With Ducey Gone, Landrum Provides Pop for Gulls, 11-8

What do Don Sutton, Reggie Jackson and Rob Ducey have in common?

Besides the fact they all wear knickers and stirrups to work, all three compiled impressive statistics in the Class-A California League and have moved on to bigger and better baseball.

Sutton played for Santa Barbara in 1965 and posted a record of 8-1 with an ERA of 1.50. He’s gone on to win 298 major league games.

Jackson played for Modesto in 1966 and batted .299 with 21 home runs in 56 games. He’s gone on to hit 537 major league home runs.

Ducey played for Ventura County in 1986 and batted .337 with 12 home runs and 17 stolen bases in 47 games. He’s gone on to hit a grand slam at Knoxville in the Double-A Southern League.

Alright, so Ducey has some catching up to do. But give him time, Gull Manager Glenn Ezell says.

“Rob Ducey will be heard from,” Ezell said. “His swing is a classic.”

A left-handed outfielder whose style of play bears a resemblance to that of Darryl Strawberry, Ducey was promoted by Toronto to Knoxville a week ago. In his first three games, he went 7 for 14, stole a base and hit the grand slam.

One would expect that losing a hitter with Ducey’s pop would reduce the Gull offense to a popgun. But Ventura County pounded out 13 hits en route to an 11-8 win over Visalia on Friday at Ventura College.

Kevin Batiste, the player who replaced Ducey on the roster, didn’t even play. Instead it was Darryl Landrum filling Ducey’s shoes with a three-run triple that sparked a six-run fifth inning. The outburst followed a six-run top of the fifth by Visalia and allowed the Gulls to regain the lead, 10-8.

Todd Wasilewski pitched 4 innings of one-hit relief to gain his fourth win. William Shanks came in the ninth on to record his ninth save.

Gull catcher Greg Myers also had a big day, singling home two runs in the third and following Landrum’s triple with an RBI double.

The Gull outfield has undergone considerable changes since opening day when they had Ducey in right, Ken Kinnard in center and Landrum in left. Ducey and Kinnard have both been promoted and Landrum has moved to center. Geronimo Berroa and Luis Reyna flanked Landrum on Friday but Batiste and Mike Jones also see action in the outfield.

John Mayberry, Toronto’s minor league hitting instructor, said Ducey, 21, is considered one of the brightest prospects in the organization.

“He has a naturally smooth swing,” said Mayberry, who spent a week last month in Ventura. “If Rob works hard during the off season and adds maybe 10 pounds to his upper body, he’ll be a bona fide power hitter.”

Gull fans won’t be seeing any more of Ducey this season. But if he lives up to expectations, he might be seen in a Toronto uniform in a couple of years.

Gull Notes

Gull pitcher Todd Stottlemyre has been named the California League’s player of the month for May in a ballot of the managers. Todd (8-2) is the son of ex-New York Yankee pitcher Mel Stottlemyre, who is pitching coach of the New York Mets. Todd’s older brother, Mel, Jr., is pitching for Osceola of the Florida State League in the Houston Astros organization. . . . If it weren’t for doubleheaders, which consist of two seven-inning games, Gull pitchers would have no complete games. Stottlemyre, Jeff Musselman and Jose Mesa each have one seven-inning complete game. Bob Thorpe, who pitched for Stockton in 1954, owns the California League record least likely to be broken--32 complete games. Thorpe completed his last 30 starts of the season. His total surpassed that of eight of the nine teams in the league in 1985. San Jose had 45 complete games to lead the league. The reason for the decline, according to Gull Manager Glenn Ezell, is a limit imposed by organizations on the number of pitches a pitcher may throw. Toronto, for example, allows no more than 100 pitches a game. “It doesn’t really matter how well a guy is pitching,” Ezell said. . . . Jim Colburn, co-owner of the Gulls, is pitching coach for Iowa in the American Assn., a Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate. Colburn, who was raised in Santa Paula and is a lifelong friend of Gull co-owner Ken McMullen, won 20 games for Milwaukee in 1973 and pitched a no-hitter for Kansas City in 1977. . . . Colburn, who was 12-6 for Lodi in the California League in 1968, was named to the All-Scotland and All-Great Britain basketball teams while a student at the University of Edinburgh in 1969.