Arizona Tradition Lures Former Valley Players : Wildcats’ Fowble Does What It Takes to Win

TUCSON — Any person who has ever tugged at the bill of a baseball cap and punched the pocket of a glove knows a player like Greg Fowble.

He’s the one you loved to hate--a player so confident in his ability that he dared you to beat him.

He’s the guy who would get the last out of the inning by pulling the hidden-ball trick, then come up to bat, walk, and keep running all the way to second.

If you knocked him down with a pitch, he’d line the next pitch at your skull. If you tried to walk him intentionally, he’d reach out and dunk a hit over the infield.

Trying to whip Greg Fowble at baseball or any other activity is like trying to beat Robin Williams to a punch line or Tommy Lasorda to a plate of pasta. Verrry frustrating.

At Granada Hills High, Fowble started at shortstop for three years and three times the Highlanders won league championships. Twice the team advanced to the City 4-A championship game, winning once. In football, he was a standout wide receiver and kicker and--surprise!--Granada Hills won every league game except the one in which Fowble didn’t play because of an injury.

Pity the sucker who would play him in cards, billiards or tiddlywinks.

“He’s a winner,” said Darryl Stroh, who coached Fowble in football and baseball at Granada Hills. “There are good players who just do their job and others who always have an impact on the situation. Greg is an impact player.”

It seems only natural that Fowble chose the University of Arizona as the place to continue his baseball career. The Wildcats had won the College World Series in 1986.

Jerry Kindall, Arizona’s coach, liked Fowble’s speed, soft hands and aggressiveness, and Fowble liked the looks of Arizona’s very short depth chart at shortstop.

“I knew if I came in and played the way I was capable of playing, I would get an opportunity,” Fowble said after practice recently. He did, and he’s made the most of it.

When Arizona (18-8) takes the field today at USC in a Pac-10 game, Fowble will be at shortstop, which is where he has been at the start of all but one of the Wildcats’ 25 games this season.

He plays for a new team and at a higher level now, but he still plays the game the same way he did in high school.

Chip Hale, team captain and a four-year starter at third base for the Wildcats, recalled a game last fall against the Taiwanese national team in which Fowble stole a base while the opposing pitcher and catcher met near the mound. Somebody had forgotten to call time out.

“That took a lot of guts--especially being a freshman,” Hale said, “because if he’s thrown out, he looks pretty foolish.”

Hale since has discovered that Fowble is just as cunning off the field.

Fowble’s initiation as a freshman includes handling the team’s luggage and equipment at airports. Somehow, Hale said, Fowble usually finds a way out of this responsibility.

“I have to watch him all the time,” Hale said. “Everyone will be carrying bags except Greg, who tries to lay low in the background. If somebody doesn’t tell him he has to carry a bag, he doesn’t do it. He’s sneaky.”

Some of Fowble’s disdain for freshman chores might be unintentional. “He has the mentality of an upperclassman,” Hale said. “He’s confident and he knows he can play at this level. Being a freshman, he’ll be a target for abuse everywhere we go this season, but I don’t think they’ll be able to get under his skin. He’s too confident to let things like that bother him.”

Fowble’s maturity has been surpassed only by his .322 batting average, which is surprisingly high, Kindall says.

“Whenever you bring in a freshman you’re concerned about how he is going to handle college pitching,” Kindall said. “We didn’t expect him to hit right away, but he fooled us.”

Fowble started the season batting ninth but has been hitting leadoff since late February.

He said he liked the No. 9 slot because he saw more fastballs, but enjoys the challenge of batting first. “I just wish I knew in high school what I know about hitting now,” Fowble said. “If my swing was as good back then as it is now it would have been a lot of fun.”

A scary thought, indeed, considering Fowble hit a robust .420 as a senior. That average and his usual slick fielding caught the attention of college as well as professional scouts.

The Cleveland Indians drafted him in the eighth round and Fowble wrestled with the decision between college and the minor leagues.

“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make,” he said.

Although he chose to sign with Arizona, the pros’ interest has not diminished.

“The first time I was over at the Indians camp (also in Tucson), the first question I was asked was, ‘How is Greg doing?’ ” Kindall said. “I’m sure his stock will rise even more.”

Fowble has struggled in the field at times this season. Twice he’s had three errors in a game--the last time being last Saturday against Stanford. He has 13 errors in 24 games for a rather weak .882 fielding percentage. Most of his problems have been throwing, but Kindall is not concerned.

“He’s a freshman so it’s natural for him to go through some dry spells,” Kindall said. “I think I know a good infielder when I see one and by the time Greg is through he has a chance to be one of the best we’ve ever had here.”

And Kindall has seen a lot of talent. He has been coaching at Arizona for 15 years following an eight-year career as an infielder with the Cubs, Indians and Twins. He is also the only person to win a national title as a player (Minnesota in 1956) and as a coach (Arizona in 1976, ’80 and ‘86).

“We knew Greg had a lot of potential,” Kindall said. “The only question was whether he was our shortstop of the present or the future.”