San Diego (special) --Even though the San Diego Padres are named after the Catholic clergy who established missions in California, two ranking officials in the baseball club's front office know gornisht about priests but plenty about rabbis.

They are Dr. Charles Steinberg, the National League club's executive vice president and resident dentist, and Alan Ostfield, vice president and general counsel. The two vice presidents met Wednesday, June 30, with members of the L3 group of the American Jewish Committee to talk about baseball as well as about how Judaism has helped to shape their lives. L3 stands for "live, learn and lead," and is a group

Marc Wolfsheimer presents Charles Steinberg a peace symbol to complete Austin Power outfit

of Jewish professionals in their 20s through 40s, according to spokesman Marc Wolfsheimer. Padres President Larry Lucchino popped his head into the meeting which occurred a few hours before the Padres defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-2, winning their 12th consecutive game and in the process sending Kevin Brown, baseball's highest paid pitcher (with a seven-year $105 million contract), to the showers.

Steinberg recalled that when Lucchino successfully campaigned for student office in high school in Baltimore "to appeal to the Jewish demographics of his class, he was known to wear a yarmulke."

This particular evening the Italian-American was wearing an eye patch -- but not because he had hurt his eye or was doing a Moshe Dayan impersonation for the benefit of his Jewish visitors. It was Austin Powers night at Qualcomm Stadium, in honor of the popular movie starring Mike Myers. Many members of the Padre staff were dressed as characters in the movie. Steinberg had on the gaudy clothes of title character "Austin Powers," while Lucchino wore a turtleneck and the eye patch worn by a character known as "Number Two" -- an assistant to "Dr. Evil." Attorney Ostfield was dressed casually but normally. The mood in such circumstances was light, prompting Steinberg to observe: "This is unusual but having some fun in a ballpark is not." In response to L3's chairman, Greg Stein (who is district director for Congressman Brian Bilbray, R-San Diego), Steinberg told the group: "If the question is 'how do two Jewish boys -- one from Baltimore (Steinberg) and one from Pittsburgh (Ostfield) -- end up working for baseball teams, I still don't know. But it was a guarantee for both of us, probably, that if we were going to go into baseball we still would have our professions, so I am a dentist and he is a lawyer." Steinberg said while in high school he got to work for the Baltimore Orioles as an unpaid intern and "they had me do

Alan Ostfield, top, and Larry  Lucchino meet with AJC group

things like cut out articles about the team; paste them in scrapbooks, and stamp the names of the players onto slides, and then I got promoted into being able to drive those slides over to the TV stations."He was asked to return the following summer, this time earning miniumum wage, "to move the boxes around to the gates on give-away days, so when you come on jersey night, I moved that box."

One year he worked in the front office "doing statistics for our manager, Earl Weaver, and they saw that I knew how to do basic arithmetic. I am not sure if we had calculators -- they were new -- but all the statistics were hand-done with my Bic pen and a piece of paper and I would copy them down." Then came such added responsibilities as "scoreboard writing, music selection over the months and they asked me to come back the next year, the next year, and the next, and each summer I thought it was the last. "

While going to dental school, Steinberg practiced on the Oriole team, prompting him to hope to become a dentist as well for the Baltimore Colts football team and to various college sports teams in the area. But the Colts moved away, trashing that marketing plan. 

Eventually the Orioles asked him to become the team's public relations director. He started the team's entertainment and human relations departments. After Lucchino became the Orioles' president, Steinberg helped him develop the Camden Yards ballfield in Baltimore's downtown.

Steinberg said he told Lucchino that people in Baltimore would never go downtown because they all lived in the suburbs. Lucchino however insisted that downtown was where a ballpark belonged. "Well he was right and I was wrong," Steinberg conceded to the AJC group. "He came out to San Diego and I followed him, and we are on this journey to do it again."

Once again, he said, they disagreed on the location of a new ballpark. Steinberg said he thought it would make more sense to build it in northern San Diego County and thereby attract fans from Orange County as well as San Diego County. But Lucchino once again insisted on a downtown ballpark, for which land is now being assembled by San Diego's Centre City Development Corporation.

Ostfield said that he went to work for a Washington D.C. law firm which represented the Dallas Cowboys, and did a variety of tasks for the football team including licensing work, anti trust work and collective bargaining. He later switched from the law firm to the job as in-house counsel for the Padres.

"Here I do a variety of things-- legal, business, baseball, all of our radio and television deals... And the new ballpark project," said Ostfield. He said that in some instances, as with the new ballpark, his job is to work with outside law firms like that of Paul Meyer (Latham & Watkins). Meyer also serves as the AJC chapter's president. 

In addition, Ostfield said, "I do all our licensing work -- if people want permission to use the Padre players' likenesses or the Padre logo. I spend about half my time doing baseball operation activities. I negotiate all or most of our player contracts; I get involved in trades. ..."

Asked about the $105 million contract that Dodger owner Rupert Murdoch paid to lure Brown from the Padres after last year's pennant-winning season, Ostfield said that at one point the Padres had offered $60 million to Brown, but had never thought about anything approaching $105 million. 

Stacie Bresler, an L-3 member who also serves as coordinator of the Israel Center at the United Jewish Federation, asked Steinberg and Ostfield to discuss their Jewish community activities.

Ostfield said he had been very involved in Boston while he was in law school. "I worked at some Jewish day camps and coached some Jewish little league teams," he said. In Washington D.C., he did "some similar things." In San Diego, he said, he has not yet become very involved. 
A newlywed, he and his wife Jennifer (who is an aide to state Sen. Dede Alpert) were married in a ceremony officiated by Rabbi Dana Magat, and have shared holiday meals with AJC Regional Director Gary Rotto and his wife Kathleen. 

Steinberg said "Judaism is a critical part of my life and it is a central core not manifested much on a daily basis at work or visible to others. But it is deep and central to me."

He said he grew up in a Conservative congregation in Baltimore, went through Torah school, and that Judaism is "a big part as to how I approach any decision in daily life.

"If you are familiar with Pirke Avot, "Ethics of the Fathers," that had a strong impact on me when I studied that in the 11th grade. My sister who became very frum (religiously observant) bought me the full set. And I still sit and read that. I think it provides so much guidance about how you treat people.

"But I haven't done much in the community--other than when we are in a charitable giving meeting of the Padres to accommodate requests, anything that is Jewish-related, they say 'Charles what do you want to do?'"