Not So Long Ago or Far Away . . . : Saberhagen Had the Look of a Winner When He Pitched His Dodger Stadium Masterpiece

Talk about potentially overwhelming situations. Here it is, the seventh game of the 1985 World Series and the ball is handed to Bret Saberhagen, a 21-year-old pitcher just three years removed from high school.

While some had their doubts how the young Kansas City Royals pitcher would handle the pressure of facing the St. Louis Cardinals with the world championship at stake, Leo Castro wasn’t the least bit worried.

Even on the TV set in his San Fernando Valley home, he could see The Look.

Castro had seen it many times during the years he was Saberhagen’s baseball coach at Cleveland High. He’ll never forget seeing The Look four years ago today when Saberhagen pitched his team to the City championship.

“When I looked at him on the mound, I saw confidence and poise,” Castro says. “It was not the kind of look where he was so intense that he would pout or where he got to the point that you couldn’t talk to him. He was confident, but he was so relaxed. It was like he was playing a game of over-the-line.”

In that World Series finale, Saberhagen coolly shut out the Cardinals, 11-0, climaxing a year in which he amassed a 20-6 regular-season record, a 2.87 earned-run average, and went on to win the American League’s Cy Young Award.

“People were amazed,” Castro says. “Hey, that’s Bret. That’s the way he has always been.”

Castro remembers seeing The Look during a crucial high school playoff game in 1982, Saberhagen’s senior year.

The Cavaliers had already surrendered five first-inning runs to Banning and faced postseason elimination. As Castro walked to the mound to talk to his shellshocked pitcher, he glanced out at shortstop where Saberhagen was playing that day. He was at short because he had pitched just two days earlier, and Castro didn’t want to risk straining his pitcher’s arm.

Saberhagen wasn’t worried about his arm. He was worried about the game.

Says Castro: “He looked at me as if to say, ‘Well, what are you waiting for? I want this game.’ ”

He got it.

Castro gave Saberhagen the nod and, after allowing a runner already on base to score, the Cleveland right-hander shut down Banning the rest of the way. The Cavaliers rallied to win, 7-6.

And onward they marched to the City final where they met Palisades.

Cleveland’s starting pitcher? Be serious.

The championship game was played at Dodger Stadium four years ago today on June 14, 1982. Before Saberhagen went out to pitch, his father, Bob, had a surprise for him. Through a scout, the older Saberhagen had obtained a confidential scouting report on the Palisades hitters.

Bret smiled at the news, then shook his head.

“I don’t want it,” he told his father. “I don’t want to know what it says because that will influence what I do. If the report says a guy is not good, that might cause me to let up. I don’t want to know how good these guys are. To me, they are just bodies up there.”

And that’s just what they were.

Saberhagen took The Look and his blazing fastball out to the Dodger Stadium mound where he was even more dominating than Grant’s Rodney Beck, who pitched the Lancers to the City title Thursday with a 5-1 win over Granada Hills.

Against Saberhagen, Scott Clarke, second man up for Palisades, reached first on second baseman Tom Brant’s error. That was the extent of the Palisades offense.

Saberhagen retired everybody else who followed, 20 batters in all, eight of them on strikeouts, to complete the first and only no-hitter in the 48-year history of the City final. Only one Palisades batter managed to hit the ball out of the infield.

And through it all, Saberhagen retained his poise. Late in the game, John LaRosa took over at first for Cleveland. “If a ball is hit to you,” Saberhagen told him, “throw it to first. I’ll be there.” Sure enough, a hard grounder was hit to LaRosa. He fielded the ball and fired to first. Saberhagen was there, waiting for it.

Says Saberhagen: “If you don’t have confidence in yourself, it’s pretty tough to be successful.”

But behind The Look, Saberhagen admits, there are always butterflies flitting.

“I’m always nervous before a big game,” he says. “Before the seventh game of the World Series, I felt like I was sitting on pins and needles.”

Cleveland’s offense took some of the pressure off Saberhagen the night of the City title game, exploding for 16 hits to provide the Cavaliers with a 13-0 victory, its third City title, its 18th win in 19 games and an overall season mark of 20-3. Saberhagen finished the year at 9-0, giving him a three-year high school record of 24-2. He was named City player of the year.

Bob Saberhagen didn’t have to wait long to discover he had an exceptional baseball player in his family.

When Bret was 7, he started in tee-ball in Northridge. He played shortstop. And second base. And third. And the outfield.

“He would go after every ball,” says Bob Saberhagen with a smile. “We finally had to try and hold him back to give the other kids a chance.”

Bret started pitching at age 8, mixing in an occasional curveball with his excellent fastball.

But Saberhagen also started mixing in basketball with his baseball and, by his senior year, that was causing problems.

That year, Cleveland was headed for the 3-A championship in basketball just about the time the baseball season was starting. Castro found himself in a tug-of-war with Cleveland basketball coach Greg Herrick over Saberhagen, a 6-1 point guard on Herrick’s squad.

With Bob Saberhagen acting as mediator, a compromise was struck that allowed the younger Saberhagen to play both sports.

That almost proved disastrous.

In a basketball playoff game at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, Saberhagen drove in for a layup and hung on the rim, damaging his shoulder.

Add to that a lack of proper conditioning for baseball because of the demands of basketball and you have problems.

Like a sore shoulder.

Like a fastball that had dipped from near 90 miles per hour into the low 80s.

Like a diagnosis of a possible career-ending rotator cuff tear.

While earlier reports of Saberhagen’s ability had caused speed guns to be pointed at him by a whole bleacher full of major league scouts, the news of the injury sent them scurrying in search of new phenoms.

All but one. Guy Hansen, a Kansas City scout, wasn’t so easily discouraged. He stuck around and eventually landed the prospect.

Bob Saberhagen wasn’t going to be discouraged either. First, he hired Ed Palmquist, a former Dodger pitcher, to work with Bret. Palmquist taught Saberhagen how to keep his foot on the pitching rubber, which allowed him to get more velocity on his pitches.

Then, Bob Saberhagen found a doctor who discovered the younger Saberhagen’s shoulder problems were caused by knots of lactic acid, rather than a torn rotator cuff. Massage treatments cleared up the problem.

Castro refuses to take any credit for Saberhagen’s development.

“I never messed with him,” says Castro. “He was a super athlete. I’d have been a fool to try and change him.”

Still, Saberhagen’s stock was slow to bounce back. When the June ’82 draft came up his senior year, prior to the City title game, Saberhagen was picked on the 19th round by Kansas City. Disappointment would be a mild word to describe the feelings in the Saberhagen family.

“We thought he was a first- or second-round pick,” Bob Saberhagen says, “third round at the absolute worst.

“But we saw that Kansas City was not doing that well as far as pitching was concerned, that they were going to need help and that there was going to be a shot for anybody who did well.”

Bret signed for a bonus of $27,500, not bad for a 19th-round pick.

By the spring of 1984, before his 20th birthday, Saberhagen was fighting for a job on the major-league roster.

“Gee, I’m pitching to Pete Rose,” he told his father. “But when guys like that are standing up there, they are just bodies.”

Even Pete Rose has to respect The Look.

CITY PLAYOFFS At Dodger Stadium Championship Cleveland 13, Palisades 0

PALISADES CLEVELAND ab r h bi ab r h bi Gilliam, 2b 3 0 0 0 Saberhagen, p 3 2 1 1 Clarke, 3b 3 0 0 0 Behrenger, ph 1 0 0 0 Hithe, lf 3 0 0 0 Dale, cf 4 3 3 0 Singer, cf 3 0 0 0 Marden, 3b 4 2 4 3 Gutterman, c 2 0 0 0 Newhouse, c 3 1 0 0 Spirrsn, dh 2 0 0 0 Markind, 1b 4 0 3 2 Kim, ss 2 0 0 0 Turai, pr 0 0 0 0 Vatcher, rf 2 0 0 0 LaRosa, ph 0 1 0 0 Glaesnner, 1b 0 0 0 0 Doll, rf 3 0 1 0 Logan, c 2 0 0 0 Johnstone, cf 1 0 0 0 Webb, ss 3 1 1 1 Campbell, ss 0 0 0 0 Halen, lf 1 1 0 1 JBrandt, lf 2 1 0 0 TBrandt, 2b 4 1 2 0 Total 22 0 0 0 Total 33 13 16 8

Palisades 000 000 0 - 0 Cleveland 250 006 x - 13 E--JBrandt, Glaesnner, Clarke, Gilliam, Kim 2, Hithe DP--Palisades 1, Cleveland 5. SB--Saberhagen, Dale, TBrandt.

IP H R ER BB SO Palisades Hirsch L, 8-2 1 7 7 3 2 0 Kerr 4 9 6 3 1 1 Cleveland Saberhagen W, 9-0 7 0 0 0 0 8

WP--Kerr 2. T--2:00. A--1,500.