Southern Section Baseball Playoffs : To Catch a Thief : Baseball Is No Game for Fullerton High Catcher, Who Takes Things Personally, Especially When Runners Try to Steal Bases

A sour smile creased the face of Fullerton High School catcher John Mele as he pressed his hands to his eyes.

Thoughts of baserunners past do not die easily.

The Indians had just concluded practice Wednesday in preparation for tonight’s Southern Section 3-A quarterfinal game against El Segundo at 7 at El Segundo Recreation Park.

Mele, a junior, sat in the stands recounting the ones that got away--or at least to second base--all the time appearing ready to launch into a primal scream.

“I can’t think of anything I hate more than a guy stealing a base on me,” he said. “I take it personally. It’s me against the baserunner, and I don’t like to get beat.”

He doesn’t get beat often. According to Dave Torres, Fullerton coach, Mele has thrown out more than 75% of opposing runners.

That is not only good news for Fullerton, the second-place team from the Freeway League, but Mele himself. He must answer to Torres--a former catcher.

“I ride John harder than I do other players,” Torres said. “As far as I’m concerned the catcher and the pitcher are the two most important positions on the field. I’ve got to make sure he’s ready every time he goes out there.”

By nature Torres is a pretty casual guy. He admits his practices will never be mistaken for boot camp. On this particular Wednesday afternoon--overcast and lazy--he hit fly balls to chattering players gathered in small groups in the outfield. A Torres practice has lots of batting practice--Fullerton is hitting .365 as a team--and not a lot of yelling at players.

Save one.

“He’s on me all the time,” Mele said. “It kind of bugged me in the beginning of the season, but I’m glad he did it. It made me a better catcher.”

Torres’ nagging aside, what fuels Mele is that he views each baseball game he plays in as his own.

As he sees it, runners are only on base to make him look bad.

If a Fullerton pitcher wants to ease up during a game, he does so at his own risk.

“I tell them if they don’t bear down, I’ll kill them,” Mele said.

This is a player who lists Fullerton second baseman Steve Pearson as his best friend on the team because, “He takes most of my throws down. I gotta like him for that.”

Mele likes catching because the position requires that he be involved on every pitch. He couldn’t imagine playing anywhere but behind the plate.

Said Mele: “I used to play shortstop, but you never really had a chance to have an effect on the game unless a ball was hit to you. You had no control.

“But behind the plate I feel like I can control the whole game from my crouch. I like that.”

Mele isn’t so bad out of a crouch either. He hit a solo home run in Fullerton’s 10-9 second-round victory over Gahr. Mele’s three-run home run led Fullerton past Corona, 3-2, in the first round of the playoffs.

What makes Mele’s success story all the more interesting is that it almost didn’t happen.

He performed well on the junior varsity last season, but Fullerton’s Mick Mineni was chosen as the All-Freeway League catcher. Problem was Mineni was a junior.

“It was like, ‘Oh no. Now what do I do?’ ” Mele said. “I didn’t want to play another position. I just figured I’d work as hard as I could and see what happened.”

What happened was Mineni was needed to fill a gap at third base and Mele was given his chance behind the plate.

Mele was first placed in the No. 8 spot of the lineup. For someone who takes the game so personally, it wasn’t exactly where he wanted to be.

“You get the feeling people don’t respect you when you’re batting at the bottom of the line up,” he said.

Respect soon found its way to Mele, though, when Torres moved him into the number three slot in the order. As usual, Mele took the move personally.

“I figured he had a lot of confidence in me to put me up there,” he said. “I didn’t want to let him down.

He didn’t. He doubled in his first game.