THE DAYS OF THE JACKLE : Hitting Baseballs Is What Sets Cypress’ James Jackle Apart From Others

James Jackle is one of those players who makes hitting look so easy, so effortless, that you forget it’s just about the most difficult thing to do consistently in all of sports.

Thirty-nine times in 89 at-bats this season, he has slowly made his way from the on-deck circle, taken a deep breath and then let loose his smooth swing to get a base hit.

But Jackle’s success--a .438 average, 7 home runs, 23 RBIs and 14 doubles--belies the fact that he is more of a self-made player than a natural talent.

Sure, the 6-foot 2-inch, 190-pound Cypress College infielder was born with broad shoulders, arms like ship cables and great hand-eye coordination, but not the textbook stance, the proper grip or the ability to hit a curve. Those things came only through hard work and practice, which, in addition to his statistics, set Jackle apart from others.

There is hardly an hour in a day when he isn’t engaged in some physical drill or mental exercise in order to become a better hitter. Besides the daily practices at school, Jackle goes to a local batting cage for an hour the night prior to each game, whacks a tire with a bat in his backyard three times a week, swings two to three bats in his room every day, watches videotapes made by his brother, Charles, of himself hitting a couple of times each week and spends a few moments each day visualizing himself hitting a baseball.

This kind of diligence even impresses Scott Pickler, Cypress’ coach, who is known for his demanding work ethic.

“That’s the thing about James,” he said. “He’s such a hard worker. Every practice, it doesn’t matter how well he’s doing, he asks me to stay after we’re done and throw him some extra batting practice.”

The reason Jackle, a former All-Southern Section player at Fullerton High School, is so single-minded these days he thinks he has something to prove. After his senior season of 1983 at Fullerton in which he hit .420, Jackle was one of Southern California’s most highly recruited prep baseball players.

He narrowed his collegiate choices to USC and Cal State Fullerton, before signing with the Titans. He decided to redshirt his first year and was looking forward to this, his freshman season, when Fullerton’s star outfielder, John Fishel, decided to move to third base. Jackle had played shortstop in high school but was being groomed to play third by Titan Coach Augie Garrido before Fishel made his move.

That was Jackle’s notice to move on. He immediately thought of playing for Pickler at Cypress, gave the first-year coach a call in January and his mission had begun.

Jackle told Pickler that he wanted to play one season of community college baseball and then would want to move on again to a four-year school if his statistics were good enough.

It looks as if his stay at Cypress will be for one year.

“I want very much to play at a Division 1, four-year school,” said Jackle, who is playing first base and occasionally second and third for Cypress. “My goal right now is to finish hitting .500, and if I do that, I think I’ll get a scholarship.”

Jackle sounds as if he has reason to be bitter about his year at Cal State Fullerton, but he’s not. He claims that the coaching he received from Garrido and the opportunity to workout daily with a team that won the national championship benefited him greatly.

“Augie Garrido did a lot for me,” Jackle said. “Playing with a team as good as Fullerton let me know what weaknesses I did have, and Augie helped me get over them. I was stepping up at the plate and holding the bat wrong, and he helped me straighten out both problems.”

If Jackle has a weakness, community college pitchers have not discovered it. Since opening day, he’s been on what he says is the hottest streak of his life.

Up until last week, his biggest hit had came in a South Coast Conference game against Santa Ana, in which he hit a dramatic two-run home run off Mike Schwabe to give Cypress a 9-8 win. But he upstaged the performance last week in the Allan Hancock Tournament at Santa Maria.

In the first-round of the tournament, Jackle’s RBI double gave the Chargers a 3-2 win over College of the Canyons.

Then came the Day of the Jackle.

In the second round of the tournament, Jackle went 5 for 6, including the decisive hit in the 11th inning, to give Cypress an 8-7 victory over Taft. Cypress beat Hancock the next day in the championship game, 14-6, and even though Jackle was not one of the offensive stars that game, he was a unanimous choice as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Situations such as the first two games of the Hancock Tournament, when the game is at stake, are situations in which Jackle excels, and that’s because he never lets himself lose control.

Whenever he comes to bat, whether its the first inning or the bottom of the ninth, Jackle maintains the same relaxed demeanor. He is confident that he always will get a hit, and that comes in part from his daily visualization practice.

Instead a daydreaming between at-bats, Jackle imagines himself hitting the ball solidly, over and over, in his mind. And he brings that power of concentration to the plate and usually the result is the same as in his mind, a hit.

“After I make an out, I never get upset,” Jackle said. “I just get more determined to get a hit next time up, and I think about doing it. I see the ball, see myself swinging the bat and it helps me to relax when I really do come to the plate.”

What Pickler admires so much about his star hitter is not so much his mental prowess but his discipline.

“Some good hitters get anxious and will swing at pitches that they shouldn’t swing at,” he said. “But James won’t. Up at the tournament, he walked six or seven times because they weren’t giving him anything to hit. He won’t swing unless it’s his pitch.”