CALIFORNIA ALBUM : Simple Pleasures : It’s not just parents who attend the Little League regional tournament in San Bernardino. Thousands of fans return year after year because of the friendly atmosphere and the innocence of youth baseball.

SAN BERNARDINO —  For 10 days and 10 nights each August, minivans and family sedans chock-full of passengers snake their way up a dusty access road on a pilgrimage that transforms 27 arid, sparsely populated acres into the Little League Mecca of the West Coast.

Drawn by the Western Regional Tournament, fans flock to Al Houghton Stadium from all over the country to watch some of the West’s most talented 11- and 12-year-old baseball players vie for a shot at the championship.

The winning team--last week, Long Beach took the title for the second year in a row--gets a trip to Williamsport, Pa., and the Little League World Series. But until that defining moment when a champion emerges, the stadium north of town becomes a haven for thousands who devotedly drive here each year for the simple pleasure of watching kids play baseball.

Willing to brave heat, smog and the lower-back fatigue that comes from sitting on concrete bleachers, many come because they enjoy the innocence of youth baseball at a time when multimillion-dollar salaries have changed the grown-up version forever.

Many others are mothers and fathers who have volunteered countless hours at dingy baseball fields around the country and are attracted to the festival-like atmosphere here as a giant end-of-the-year party to be savored.

“Little League is a way of life,” said John L. Lally, assistant director of the regional tournament. “I got involved with my kids 22 years ago and I’ve never outgrown it.”

Lally began as a coach in Torrance and now is one of five full-time employees of Little League Baseball Inc. at this regional site, one of four in the country.

Adjacent to Interstate 215, the $5.5-million facility offers air-conditioned dorms for 250 players and coaches of the 14 teams, a swimming pool, cafeteria, administrative offices, practice fields and the 8,000-seat Houghton Stadium.

The land is leased from the city of San Bernardino for $1 a year. Admission to all games is free.

Houghton Stadium, completed in 1971, played host to standing-room-only crowds in excess of 12,000 a day this year. On Thursday, a crowd of about 14,500--the largest in the 23 years that the regional has been held here--watched Long Beach beat San Ramon.

Last week, spectators, many in athletic jackets with the names of their local leagues emblazoned on the front, pitched blankets on the grassy slope behind the outfield fences, enjoyed picnics and watched the ballgames. Others braved lines six abreast and 12 deep at one of several snack bars, where thick, black smoke wafted from portable grills.

Vendors hawked padded cushions, which took the sting out of sitting on the benches.

Each night, about 800 volunteers stepped forward for everything from security patrols to selling snow cones.

The spirit of volunteerism was catching. When the snack bar was overrun by thirsty crowds last week, Lally put out a call for help over the public address system. Four people came forward immediately and several more showed up minutes later.

Bobbi Webb of Riverside worked in the souvenir stand behind right field. This was her 11th trip here, but her first as a volunteer.

“There’s this thing about this event,” she said. “It starts when your kids play baseball and you just keep coming.”

If you ask Midge Thornton, 74, of Seal Beach, “this thing” is the warm feeling of reunion with old friends year in and year out.

“This is like home to me,” she said. “The people are wonderful.”

Thornton sat in a VIP pavilion behind the right field line, not far from where her husband, Robert, was killed in 1988 when a tractor tumbled onto him as he helped erect a building. His death gave his widow even more resolve to be a part of the tournament, for which she has logged 40 years of service.

Stan and Joanne Miller of Juneau, Alaska, have been volunteers for 22 years.

“This is our vacation,” Joanne Miller said. “We park our motor home somewhere on the North 40 (behind the field) and just stay here.”

Accustomed to cooler climes, Stan Miller recounted times when the dog days of summer tested his resolve.

“It can get hotter than the hub of Hades out here, but then, you get involved with all these people and coming back is like old home week. You get to see old friends and mingle with the kids.”

Children mingled at two pin-trading tents, played catch on an expanse of grass behind the stadium, or bought and sold trading cards from one of four vendors. A hot item this year, according to 14-year-old Nicholas Felter of Covina, was the 1992 Long Beach All-Stars world championship pin, featuring a red troll.

“Doing this thing is fun,” he said.

Don Mette of Santa Fe Springs, an umpire and 22-year volunteer who saw every one of the more than two dozen games played this year, believes the tournament will continue to grow in popularity.

“There is a friendly atmosphere here. People are polite,” Mette said. “And the games are better to watch than the pros because the kids are playing the game the way it should be: with their hearts, not for the bucks.”