The third baseman had been smoking a cigarette, the third base coach sipping a can of Keystone Light, when the crack of a bat sent a ball hurtling somewhere overhead and into the late-night dark.

Out of the left-field shadows popped Steven Stamkos, the NHL all-star, tracking the drive against the inky summer sky.

He broke quickly, sprinted hard, leaped high, and opened his glove to catch the slicing liner.

“He's pretty good, huh?” said someone in the darkness.

Yes, said a fellow witness, he's pretty darn good.

This was the scene at Centennial Park in Markham this week, when Stamkos, the video-game cover boy for the Tampa Bay Lightning, made one of his occasional appearances as an outfielder for the Green Beys, a team in Markham 4-Pitch Hardball.

What on earth was the organically fed superathlete, he of the freshly signed $37.5 million contract, doing among the pot bellies and double chins of his hometown's best beer league?

For the 21-year-old Stamkos, who played on three provincial championship baseball teams for the Markham Mariners from about age 11 to 13, the grand old game has long been a passion.

“He could have been better at baseball than hockey,” said Adam Velocci.

“His dad wanted him to play baseball, but he loves hockey,” said Velocci, the Green Beys' third baseman who also played on those championship squads.

Said Chris Stamkos, Steven's father: “Steven was smaller when he was young. Although he was good in hockey, I did think he had more natural instincts in baseball ... But then he grew, and he got more serious with hockey.”

On a night when a group of NHLers was taking batting practice with the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre, Stamkos chose to take his rips here, away from the TV cameras and the major leaguers.

He'll tell you it's because his team is made up of friends he has known since his days at Markham's Brother Andre Catholic High School. The Green Beys are named in tribute of a school chum — Matthew Benincasa, “Bey” to his pals — who died in a car crash in 2009.

NHL contracts prohibit players from partaking in a long list of sports not named hockey, including baseball, lacrosse, wrestling and boxing, without the club's written consent. But consent, especially in the case of an all-world talent pursuing a near-and-dear hobby, generally isn't denied.

“It's a nice way to hang out with my old buddies,” Stamkos said.

His friends say Stamkos still slums it because, for all the endorsement deals and mega millions that have come his way as a pro, he's still the same humble guy they've always known — except he's been known to buy them gifts.

Last year he sprung for matching black-and-green cleats to match the team's jerseys. (He took a ribbing when the shoes arrived with pink laces. “The laces looked white on the website,” Stamkos said.)

He also foots the bill for the supply of wooden bats, and for the post-game bar tab.

“But only if we win,” said first baseman Sean Bowen, son of Leafs' play-by-play broadcaster Joe Bowen, said. “Steven likes to win ... But seriously, nothing has changed from when we were in high school.

“In all honesty, we've never talked about the new contract once. I mean, some of us were pushing him to come to the Leafs ... I've told him, ‘I'll become your agent and bring you here.' And he just laughs about it.”

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Maybe if Stamkos was a Leaf — on the diamond he wears jersey No. 17 in homage of a childhood hero named Wendel — the crowd at the park would have been bigger. There were, for most of the game, precisely three spectators in the bleachers, five if you count the two seniors doing tai chi behind the backstop, oblivious to the action.

Stamkos's summertime presence isn't exactly a secret in these parts. His stats are on the league's website, where he is on record as a .608 hitter with eight home runs in 10 games.

Those numbers, as gaudy as they look, don't even lead the team. The four-pitch game is played with a hardball, but the rules are a unique hybrid of slo-pitch and MLB. Pitchers are provided by the team that's batting, which means the deliveries are served like meatballs, soft and appetizing.

The league, never mind the occasional on-field smoking and swigging, is no drunken mess. There are former U.S. college players dotting the lineups. NHLers Raffi Torres and Stephen Weiss have taken at-bats, too.

Stamkos, for a dabbler, has made an impression. On the night in question, he wasn't his usual .608 self, only 2-for-5. But on his final time up, he connected on a three-run home run to left field, clearing the fence some 250 feet away with many feet to spare.

Statement made, he also made an assortment of catches, at one point diving on his chest to snag a sinking flare. He even did the left fielder's dirty work, hopping the fence to retrieve home-run balls, disappearing into the trees to find another foul ball and another.

As for that line drive, he tracked to the warning track over the smoker and the drinker, he caught it with remarkable ease, not to mention air time.

Said the league's commissioner, Matt Crawford, watching in awe: “When you're a good athlete, you're just good.”

Despite Stamkos's late home run, the Green Beys lost 18-11, continuing a six-game losing streak with Stamkos in the lineup.

Self-deprecation was the order of the evening. When a friend of a teammate approached Stamkos to pose for a post-game snapshot, the NHLer introduced himself: “I'm Steven. By the way ... I'm sorry you had to watch that.”

It was after 11 p.m. Many of the Green Beys were due at work the next morning. The old friends ambled toward the parking lot.

“As much as we stink right now,” Bowen said, “we're having a fun time doing it.”

Said Stamkos with a laugh: “We're good at stinking.”

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