AUBURN - The food was served fast and delicious, one one-liner followed another, and applause and laughter filled the room inside the Sunset Restaurant, while outside the snow softened.

The topic, of course, was baseball at the Auburn Doubledays' third annual Hot Stove Dinner, an entirely benevolent mixture of food, folks and fun, to borrow a phrase from another all-American institution.

Nearly 200 people filled the banquet room at the Sunset to bid on dozens of sports memorabilia items in a silent auction, gulp down chicken and roast beef, and listen to guest speakers Carl Gutelius, the team's new general manager and emcee for the night; Dennis Holmberg, the Doubledays' manager for a fourth year this coming season; his new pitching coach Tom Signore; ex-major league pitcher Frank DiPino; and Doubledays board of directors members Tom Ganey and Leo Pinckney.

All the while, a slideshow of local photographer Glenn Gaston's countless photographs of the local nine in action played on.

Proceeds from the auction, a 50-50 raffle and the dinner went to the Hillside Family of Agencies, the New York-Penn League Charitable Foundation and the Leo Pinckney Scholarship Fund. The auction item that drew the highest bid, at $350, were four box seat tickets to a Yankees home game.

The emotional highlight of the evening came when Pinckney came to the podium, to a standing ovation, and began to speak of an original member of the board of directors, Vince Klein, who helped bring a Yankees farm team to Auburn in 1957 and was instrumental in keeping the franchise afloat through decades of shoestring operations.

Pinckney remarked that Klein is still the first in line for Doubledays season tickets, and for hot dogs and peanuts at all the home games.

The presentation of a plaque in Klein's name, from the city of Auburn by Mayor Tim Lattimore and city council member Robert Hunter, was all a complete surprise to Klein.

"This was totally unexpected," he said. "All I can say is I've enjoyed every minute of it."

When DiPino came to the podium, he brought baseball to the forefront along with him.

In a question and answer format conducted by Gutelius, the Camillus native, whose professional career began with the Milwaukee Brewers' farm club in Newark, in 1977 (under Holmberg's managerial debut), told tales of his 13-year career in the majors as a lefthanded middle reliever.

Among them, DiPino related how he was credited with the win at the first night baseball game at Wrigley Field, in 1988, how the Mets' Howard Johnson was the hitter he had the toughest time getting out, and what his reaction was when the Brewers gave the undrafted youngster a tryout in Newark and asked him what he would say if they were to offer him a contract.

"My answer was, 'Give me a pen,'" DiPino said.

Signore, another Central New Yorker from Fairmount, immediately exhibited a quirky sense of humor to the local faithful.

He acknowledged that he had offers to coach elsewhere (he has served eight years as a pitching coach in the Marlins and Expos systems), but joked that he returned to this area "because my wife told me to."

Holmberg, the night's final speaker, arrived in Auburn from his Florida home for the third straight year to lead the Doubledays youth baseball clinic and headline the Hot Stove Dinner.

Holmberg related stories from his 28 years of managing in the minor leagues, including some of the best players he has managed, such as Fred McGriff, Cecil Fielder, Shawn Green, Carlos Delgado, Tony Fernandez, Pat Borders and Gorman Thomas.

Asked by Gutelius what separates the cream of the crop from the many players he has coached, Holmberg answered, "It's the heart, the attitude, the makeup."

Holmberg also noted that his company on the list of the winningest active managers in the minors includes four of his former players from the Toronto organization: Pat Kelly, Omar Malave, Rocket Wheeler and Marty Peavey.

"I guess I must be doing something right," he said.