George Pedre Spells ‘Power’ for WLAC Nine

When George Pedre hits, everybody watches. Well, not everybody, but everyone who comes to West Los Angeles College baseball games oohs and ahs when Pedre comes to bat.

Community college baseball is not a big draw. Teams usually play day games, mostly when fans are working.

And it’s a shame that more people can’t get out to see Pedre, the former Culver City High School star, hit his towering, fence-seeking drives. The long ball is what many people like to see, and he hits a lot of long balls.

The other day, WLAC lost a 10-9 game to El Camino when the latter team scored seven runs--many unearned--in the top of the ninth inning. Though the Oilers went into the ninth with a 9-3 lead, their pitchers couldn’t hold the lead, giving up a bunch of walks and thereby giving the game away.

Pedre’s hitting had been partly responsible for his team’s big lead. He didn’t hit a home run, but he smacked a 400-foot triple to center that hit the fence on the fly, belted a 375-foot double that hit the right-field fence, fouled one out of the park along the left-field line, sent the left fielder to the fence to catch a towering drive and lined a far-from-ordinary single to center and then stole second.

And the 5-11 1/2, 210-pound Pedre did all that hitting and running while playing catcher, a chore that is hard on a player’s legs and endurance. He also made a putout at the plate.

If that isn’t enough of an iron-man performance, he played that day--and stole a base and blocked off the plate against a runner--with a pulled muscle in his left leg, an injury incurred in an earlier game while he was trying to beat out a grounder for an infield hit.

Against El Camino he went three for five at the plate and brought his week’s production to six hits in 12 at bats, including a homer, two doubles and a triple and four runs batted in. As a result, his batting average dropped from .529 to .524.

In 16 games, Pedre has six home runs, tying the WLAC school season record of Matt Amido, and 22 RBIs. WLAC, which has a 9-7 overall record and is 3-3 in the Mountain Valley Conference, has 15 games remaining in the regular season, including a 2 p.m. home game today against Mission. And with at least 15 games to go, Pedre seems a sure bet to break the WLAC home-run record and a couple of other hitting marks.

It is not surprising what WLAC Coach Art Harris says about the 19-year-old Pedre, who was drafted in January by the Atlanta Braves. Harris, whose past players include 40 who have been drafted by major league teams, said that “for power hitting, he’s the best we’ve ever had.”

Harris’ comments are reminiscent of those made by Pedre’s high school coach, Culver City’s Dave Ruebsamen, in 1984, Pedre’s senior year: “He’s the best high school power hitter I’ve ever seen.”

Ruebsamen also told of seeing one Pedre line drive knock the glove off the third baseman who tried to catch it and of another sidelining a third baseman when it hit him in the ankle.

“George’s home runs would be home runs anywhere. They would have gone out of the Dodgers’ or Angels’ stadiums,” Ruebsamen said.

Although Pedro Guerrero of the Dodgers is one of his idols, Pedre wouldn’t mind hitting a few out of the stadium in Chavez Ravine--and a few more out of the Atlanta park, where Dale Murphy, another of his heroes, plays center field.

If the Braves make a solid offer to him, he said, he will sign with that National League team. He would not say how much money it would take for him to sign, but he added that, if it isn’t enough, he thinks he will probably be playing next season for Cal State Long Beach.

Because he did not play at WLAC last year as a freshman, this is Pedre’s first season of community college ball. Harris said that Pedre spent last year “trying (and succeeding) to get his academic act together. He has really matured.”

Pedre would be eligible to play for WLAC next year, but by then the school may not have a baseball program.

Coach Given Notice

In an economy wave instituted by the Los Angeles Community College District, Harris is one of 39 district coaches and physical education instructors who received dismissal notices. Harris said he has been offered a classroom post teaching English or mathematics at WLAC.

An outfielder in high school, Pedre was converted to catcher by Harris this season. “To be honest,” the coach said, “I felt that’s where he belonged all his life. He has a quick release (of the ball while throwing) and quick feet.”

His bat is also quick. He has a short, compact swing, and because of that he usually makes contact and doesn’t strike out much. Harris said that Pedre strikes out less than one time in every 10 at bats, an unusually low ratio for a long-ball hitter.

In his junior year at Culver City high, according to the only statistics available on Pedre for a full season, he had 31 hits in 75 at-bats for a .413 average. He also had 7 home runs, 26 RBIs and 10 stolen bases in 11 attempts, further testimony to the big man’s quick feet. He struck out only five times that season, a ratio of one strikeout in 15 at-bats.

If he belongs at catcher, he didn’t think so when he started out there. “At first I didn’t like it because I couldn’t get used to it,” he said. “But now I’m used to it and every game I try to improve.”

But he hasn’t found out how to avoid getting hit with balls when he’s behind the plate. “It seems like every day I get hit by the ball,” he said.

Runners trying to score don’t often try to run into the heavily muscled Pedre at home. But a couple of times this season he has been hit by base runners his size, who were hoping that the impact would dislodge the ball from his mitt and enable them to score. Their hopes were not realized.

“They tried to knock me down, but I would get back up. You’ve just got to stand there, take the hit and hold on to the ball.”

He was a little bigger as a high school senior than he is now--a little fatter anyway. He weighed about 220 in his last prep year and got up to 225 when he didn’t play school ball last year.

He shed a few of those pounds when he played in a summer league in 1985 and a few more when he began going to a health spa and lifting weights, something he had not done much of before.

Improved Flexibility

Coach Harris got him more involved with weight training, though it is not power lifting but repeating lifts with lighter weights for flexibility. As he does with all his players, Harris also required Pedre to do some running and perform stretching exercises.

“That got me stronger and helped with my distance and power in hitting. I had baby fat, and it’s all gone,” Pedre said.

Pedre, who was born in the United States but whose parents are from Cuba, may have dropped some pounds, but he has picked up a mustache since he was a high school senior. At least that’s the way it looked to a reporter who had interviewed him near the end of the 1984 school year.

But he said that he had had a mustache before that 1984 interview and had shaved it off at that time “for the prom, because I wanted to be clean-cut.”

Although he would like to have a major league baseball career, he said that he is preparing himself for another career by working with his father, Joaquin, on occasional construction projects. “I would like one day to own my own construction business. My dad knows plumbing and all the other things. I watch him and he tells me how to do it.”

Follows Directions

He has also watched baseball coaches Ruebsamen and Harris and former Culver City and USC player Chuck Menzhuber and done what they have told him to do--and done it very well.

He said that he goes hitting at Culver City high with friends such as Dejon Watson and Victor Hithe, former WLAC players who have been playing minor league ball, and he tries to see Ruebsamen whenever he does. “We’re still good friends, and I stop by as often as I can. Ruebsamen is the one who got me started in baseball and Menzhuber also taught me a lot.”

He said that Harris has also taught him plenty about the game, particularly the value of self-discipline and to “always try your hardest.”

Watson, who graduated from Santa Monica High School, and Hithe, a Palisades High product, have taught him a thing or two about the caliber of pitchers in the minor leagues.

“They’ll be throwing much harder up there,” said Pedre, “but once I get used to it, I think I’ll be OK.” He said that his buddies have also told him that the minor leagues are full of “smart pitchers. They know how to pitch.”

And Pedre, a rare long-ball hitter with a short stroke, knows how to hit.