Loyola’s BOMB Squad

‘The biggest thing in power is bat speed, and that’s what I always try to work on.’

DON SPARKS

‘It’s really strength and quickness that makes me hit home runs.’

BRIAN TURANG

Their methods differ slightly, but the results are the same for Loyola Marymount center fielder Brian Turang and third baseman Don Sparks: lots of hits and long bombs.

Turang, a junior, takes the more conservative approach to practicing his swing. He uses a bat, sometimes a weighted one. Sparks, a senior, prefers to swing a sledgehammer, believing that it improves his bat speed.

The two have been friends since playing together at Long Beach Millikan High school and again at Long Beach City College.

How has the sledgehammer approach worked for Sparks this season?

Well, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Sparks has hit 6 home runs, 13 doubles and had 41 runs batted in through last week’s 10-7 win over Nebraska.

“I haven’t heard any TVs broken or walls dented,” roommate Scott Neill said of Sparks’ hammer habit.

That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, however.

Neill, a starting pitcher, is aware that last year outfielder Robert Cannon gouged a groove in his apartment wall while living and “sledging” with Sparks.

Turang’s traditional approach has been equally successful. The 5-10, 175-pound speedster has smashed a team-leading eight home runs this season and leads the West Coast Athletic Conference in RBI with 44 heading into this week. He also subscribes to the “overload” principle, so-called because swinging a 10-pound hammer or other weighty stick makes a batter believe he can swing his 2-pound bat faster than normal.

But, though the Lions are ranked fourth in the nation and lead the WCAC in batting, Loyola hitting coach Bill Springman isn’t sure the overload principle carries much weight.

“It is all mental,” said Springman, who coached at Oral Roberts, Oklahoma and Rancho Santiago. “It gives a false sense that your bat is lighter, that you can swing it faster. I would rather have guys use the under-load principle--swinging an extra-light bat to get their reflex action down--and then transfer to their normal swing with a regular bat.”

Springman thinks Sparks, who leads the WCAC in runs scored, has as much natural bat speed as any hitter in the major leagues.

“The biggest thing in power is bat speed,” Sparks said, “and that’s what I always try to work on.”

Said the wiry, strong Turang: “It’s really strength and quickness that makes me hit home runs.”

Turang lettered two years in baseball at Millikan and earned all-Moore League honors as a senior. He also played football. Strangely, Sparks didn’t even make the Rams baseball team until his senior year, when he was named all-League.

“Every time I see (Millikan Coach) Dan Peters,” said Ken Gaylord, who coached Sparks and Turang at Long Beach City College, “I get on him for cutting (Sparks) his first two years. And he’s always saying it was the biggest mistake he ever made.”

At Long Beach City College, Sparks was named all-Metro League two consecutive years and helped the Vikings win the South Coast Conference in 1985.

Sparks said he was depressed after getting cut in high school, especially because friends with whom he had played before made the team. Now, he believes that getting cut had a positive influence.

“It’s helped because it’s made me fight even harder for what I wanted,” he said.

Sparks played third base in high school and said that’s where he feels most comfortable. But Gaylord thought differently at Long Beach City College.

“We played him in the outfield and at first and we tried to make him a third baseman, but I don’t think he was ready (for third),” Gaylord said. “He seemed to have trouble with his coordination.”

The departure of Chris Donnels to graduation created a vacancy for Sparks at third last fall, one he wasn’t going to let bound away.

“All I wanted to do was take ground balls when I first came (to Loyola),” Sparks said. “I knew this was my last year of college and I wanted to play pro ball, so I was concerned about my defense.”

The Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles all have contacted him. Loyola Coach Dave Snow recruited Sparks at Long Beach City College and wasn’t surprised when Sparks, in his first year with the Lions, hit .356 and banged out 79 hits, one shy of Donnels’ team-leading 80. But Snow is impressed more with Sparks’ defensive work ethic. In 35 games Sparks posted a .935 fielding percentage.

“He may be the most improved defensive player I’ve ever had,” Snow said. “If he takes 20 ground balls in practice, he takes 20 game-like ground balls. I’d rather have that than a guy who takes 100 but only takes 50 game-like. A lot do it that way. Donny’s improved because he takes the responsibility to do it on his own, and when you talk to him about fielding, he pays attention.”

Turang also had trouble finding the right position, catching for most of his life before playing some second base and center field at Long Beach City College.

Would he go back behind the plate?

“No way,” he said, “that’s not me. It’s too hard on my knees.”

Turang saves his knees for the base paths, where he has collected a team-leading 12 stolen bases in 14 attempts, despite arch problems in both feet. He’s fielding at a .961 clip, and the injury, Snow said, accounts for balls dropping for hits that should have been caught.

But the injury hasn’t stopped Turang from hitting .333 in 36 games, and his numbers belie his on-again off-again confidence at the plate.

“My confidence jumps up and down all the time,” he said. “Sometimes I think so hard about the adjustments I have to make that I don’t do the right things.”

Gaylord said Turang’s temper usually showed itself on the field at Long Beach City College. Now, Turang said, “It seems like that intensity is fading away a little. Now it’s more that I feel like I’m under pressure moving up to (the Division I) level. I’m a little scared sometimes because I know I have to do well.”

One of Turang’s home runs, a three-run shot that lifted the Lions to a 9-6 win in extra innings at the University of Hawaii, sticks in the mind of pitcher Brian Clancy. Clancy and Turang played summer league games last year in the Rainbows’ stadium, which rarely sees balls clear the fences.

“Brian just hit this screaming line drive that hooked around the left-field foul pole,” Clancy said, “and nothing ever gets out of that place.”

Batting often in front of Sparks, Turang has been helped by pitchers who throw him pitches to hit in the hope of getting him out because they don’t want him on base when Sparks comes up.

“But now that Brian is leading the team in home runs,” said Neill, “a lot more people are gonna realize he does have some power, and he’ll start getting more curve balls.”

Sparks usually gets a steady diet of breaking stuff and often goes hungry. But he ate heartily two weeks ago at UC Santa Barbara, doubling his season home run total of three by crushing three off-speed pitches for homers in the Lions 17-4 victory.

“The ball was looking as big as a grapefruit, the bat was feeling really light and I felt like I wanted to hit all day, “ he said.