A CHRONICLE OF THE PASSING SCENE

Going Batty

These days--when businesses come and go in a heartbeat and all commercial land must be put to its highest and best use--it’s comforting to know that Buddy’s Bat-a-Way in Van Nuys is still up and swinging.

Tens of thousands of kids learned to keep their eye on the ball there and tens of thousands of Little League parents smile when they hear the name.

Buddy and Lee Blatt began looking for the first Buddy’s Bat-a-Way location when they arrived in Los Angeles from New York in 1958. Lee’s father, Decky Brigati, had designed an early pitching machine, the Pitchomat, and owned nine ranges in the New York area.

The first Southern California Buddy’s Bat-a-Way was opened in 1960 on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, but closed in 1967 when the Blatts lost their lease.

They quickly sought another location and settled in the industrial area of northern Van Nuys, where they are to this day.

“We’ve had them here as little as 3 and as old as, I don’t know, maybe 80,” Blatt said, “and these days, the girls are giving as good as the boys.”

Some major leaguers have taken their cuts at Buddy’s, too. Names such as Greg Goossen, Dusty Baker, Lee Lacy, Ernie Banks, and Orlando Cepeda, who was known to give kids informal batting lessons when he was in town.

Coffee Break

Decaffeinated doesn’t deliver the kick or give a morning wake-up call like real coffee, but it’s an important part of being health-conscious.

An informal survey shows that up to half of the dark brews available at flourishing local gourmet coffee shops these days have had the caffeine taken out.

For some, decaffeinated coffee’s the best of all possible worlds. For others, it’s like a beer drinker consuming near-beer: not the same.

“I miss having the help waking up in the morning,” said Janet Proctor of Agoura Hills, looking deeply into the vanilla nut cream java she was sipping at Coffee & Things after an exhausting shopping bout at the nearby Nordstrom in Topanga Plaza.

But Proctor said that since she started getting healthy and jogging in the morning, the cool apres-run shower did the same thing.

“And, of course, it’s a lot healthier all the way around,” she added.

Scott Abrams of Canoga Park couldn’t have agreed less. “You just shouldn’t fool around with some things,” he said, taking another satisfying drink of his black, caffeinated espresso.

“It’s like drinking near-beer or smoking filtered cigarettes, totally bogus,” he said.

The people around him looked to see if he was kidding. (He wasn’t.)

In the San Fernando Valley and other parts of Southern California, he’s out of sync.

At the 20-year-old Barclay’s Coffee & Tea Co. in Northridge, about 15 of the 50 coffees are decaf, but decaf sales are growing. And proprietor Jay Goldenberg says he sees a new trend.

“A lot of our hard-core clients are starting to blend regular and decaf into sort of a 50% decaf. They are become very creative with blending the different flavors as well,” he said.

Same at Ambrosia Coffee & Tea Co. in Studio City, where hazelnut and vanilla nut are fave raves, and all coffees that are caffeinated come with a decaf counterpart.

To Jane Porter of Encino, none of this means anything.

“I don’t care what coffee does or does not have in it,” she said firmly, after having just bought $35 of the stuff. “It is impossible to face the day without at least three cups.”

Mauis, Wowie!

You probably think that being a farmer means never having to be trendy, but what do you know?

Think papaya. Think kiwi. And now there’s the Maui onion craze.

If you look at the produce stands offering home-grown, you will realize that farmers aren’t just sticking to the old fruits and veggies. Maui onions grown in California are the happening vegetable now.

Dick Jackson of Jackson Produce, 20320 Vanowen St., Canoga Park, says Maui onions have been raised in these parts from seeds for almost three years. The popularity of the sweet onion is spreading like warm butter on corn on the cob.

John Forneris, who not only sells produce at Farmer John’s at 15200 Rinaldi St., Mission Hills, but grows much of what he sells, says the California Maui onion isn’t yet perfected, but it’s still good eating.

“I’m not sure that the growers have hit on the right time to plant the seeds for optimum flavor,” the third-generation Valley farmer said. “We’ve all been experimenting with planting at different times during the year.”

Both men say you can get Maui onions from Maui at upscale markets on a cost-prohibitive basis.

Forneris says his onions are, so far, not as sweet, but he sells them for about $5 for a 10-pound bag. The figures could reverse for the real thing.

Dry ‘n’ Flaky

It’s flaky. It’s disgusting. It’s humiliating.

But not to worry.

The enterprising Pat Hofmeister at Mon Image Salon in Palmdale can help get rid of the heartbreak of Palmdale Scalp.

According to Hofmeister, a lot of newcomers to the desert find adapting to the dry climate makes their hair and skin get the uglies.

She says that when the “dry and flakys” get people up in her neck of the high desert, she cures it with an herbal treatment that gets their oil glands functioning again.

Overheard

“You may say what you like about the wonders of coffee. I, personally, prefer Long Island iced tea.”

--Woman to her friend at coffee shop in Studio City