Prep baseball: A conversation

By Ed Piper, Jr.

I was able to chat with a righthander the other day about his just-completed high school season and his club play.

He had a microscopic 0.70 ERA on a San Dieguito Academy team that had to vie with the likes of powerhouses La Costa Canyon, which won the Avocado West title, and Torrey Pines, which has been in the news of late.

What I took away from the conversation with the amiable young man was his calm, unexcitable nature, at least in the setting in which I interacted with him in, and the fraternal nature of the sport of baseball.

People often either love baseball or hate it. The ones who loathe it complain that it is too slow, etc. I get it. As I have chronicled in these pages, my brother and I played baseball for 10 years. So I knew about long doubleheaders, with a Colt League game in one city and an American Legion one miles away in another.

I knew about all the time sitting around, waiting and watching. It's not basketball, with scoring every minute. As a field game, it is spread out. There are afternoons of shagging flyballs on the outfield grass. There are warmups, throwing catch with teammates, until formal drills begin.

But the pace of the game is also its strength. It allows for, and encourages, reflection, chats about the weather and a whole host of other things. I can picture Reed Farley, he of La Jolla High basketball fame, in his baseball days on the field at Muirlands Middle School earlier in his high school days before he gave the sport up. I can see him and his teammates smiling and interacting. That happens a lot in baseball.

Now, with this young man who I had the conversation with, he earned a 2-3 won-lost record on a Mustang varsity that finished 9-20, which is pretty remarkable--moreso in view of his outstanding ERA in 15 appearances, both starting and in relief.

"I'm a starter," he allowed when discussing his summer plans to play for the San Diego Hawks until mid-July or so this year. He may be used in relief on his club team, because those will be the opportunities to pitch he will be afforded. He plans to matriculate at San Diego Mesa College, right across from my family residence above Boyd Avenue--probably a mile or less to the campus, as the crow flies, in the fall.

I think of the wear-and-tear on this young man's arm after all the pitching he has done. He didn't indicate he has had any arm troubles, which is fortunate. Some of us don't make it that far without injury. (I hurt my arm playing eighth grade softball at lunch at school from not warming up--not the proverbial curve ball or number of pitches.)

The curve ball theory, which was much in vogue when I was a youth pitcher, is debunked now. A recent study I read said the major concern for young pitchers' arms is the pure number of pitches they have thrown, no matter what kind of pitch. The arm can only sustain a certain number of throws with an overhand motion. (In an earlier column, I noted the ability of softball pitchers like the Vikings' Kyra Ferenczy to pitch endlessly with an underarm motion without suffering damage.)

I told this positive young man about the baseball options we had back in my days: youth league, Pony League, Colt League, then American Legion in Camarillo, California, circa 1965-1971.

Now American Legion doesn't seem to be prominent in San Diego, if active at all. There are multitudinous other organizations and club teams.

This young man said, "There are club teams that pop up everywhere. You don't even know where they came from." My experience observing coaches in school and out is that some are good, some are not as good. Most have the young players' interests at heart. Unfortunately, some seem to go on a power trip in their desire to build a great program in competition with other programs.

My overall point here is the positive aspect of baseball, this young man, and young people who work at a sport or other skill to grow in that sport or skill, to have a good experience on a team, and to move through the teen years maturing as people and expanding their horizons. Adults are not only resources for these young people, but in their proper role as the older people in the picture, mentors, guides, and encouragers.