The Crusade of Mike Cruz : If This Diminutive Infielder Reaches the Big Leagues, It Will Be No Small Feat

Should Mike Cruz end up on the roster of a professional baseball team, it will probably not be as the 5-7, 157-pound 22-year-old he actually is.

More likely, he’ll be about 5-10, 170, and somewhere between 17 to 20 years old. His baseball card may very well read Miguel Rico, or Rico Miguel.

Baseball has frustrated the former Royal High standout to the point of lying. Honesty has failed.

Cruz, a second baseman, was originally under the impression that one caught on with a major league organization simply by hitting and fielding better than 99.99% of those who wear sanitary socks. He was wrong. Scouts don’t look for the best players. They look for the best prospects. Only those with size, speed and youth need apply.

Cruz is 0 for 3, according to scouts.

Bob Pritchard, who works for the Major League Scouting Bureau, said Cruz was one of the best college players he saw last spring. He also said Cruz has very little chance of getting signed to a professional contract.

“He hustles and he seems to have a good attitude, but he doesn’t have any outstanding tools,” Pritchard said at a tryout at Jackie Robinson Field in Los Angeles this month. “He can sting the ball, but he’s not going to hit for power. A guy like that usually has to be a guy who can really fly--who can steal 40 or 50 bases. He’s probably only an average runner.”

They want speed? Shortly after being told at a tryout in June that he was too slow, Cruz stole four bases in his next game for the Valley Dodgers, a semipro team. After singling in his first at-bat, Cruz stole second, third and home. “I’m running every chance I get,” he said.

What can’t Cruz do? He can’t grow any more, or get younger, but he could fudge a little on his resume. Or become an entirely different person.

“My name es Miguel and I just came to thees country to play beisbol, “ Cruz said, feigning a foreign accent.

“You think I could pass?”

Probably not, at least not in Southern California where Cruz already has badgered his share of scouts. He knows several by name, and most tell him the same thing: “You’re looking pretty good. We’ll see what we can do . . .”

“It feels like I’m running right in front of the scouts’ faces,” Cruz said, frantically waving his arms. “I’m going, ‘Hey, I can do everything.’ And they’re going, ‘Hey, that guy way over there looks pretty good, and what about that guy?’ It’s like they look right through me.”

Or, perhaps, right over him.

“There are no secrets in Southern California,” said Rick Cardenas, a scout for the Kansas City Royals. “There are too many scouts here. You might miss a player in a remote state, but not here.”

Cruz has been to two scouting bureau tryouts in the past two months and each time has been among the highest rated players. This summer, he is batting .434 for the Valley Dodgers, one of the top amateur teams in the nation.

At a Montreal Expos tryout last month at Ventura College, Cruz raised eyebrows with a hitting display that he accented in his last at-bat. “During batting practice I hit a couple of line drives to left center, so then they asked me to hit to right and I hit a line drive to right,” Cruz said. “Then they told me to run out the last one so they could time me. There were two scouts out by the mound--one watching the hitter and the other watching the pitcher. They were kneeling down and I hit a shot right between them. They just split.”

When the tryout was over, Cruz approached one of the scouts. “You’re looking pretty good,” the scout said.

“I’m ready to go,” Cruz said.

“You’re looking pretty good,” the scout said. “We’ll see what we can do . . .”

And so it goes.

“I’m playing well. I feel like I’m doing all I can,” Cruz said. But that is small consolation. The better he plays the harder it is to stay patient.

Particularly since Cruz’s best friends are minor leaguers who continually call to say that their second baseman couldn’t carry his cleats.

“It’s always been that way,” Cruz said. “The first thing I’ve always had to do was prove I could compete.” Over and over.

In high school, Cruz was all-fill in the blank, but he didn’t get a single scholarship offer from a four-year school. So he went to Oxnard College, started for two seasons, was player of the year in Western State Conference, and afterward got one offer--from Chapman, a Division II school.

Seven of his Oxnard teammates earned Division I scholarships or signed professional contracts. “There I was, the player of the year in the conference, and I was the one left out,” Cruz said. “It seems like it’s always the other guy.”

At Chapman, Cruz batted .320 and .343. In 29 California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games this spring, he batted .368 and committed one error in 134 chances.

In the weeks after the end of the season, three Chapman players signed pro contracts, including pitcher Steve Dunn, Cruz’s roommate.

Pritchard, a longtime scout and a former Chicago Cubs infielder, said Cruz is seeking employment through the right means even though he hasn’t gotten a result.

“All he can do is come out to camps and get exposure,” Pritchard said. “He has to go to as many tryouts as possible and get on a semipro team where the scouts can see him every day.”

Pritchard referred to Cruz as “an organizational player.”

“He’s a good player--the type of guy a scout might sign if he’s looking for a position player to help out somewhere in the minors,” Pritchard said. “You sign him up with no intention of him helping you in the big leagues, but he can help you in the organization.”

And, sometimes, Pritchard said, teams are pleasantly surprised.

“Occasionally, a kid like that will go and do well at the lower levels and just keep rising,” he said.

Cruz remains hopeful. If it’s speed they want, then he’ll steal. He’s stolen 16 bases in 19 attempts for the Valley Dodgers. If they want home runs, he says he’ll gain 20 pounds and hit 20 home runs even if it means he “has to look like Kirby Puckett,” the squat Minnesota Twins outfielder.

Cruz showed his wares at a scouting bureau tryout in Los Angeles three weeks ago where about 200 players--to use the term loosely--showed up.

A few of the players were still in high school and had been invited by the bureau to participate. Others were in college, or, like Cruz, just out of college. Some had been recently released by pro teams and were seeking another chance.

The largest group, however, consisted of paunchy 25-year-olds who seemed to be there on a dare. One scout referred to the tryouts--there were three in Southern California this spring--as “the ‘Gong Show’ of professional baseball.”

The players first were separated by position and then timed in the 60-yard dash. Cruz made it in less than 7.0, the major league average. The infielders then hit ground balls before cuts were made and the remaining players were put on teams for an informal game.

Cruz, who graded highest among the six second baseman at the tryout in arm strength and fielding, was selected as a starter for one of the teams.

In his first at-bat, facing a pitcher who was trying to make an impression by throwing the ball through the backstop screen, Cruz took two pitches, then sent the next one screaming down the left field line . . . foul.

In the dugout, a teammate said admiringly: “That little guy’s tough.” One pitch later, he hit a fly ball that was caught just short of the warning track in right-center field.

“Pretty good for a little guy,” another bench jockey said. There is always that qualifier . . . “for a little guy.”

As Cruz strode back toward the bench an observer noted that had he used an aluminum bat--as most of the others had--the ball might have carried more and been off, or over, the wall.

“They say they’re grading us on a major league scale,” Cruz said with a shrug, “so I figure I should use a wood bat.”

In his only other at-bat, he was jammed by a pitch and hit a popup that was caught on the infield. Cruz shook his head ruefully. It’s tough getting noticed when you go 0 for 2.

The second baseman for the other team, however, managed to turn some heads. He made two nice defensive plays, turned a double play and got two line-drive hits.

As the game wound down, a scout searched through a stack of player biography forms to find out just who this potential star was.

His name: James Merriweather. Height: 6-2. Age: 17.

Cruz didn’t go completely unnoticed, however. A man from the scouting bureau called Cruz recently to double-check the information on Cruz’s biography form. Was this the address and phone number where he could most quickly be reached?

Yes, Cruz said, why?

Just making sure, the scout said.

But was there some interest, Cruz asked.

Well, said the scout, we’ll see what we can do.