David Holdridge Had Tough Breaks, Now He’s Making Pitch for Stardom : He Quickly, Quietly Wins for Ocean View

Few people who saw David Holdridge during his 10th summer would have guessed they were looking at a future major league pitching prospect--either as a right- or left-hander.

After all, the kid had a cast on either arm. You could say that he got his first break falling out of a tree in his grandmother’s yard.

Dutiful boy that he was, he broke the remaining arm trying to keep his cast from getting wet when he slipped on a rock in the water at summer camp.

Looking back on it, Judy and Allan Holdridge think it’s rather funny. Their son had all the childhood qualifications for a stunt-man-to-be.

Except for the flamboyant personality. His family describes Holdridge as “serious.”

His baseball coach, Bill Gibbons of Ocean View High School, says Holdridge “doesn’t seek the limelight.”

“You always have a few (players) that make you say, ‘Why me?’ and they put you through the wringer,” Gibbons said. “He’s not one of those. He’s not a character.

“He has a lot of friends, he does things a parent could be proud of, he works hard in school and he’s dependable. . . . He always comes to workouts on time.

“If that’s boring, send me more bores! I love those bores.”

The professional baseball scouts find Holdridge’s fastball, curve and changeup anything but boring.

Although he has had just four varsity starts, the word is out. Every time the right-hander pitches, the backstop looks like a CHP speed trap.

Gibbons didn’t need to be radar-equipped when he got his first true indication of Holdridge’s ability last season.

Gibbons was preparing his Sunset League championship team for the semifinals of the Southern Section 5-A playoffs against top-ranked Mater Dei with a three-inning game.

On the mound was a pitcher from the junior varsity, a sophomore whose smile revealed braces--Holdridge.

Under the circumstances, he probably should have expected to get shelled--plenty of good varsity pitchers had been bombed by the Seahawk lineup.

Instead, nobody managed a hit and Holdridge struck out eight of the Sunset League’s finest.

Gibbons couldn’t decide whether to be aghast or amazed.

“I said, ‘My gosh, are we this bad or is he this good?’

“I was beginning to have my doubts about our team and we were going up against the No. 1 team in the nation the next day at their place.

“I thought, ‘What are we going to do? We got blown away by our top jayvee pitcher the day before.”

But his questions were answered--and greatly to his satisfaction--the next day.

The same hitters who had been baffled by Holdridge blasted Mater Dei’s No. 1 pitcher, Jon Hulshof. The Seahawks led off with a homer and hit back-to-back homers later in the game, which they won, 4-1.

Holdridge went on to have a memorable summer as a pitcher on the Ocean View All-Star Colt team. The team battled through 20 playoff games and out of a field of 3,300 teams to earn the national World Series title last summer in Lafayette, Ind.

In the winter, he was invited to pitch for the Atlanta Braves’ scout team, which competes against college and minor league players.

At first, when Gibbons approached the team about letting a 16-year-old join, the coaches were reluctant. They said he could attend a practice and throw a little.

“They took one look at him and said, ‘You’re darn right he can pitch!’ ” Gibbons said. After that, Holdridge pitched at least a few innings in every game.

At 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, he inhabits a classic pitcher’s frame. With the Colt and scout team experience, his transition to varsity has been smooth.

Holdridge leads the team in batting average at .379 (11 of 29) and power with three homers and a pair of doubles.

His record is 3-0-1 with 32 strikeouts and a 1.27 ERA. In the Loara tournament, he threw a one-hitter against El Toro and struck out 12 and went four innings against Downey, allowing one hit while striking out eight.

“For that early in the year, he was just so accomplished,” said El Toro Coach Dan DeLeon. “He was way ahead of our hitters. He’s a prospect.

“He was pretty impressive. Our kids thought he was the best we’ve seen all season.”

So the ballplayer who used to have a tendency to break his upper limbs not only has become a fine pitcher, he was honored at an assembly as the school’s best academic student last year in the subject of . . . traffic and safety.

Now if Allan Holdridge will only agree to let his son use the car . . .