HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL PREVIEW : MID-VALLEY LEAGUE : In Fine Repair : Tagliaferri, on the Mend From Surgery, Ready to Shoulder Burden at Kennedy

If ever there was a time when the saying “Either he’s lost his mind or he’s on drugs” was appropriate, this was it. Mostly because Gino Tagliaferri was pretty much out of his mind because he was on drugs.

Don’t get the wrong impression. This isn’t another story on illegal drug use and subsequent rehabilitation, although it is about a restoration of sorts.

At the time, Tagliaferri was a sophomore kicker at Kennedy High who was scheduled for an operation to repair a chronic cartilage problem in his right shoulder. The surgery was scheduled on the morning of a City Section 4-A Division football playoff game against Banning in 1986. Tagliaferri, whose shoulder was injured in baseball, was also the long-snapper on punts.

Lying on his back in Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, he was shaved and prepped for surgery by Dr. Frank Jobe, a surgeon who has operated on some of the best arms in baseball. After finding some irregularities on Tagliaferri’s skin, and not wishing to risk infection, Jobe canceled the 10 a.m. operation at the last moment.

The only problem was, Tagliaferri’s brain was as numb as his shoulder.

“I was on the table,” Tagliaferri quipped, “all drugged up and ready to go.”

Instead, Tagliaferri was released. He had enough presence of mind to remember the night’s game, and after considerable begging, his father drove him to school.

“I get a knock on the gym door at about 4 o’clock, and it’s Gino,”

football Coach Bob Francola said. “He says something about his head clearing up and that he’s ready to play.”

Tagliaferri, now a junior, slept on the trip to Long Beach Veterans Stadium, played in the game and slept the entire trip back. For details of what took place, well, ask somebody else.

“I was too out of it to kick,” he said “I couldn’t even see straight, so I just snapped the ball. That much I remember.”

Recall is not a problem for Francola and baseball Coach Dick Whitney, who maintain that Tagliaferri is the best athlete at Kennedy. In two seasons, all Tagliaferri has done is play quarterback, linebacker, kicker and long-snapper for Francola, and designated-hitter and shortstop for Whitney.

It is Tagliaferri’s attitude that sets him apart. He is part athlete, part pit bull.

“He’s not afraid to try anything,” Francola said. “He’s just a gifted athlete. He could stand out there on the basketball court and shoot your lights out from the three-point line if he wanted to.”

It is in baseball, however, that Tagliaferri excels. Last season, he was one of two sophomores among 32 players named to The Times’ All-Valley team. In 24 games, Tagliaferri strong-armed the Mid-Valley League, batting .439 with 4 triples and 5 home runs, all team highs. He also had 23 runs batted in.

“And if he hadn’t hurt his shoulder, he’d be our best pitcher,” said Whitney, who broke tradition and this season named Tagliaferri a team captain, an honor normally reserved for seniors. Tagliaferri will bat fourth in an experienced lineup that includes a half-dozen returning players.

Tagliaferri is the glue that holds together what Whitney calls the best infield in his four seasons as coach. Yet only a few months ago, there was not much of anything holding Tagliaferri’s shoulder together.

It was a familiar story. Tagliaferri, the best player on his Little League team, pitched and played shortstop. When he was 15 and playing for a senior Little League team, he felt something snap.

Eight months of therapy did little to rehabilitate the arm, so in January, 1987, Jobe “cleaned up” Tagliaferri’s shoulder socket on the operating table.

“A lot of people think it was a rotator-cuff injury,” Tagliaferri said. “But it was just some loose cartilage. There is nothing wrong with it now--it’s 100%.”

Because of the operation, Tagliaferri spent last season as the Kennedy designated-hitter. Once the shoulder came around, however, he began to again play in the field. As a member of a local winter league team of top high school prospects, Tagliaferri hit 2 home runs and drove in 5 runs in a game against Loyola Marymount. The team, organized by Chatsworth Coach Bob Lofrano, played primarily against college competition. As usual, Tagliaferri (6-1, 190) was used wherever he was needed--in this case, at third base and in the outfield.

Loyola, among others, took note of the peppering delivered by Tagliaferri, 17, who looks and performs like a much older player (He is nicknamed “Old Man” because of his salt-and-pepper-colored hair.) Tagliaferri has received letters from UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Pepperdine, Oklahoma State and Miami, and he still has two seasons of high school baseball to play.

Kennedy has performed well in scrimmages, compiling an 8-0-1 preseason record and defeating Sylmar and El Camino Real, two teams ranked in The Times’ Valley Top 10. The only blemish was a 2-2 tie with Chatsworth, the Valley’s No. 1 team and an early favorite to win the City 4-A title. The Cougars, who finished fourth in league play last year at 8-7 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs, open the season Friday in the Westside tournament.

Francola said Tagliaferri’s success comes as no surprise. In fact, Francola--who coached seven football players who signed Division I letters of intent last year--compared Tagliaferri’s athletic ability to that of Kennedy graduates Stuart Gray and Darren Daye, both of whom starred at UCLA and later played in the NBA.

“Gino’s the type of kid that you just can’t say enough good things about,” Francola said. “He’s the kind of kid that keeps a coach like me in business.”

If Tagliaferri chooses to play football next season, he will probably start at a new position--wide receiver.

“That is unless the Cubs come along and draft him for $20 million,” Francola cracked. “He knows that baseball is where his bread is buttered, but if he’ll play, believe me, I’ll take him.”