Olympic Classmates Leave Akins to Shoulder Burden

One by one and in clusters, cast members from a hit amateur production have attained the baseball equivalent of Broadway.

Yet Sid Akins waits in the wings.

Most members of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team--Mark McGwire, Cory Snyder, Will Clark, Barry Larkin, Oddibe McDowell and B.J. Surhoff, to name a few--have embarked on successful major league careers. Akins, meanwhile, toils in Greenville, N.C., a Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves.

He is in good spirits, however. At this point, Akins is just glad he isn’t aching.

Shoulder problems nearly closed the curtain on his career after only one act. Midway through 1985, Akins’ first season as a professional, he felt his shoulder sizzle. And the Texas Rangers, who had drafted him in the third round the year before, watched his fastball fizzle.

The success of his Olympic teammates wasn’t even the worst part. He also had been surpassed by a skinny, goofy-looking pitcher who had been Akins’ understudy at Cleveland High. The pitcher, two years younger than Akins, was Bret Saberhagen, the American League Cy Young Award winner in 1985.

In 1986, the Rangers dumped Akins in spring training like a car that had thrown rods through the hood. Akins, it appeared, had been driven too hard during the three years he pitched at USC. He returned home to Sepulveda and sought the advice of a friend--Atlanta Braves scout and former pitching coach Tom Morgan.

“My mechanics were pretty bad,” Akins said. “Tom straightened me out. My front shoulder was flying open. He closed me up and got me driving.”

The Braves took a chance on him and are glad they did. Akins is 3-1 with 2 saves and an earned-run average of 1.06 with Greenville. He set a club record in August by pitching 23 consecutive scoreless innings.

“My arm is back to normal,” Akins said. “There were plenty of times I wondered. But I figured that as long as someone would give me a chance, I’d get it back.”

Akins, 24, began the season in Durham, N.C., the Braves’ Class-A team, but was promoted in July after posting a record of 3-4 with two saves. A starter in high school and college, where he was an All-Pacific 10 selection, Akins is adjusting to the bullpen.

“From the sixth or seventh innings on, it’s a little more intense,” he said. “I have to be ready with good stuff. But I’m starting to like it.”

The more Akins likes his stopper role, the more the Braves like him.

“When the front office in Atlanta mentions short-relief prospects, Sid’s name comes up,” said Jeff Phillips, assistant general manager at Greenville. “Texas thought he blew his arm out, but he’s found his fastball with us. We’re really pleased.”

Akins’ fastball is now being clocked in the high 80s, according to Phillips, but the pitcher doesn’t consider himself overpowering.

“I’m throwing a curve and changeup to set up the fastball,” Akins said. “Once I throw a curve for a strike I have them on the defensive.”

Similar numbers in Triple-A next season could land Akins a position with the Braves. If he makes it, he’ll join Scott Bankhead and Billy Swift (Mariners), Bobby Witt (Rangers) and Mike Dunne (Pirates) as pitchers from the 1984 Olympic team in the big leagues. If he doesn’t make it, he says he won’t be bitter.

“I’m happy for all the guys who’ve made it,” Akins said. “It’s never been a matter of me being down because of their success. It’s a matter of wishing that I was there, too.”

Wetherby report: The best batter for Greenville has been left fielder Jeff Wetherby, formerly of Kennedy High.

“Jeff wasn’t considered a top prospect coming into this year, but he is now,” Phillips said. “He’s been our best player by far. He’s had an extremely consistent year.”

Wetherby is batting .310 with 11 home runs and 76 runs batted in 464 at-bats.

The Greenville catcher is switch-hitter Todd Dewey, formerly of Cal Lutheran. Dewey is batting only .235 in 306 at-bats, but his average is .271 from the left side.

“He’s good enough to make the major leagues,” Phillips said. “Todd’s biggest problem is endurance. He’s considered a fine defensive catcher but catching three or four straight days really tires him out.”

This Card is marked: Like Dewey, Todd Zeile is showing the strain of catching every day. He is even using a lighter bat.

But less lumber has meant more power for Zeile, who was drafted by the Cardinals in the third round of the 1986 June draft after standout careers at Hart High and UCLA. Playing for Springfield, Ill., Zeile leads the Class-A Midwest League with 102 RBIs and is second with 25 home runs.

The Cardinals view numbers like that with zeal.

“Todd Zeile is one of the best all-around prospects in the organization,” said Lee Thomas, the Cardinals’ director of player personnel. “He is a premier hitting prospect and may be the best all-around catcher in the Cardinals’ system.”

Playing ahead of Zeile in the Cardinal organization are Carl Stevens, an excellent defensive catcher playing for Double-A Arkansas and Tom Pagnozzi, a journeyman catching for Triple-A Louisville, Ky.

“He is still at least a year away from the big time,” Thomas said, “but is very good defensively and at throwing as well as hitting.”

Big-league bound: Major league rosters expanded from 24 to 40 Tuesday and one area player, Doug Baker, already has been promoted--to the Detroit Tigers.

Don’t expect him to break out party hats and balloons, however.

This is the fourth straight season that Baker, a 26-year-old utility infielder from Northridge, has been recalled in September. This season he played shortstop for the Tigers’ Triple-A team in Toledo, Ohio.

Baker is considered an excellent fielder, but a weak bat has kept him in the minors. He batted .249 at Toledo, this season and has a career major league mark of .176 in 159 at-bats.

Jack McDowell is a sure bet to join Baker in the American League this month because a promotion to the White Sox is stipulated in his contract. McDowell, who led Stanford to the NCAA title this season, was Chicago’s No. 1 pick in the June draft.

After striking out 12 batters in seven innings during two outings at Class-A Sarasota, Fla., in early July, McDowell was promoted to Double-A at Birmingham, Ala. The Notre Dame High product was shelled in his first outing there but pitched his first professional shutout Aug. 18 against Knoxville, allowing only two hits and striking out seven.

From Gulls to Blue Jays: Toronto recalled four ex-Ventura County Gulls on Tuesday--outfielders Rob Ducey and Geronimo Berroa, catcher Greg Myers and pitcher David Wells.

They join left-handed pitcher Jeff Musselman, another ex-Gull, who has a 11-4 record with the Blue Jays.

The Gulls were a Class-A Blue Jay affiliate that played the 1986 season in the California League.

A giant step away: George Ferran, a right-handed pitcher from Granada Hills High who spent the season with the Giants’ Triple-A team in Phoenix, probably will be passed over for promotion.

“I don’t think I’ll be called up this year,” Ferran said. “The Giants want to win the pennant and they’re not going to go with inexperienced guys in September.”

Experienced pitchers are, indeed, a priority for the Giants if the recent acquisitions of Rick Reuschel, Dave Dravecky, Don Robinson and Craig Lefferts are an indication. Ferran said morale among pitchers at Phoenix is low.

“The team is going against policy by not using its farm system,” Ferran said. “It’s a little disheartening after they were looking to youth for so long.”

Ferran appeared to be on the fast track to San Francisco last season when he won 13 consecutive games to tie a Texas League record and finished with a 16-1 record and a 2.29 ERA.

“George could be another Tommy John,” said Wendell Kim, Ferran’s manager last season. “He has a sinking fastball to go along with a great curve. And he’s messing with a split-finger fastball.”

The split-finger pitch hasn’t improved much, Ferran said, and he’s still relying on the curve and sinker. He had a 4-4 record with one save and a 3.28 ERA at Phoenix after missing a month early in the season because of a sore shoulder.

Rather than being upset with the Giants for not calling him up, Ferran said he will work hard during the off-season in hopes of making the team in spring training. He was a member of the Giants’ 40-man roster last spring.

“Just being in a big-league camp this spring made me want it real bad,” he said. “It was first class all the way. That’s what I’ve been working for. Right now, I want to get my stuff back together and get to the big leagues.”

Beck’s defense rests: Rodney Beck has a good defense for his 3-8 record--the bad defense played by his teammates.

“You’d have to see it to believe it,” Beck said. “We average eight errors a game and the scorekeeper is lenient on hits so we don’t make even more errors.”

Beck, who helped Grant High win the City Section championship last year, is in his second year with Medford, a Class-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. Despite unimpressive numbers--his ERA is 5.20--Beck believes that the instruction of Wes Stock, the Athletics’ minor league pitching coach, has made him a better pitcher.

“If you compared tapes of then and now you couldn’t tell I was the same pitcher,” Beck said. “I didn’t know anything about pitching. I’d sit on my rear leg and fall off to the left and my arm would come from different angles.

“Now I’m standing up and driving with my right leg. It gives me a center of gravity and balance.”

Another reason Beck wouldn’t be easily recognized is that he shaved the Fu Manchu mustache that was his trademark in high school.

“They made me shave it to the corner of my lip,” he said. “Oh, well.”