Cubs May Have New Hitting Star When They Say ‘Grace’

Another Tony Gwynn? That’s a big order, but Mark Grace just may have the credentials to fill it.

Grace, 23, followed Gwynn at San Diego State and now appears ready to join the Padres’ all-star outfielder in the major leagues as a first baseman for the Chicago Cubs.

Mentioning Grace in the same breath with the best hitter in the National League may seem extreme, but check his minor league statistics. He broke in with a .342 average at Class A Peoria in 1986, then hit .333 at Class AA Pittsfield last year.

Gwynn, with two NL batting titles and a lifetime major-league average of .335, warmed up by hitting .331 at Class-A Walla Walla in 1981 and .328 at Class AAA Hawaii in 1982.

Much has been said about Gwynn’s brother, Chris, a rookie Dodger outfielder who was a teammate of Grace at SDSU in 1985. But Grace’s minor league numbers have been vastly superior to the younger Gwynn’s--.257, .287, .279--and there can be no question at this stage that he is the hotter prospect. So hot, in fact, that Inside Sports magazine has picked him to be the NL rookie of the year.

Unfortunately for Grace, his bid for immediate big-league status contains a rather large hitch. First base at Wrigley Field is occupied by Leon Durham, and until the Cubs manage to unload the Bull and his $1,183,333 salary, Grace will have to wait. If Durham isn’t traded by opening day, Grace will start the season with the Cubs’ Class AAA Iowa farm club.

“Nobody knows the situation better than I do,” Grace said. “If they don’t get rid of Durham, I’m in triple-A. They’re not going to play me ahead of a guy making about a million and a quarter a year.

“I know they’re doing everything they can to trade Durham. Everybody I talk to tells me the same story. They want to make room for me at first base.

“Every night I watch the news, and every morning I look in the paper, hoping I’ll find out that I’m the Cubs’ first baseman. It’s hard to believe some club wouldn’t be willing to give up something for a player as good as Durham.

“The Cubs need to trade him to beef up their pitching (they’re still in need of a starter despite having acquired reliever Goose Gossage from the Padres Friday night). They finished in last place last year with one of the most awesome offenses in baseball. The trouble is, it’s tough to trade a guy with a salary as big as Durham’s.”

As a superstar with an impeccable attitude, Tony Gwynn has been an ideal role model for Grace. Gwynn has offered tips along the way--both players bat and throw left-handed, and they often work out together--and his presence has given Grace something extra to shoot for. People throughout baseball are convinced he can’t miss.

Grace’s first-year average of .342 at Peoria led the Midwest League. He also had 15 home runs and 95 runs batted in. His .333 at Pittsfield was embellished by 17 homers and 101 RBIs. He was voted the Eastern League’s most valuable player and was named its No. 1 major league prospect by Baseball America, the respected chronicle of the minor leagues.

Hidden among the usual run of statistics is evidence of an uncanny ability to avoid strikeouts. Grace struck out just 28 times in 465 at-bats in 1986 and just 24 times in 453 at-bats last year. This is another similarity with Gwynn, who had 21 and 18 strikeouts in the minors with fewer at-bats.

Beyond all that, Grace has proven himself good with a glove. His coach at San Diego State, Jim Dietz, said, “He’s a magician around first base. He makes short hops look easy, and he tags runners exceptionally well.”

Jim Essian, the Pittsfield Cubs’ manager and a former major league catcher, summed up Grace’s talents by saying, “He’s just a marvelous ballplayer. He’s going to go a long way.”

One area in which Grace figures to have an edge over Gwynn is power and run production. At 6-feet 2-inches and 190 pounds, Grace is considered likely to hit 20 or more home runs per season. Gwynn has never hit more than 14.

“I think I’ll hit my share,” Grace said. “Playing in Wrigley Field, I should hit a lot of home runs there. I figure 20 to 25 is a good possibility.”

Being a first baseman, Grace tends to be compared not with so much with Tony Gwynn but with Don Mattingly, Keith Hernandez and Wally Joyner.

“I’m very, very flattered when I hear that,” Grace said. “We lived in St. Louis when Hernandez was with the Cardinals, and he was my idol then. He’s left-handed like me, about the same size and plays good defense, something I’ve always taken pride in. I even wore his St. Louis number, 37, when I was younger.”

Grace’s baseball future didn’t always look this good. He had an undistinguished career at Tustin High School, then spent two years at Saddleback Junior College in Mission Viejo and one at San Diego State without exciting major league scouts. He didn’t show much power, and scouts prefer first basemen who hit home runs.

After high school, Grace wasn’t drafted. After junior college, the Minnesota Twins took him in the sixth round of the always-slim and now-defunct winter draft. That was tantamount to a throwaway pick, so he didn’t sign. In 1985, after his junior year at San Diego State, the Cubs waited until the 24th round to take him.

In the same draft in which Grace was ignored for 23 rounds, Chris Gwynn was picked by the Dodgers in the first. He was the 10th man chosen in the entire draft.

Amazing, isn’t it? Two players off the same college team--a first-round pick who has never hit .300 in three seasons, and a 24th-round pick who has torn up both leagues in which he has played. Obviously, baseball scouting is not an exact science.

The Cubs’ original offer to Grace was so low that they didn’t get him into uniform until the next year, six months later.

“I hit .395 at San Diego State, but I didn’t hit many home runs,” he said. “We had a big ballpark, and that didn’t help. A 24th-round draft choice doesn’t get much of a bonus, so when the Cubs offered me only $10,000 to sign, I turned it down.

“Coach Dietz had promised me a full scholarship if I went back to school for my senior year, so that’s what I decided to do. Then he talked me into going to Alaska for the summer league, and I came into my own up there. I hit 10 home runs.

“The Cubs saw me there, and after that, they raised their bonus offer to $30,000. I figured then that I’d better sign.”

Grace was just as badly rated coming out of junior college.

“I was almost talked out of giving him a scholarship,” Dietz said. “Scouts weren’t high on him. I really liked what I saw of him, and I couldn’t understand why other people were down on him.

“I decided to follow him for several games at Saddleback, and I liked both his offensive skills and his defensive skills. He ran well, too. I liked his inside-out swing, I liked his knowledge of the strike zone, and I liked his hustle.

“He was just an outstanding young man with great work habits, so I went ahead and gave him a scholarship. Over the years, I’ve learned that the kids who succeeded invariably had good work habits. The Gwynn brothers are the same way. It’s a common denominator.

“I’ll tell you something else about Mark Grace. He has a life insurance policy from which all the proceeds go to the baseball endowment program we have at San Diego State. He isn’t making a lot of money, and that shows the kind of person he is.”

Grace attended De Paul University in Chicago for the fall quarter and has “about another year left” as a business management major. But it seems likely he will be playing baseball for a while.

Bill Harford, the Cubs’ director of minor league operations, said: “He still has a ways to go, but we have tremendous aspirations for him.”

When will Grace get his big chance?

“We’ll just have to see what happens,” he said. “If Durham stays, I’ll be glad to go to triple-A as long as the Cubs give me a fair shot.

“I’m very excited about being a candidate for the rookie-of-the-year award. I just hope I get an opportunity to win it.”