Going Batty to Get Noticed : Gonzalez Can Hit With Best, but Scouts Doubt His All-Around Ability

Ruben Gonzalez of Rancho Santiago College has to wonder what it takes to get the attention of professional baseball scouts.

Despite hitting .428 with a school-record 11 home runs last season, and winning the Big Stick award as the best hitter in California community colleges, he was passed over in the June 1985 professional draft.

“Scouts have an opinion that he can only hit and that he can’t run or play in the field,” Don Sneddon, the Dons coach. “He represents no problem in the field for us. For a big man he is very agile, he’s not a slug.

“He’s not slow. He’s not fast, but he’s just not slow.”

Finally, in January, Gonzalez was drafted by the Minnesota Twins, but in a round so low, the club did not even tell him the number. Gonzalez, a sophomore, turned down the offer, choosing to finish his career at Rancho Santiago instead.

“It didn’t really bother me to not to get drafted last summer,” Gonzalez, 19, said. “I wanted to play here anyway. I just want to work and keep improving so I’ll be successful on the next level.”

After this season, if he does not receive a professional offer to his liking, Gonzalez could attend a four-year college. Cal State Fullerton, Arizona State and San Diego State are recruiting him.

“His bat will take him to the pros eventually,” Sneddon said. “His swing is so compact that he isn’t the type of hitter to go into a slump. He makes a lot of contact and hit the ball hard more often than not.”

Last season as a designated hitter, he struck out only 12 times in 152 at-bats.

This season, he has returned to first base, where he earned all-Freeway League honors as a senior at Buena Park High School in 1984. Gonzalez acknowledges his defense needs work, but he spends most of his time on hitting.

In fact, he’s somewhat a fanatic about it.

Besides taking batting practice with the team, Gonzalez has a net in his backyard where he drives the ball from a batting tee.

Gonzalez even works on his hitting without a bat, making a mental picture of a pitch and how he will react to it.

All the dedication has paid off. Gonzalez is hitting .438 this season, and on Saturday, he hit his fourth home run of the season. Gonzalez has 15 career home runs, tying the Rancho Santiago mark set by Ed Amelung (1978-79).

“After high school I never thought I would be able to hit for a really high average again,” Gonzalez said. “But, last season I proved to myself I could hit college pitching. It took a while to learn my strike zone and to adjust to the pitches. But I’ve done that. This season I’m even more confident.”

In fact, he’s confident enough to set a lofty goal of batting .450.

Gonzalez had little trouble hitting high school pitching at Buena Park where he was a three-year varsity starter. His senior season he was one hit away from a .500 season, finishing with a .492 average and five home runs.

Gonzalez first attracted Sneddon’s attention in the 1984 Orange County North-South All-Star Game by hitting a ground-rule triple into the right-center field corner at Glover Stadium in Anaheim.

“He hit that ball over 390 feet in the air and that got my attention,” Sneddon said. “After that we got him in our program and he had an average winter (he hit near .260) but then when the season started . . . “

Gonzalez started 13 for 13 including four home runs in the first five games. The only lack of drama in the story was how the streak ended--no line drive caught by a diving shortstop. He didn’t even hit the ball hard. Instead, he grounded out softly to first against the USC junior varsity team.

“I was kind of down when the streak ended,” Gonzalez said. “But. like one of the assistant coaches told me, ‘You can’t hit .1000.’ ”

Last season, with Vince Shinholster hitting behind him, Gonzalez could not be pitched around. Shinholster set a school record with 54 RBIs.

This season, Gonzalez is highly visible. He’s alone on the cover of the team’s media guide, and he bats fourth. Sneaking into the batter’s box is impossible.

Early this season, pitching around Gonzalez was popular. He became impatient and started to swing at bad pitches. Now, with Steve Scarsone (.404) and Matt Beltran (.395) in Rancho Santiago’s lineup, there is no pitching around Gonzalez . . . again.

“Ruben’s success this season depends on the people in front of and in back of him,” Sneddon said. “Pitchers are being too fine on him but with the other guys hitting they can’t.”