Westchester’s Myers Is Ahead of the Game

For those who want to see what a future major leaguer looks like at 16, watch D’Arby Myers play center field for Westchester.

His physical skills are immense. He’s 6 feet 3, 170 pounds, and the way he runs, throws, catches and hits would cause any scout to list him as a top prospect.

He also has a 4.0 grade-point average, with A’s in chemistry, U.S. history and American literature. A baseball player with brains. What an unbeatable combination.

But what shows that he can make it to the top of his profession is the way he plays the game. There’s never a swing in the batting cage that he doesn’t enjoy. There’s never a moment when he’s in uniform that he doesn’t feel as if he has found his life’s calling.

“It’s the sport I feel connected with,” he said. “I played all the other sports ... basketball, football, even hockey ... but there’s something about baseball that brings me joy inside. Since I was little, all I’ve wanted to do was play ball.”

At age 2, he broke a table throwing a ball inside his house. At 3, he broke a glass door swinging a bat in the house. At 16, he might break somebody else’s apartment window with balls flying far off his bat.

John Young, who scouted for 20 years and founded the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program, first saw Myers when he was 12. He said his skills have always been exceptional.

Myers hit a home run at Houston’s Minute Maid Park at 14 during the RBI World Series. But what Young admires most is Myers’ attitude.

“I’ve signed five All-Stars,” he said. “I’ve signed kids who had more ability but didn’t have the passion. He has the passion to get better and a respect for the game that others don’t have, and that’s why I think he’s going to make it.”

Polite, respectful and always a team player, Myers never goes unnoticed on the field because his mother, Rita, is usually nearby, shouting, lecturing and mentoring.

“I know my mom is the reason I’ve come this far and worked so hard,” he said. “When I do good, she’s there to cheer me on. When I do bad, she’s there to tell me what I did wrong.”

Rita is not shy about letting her only child know what she thinks.

“I’m like Venus and Serena’s father,” she said of the tennis-playing Williams sisters. “I’m the mother version.”

Myers is as dedicated to academics as he is to baseball.

“I need them both,” he said. “Take one away from me, and you’re taking a lot out of me.”

He reads baseball books, such as Jose Canseco’s recent tale of steroid use in the major leagues. “It gives me more inspiration to be better than them because I can show I didn’t take them,” he said.

He’s personable, humble and isn’t a showboat. He understands there’s a step-by-step process that needs to take place for him to fulfill his ambitions.

“When you see guys with a lot of ability and [they] act like superstars before they hit the age of 16, 17, that’s throwing your life away,” he said. “They’re going, ‘I don’t have to work hard,’ because they’re listening to their parents or whomever’s telling them, ‘You’re good, you’re this, you’re that.’ That kills me even more when I see someone with a lot of talent wasting it.”

As a junior at Westchester, Myers isn’t about to waste his talent. He has hit five home runs and routinely finds a way to influence a game on defense. Two weeks ago, he threw out a runner trying to score from second and made a spectacular running catch to take away a likely extra-base hit.

Myers makes plays that others his age just can’t. It’s a gift he intends to use for years to come.

“I just want to take my talent to the highest level I can,” he said.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.