Tampa to claim the second and final playoff berth, they'll not see their War horse of a stadium, gussied up this season with wide wooden planks for new bleachers, until next May.

But they will return, of that the Roadsters are certain, thanks to another million dollars from WPF corporate sugar daddy ATT Wireless.

Some teams, ignored by their citizenry, envious of the Roadsters' league-best average attendance of 866, may move. Some things operational might change - tweaking the schedule to improve travel conditions, bumping rosters from 15 to 17 players.

Lynn O'Linski, though, she'll be back as is. Swears to it, despite the frenetic life the 41-year-old coach led this summer, flying home to Chicago before off days a half-dozen times to tend to her athletic director chores at St. Xavier University.

``Well, I had to hire a basketball coach, and a defensive coordinator,'' O'Linski says, smiling. ``It was tough. But I'd do it again.''

When her fall season is through at St. Xavier, O'Linski will have coached softball from Jan. 15 to Oct. 15. Bring it on again, she says.

Already, she is plotting the next edition of Roadsters, pondering how to acquire the front-line pitcher and three power hitters - the Roadsters have hit just three home runs - she wants.

Count Priscilla Welch in, too. Way in. But for the grace of the WPF, Welch, 22, would have played in Peoria this summer, and some of the other towns near her home of Pekin, Ill., patrolling centerfield for the Pekin Lettes, a top-flight amateur team.

Named for a bolt manufacturer, the Pekin Lettes have lost their spark plug, a former Illinois State star, for good. Or ``as long as the league stays around,'' says Welch, who is battling for the WPF lead in hits.

Not that Welch wouldn't mind seeing the Roadsters mix in an airplane among their bus trips now and then - the Pekin Lettes fly, for goodness sake. But to get paid - WPF salaries range from $800 to $3,000 a month - to play and be showered with hometown affection isn't the world's worst fate.

``Any player would want to come back to this stadium and these fans,'' Welch said.

For the Roadsters, this season provided a foundation desperately needed for female athletes, even in the start-up year of two pro women's basketball leagues.

O'Linski noticed it pretty quickly; in the void of practical pro experience, without wiser heads to lead by example, she and her team often went seat-of-the-pants, surprised by things they encountered.

The Roadsters, for instance, didn't arrive as fundamentally schooled in their sport as O'Linski assumed they'd be. It was a hurdle, but now O'Linski has a frame of reference. Too, an attitude adjustment is in order, she says, for the betterment of their team and league.

``The No. 1 reason women play is for the affiliation,'' that is, a team or family concept, O'Linski says. Women aren't necessarily as understanding of the personnel moves that must be made to win, she says. It gets in the way.

``This was a high-maintenance group,'' O'Linski says. ``It's not that we have to think more like men. I think we have to think more like professionals. But there was no history. No one's ever had this experience.''

In other words, the Roadsters have yet to learn that real pros don't limbo before ballgames.

Then again, isn't that what pioneering is all about? ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

NHAT MEYER

The Virginian-Pilot

Roadsters coach Lynn O'Linski vows that she will return and already

is tallying up the lessons learned during the team, and league's,

debut season. ``It was tough. But I'd do it again,'' she says.

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