No. 1 Granada Hills’ Initial Defeat Strikes a Prophetic Chord in Stroh

Granada Hills High lost its first baseball game of the year Wednesday, a 5-1 Mid-Valley League upset at the hands of Monroe. The reasons were plentiful and hardly unexpected, according to Coach Darryl Stroh.

“We had no pitching, no hitting and no defense,” Stroh said. “Other than that, nothing went wrong. And that’s not the first time, believe me.”

Granada Hills, ranked No. 1 in the Valley by The Times, committed three errors and had only four hits off Viking right-hander Ron Robart (4-1). All-league right-hander Jeff Adams (4-1) was tagged with his first loss.

Stroh said he has been telling anyone who will listen--including the team, which apparently doesn’t--that Granada Hills (7-1) is overrated. In fact, a quick look through Stroh’s candid camera reveals more than a few chinks in the Highlander armor. In a three-minute conversation, words used to describe his team’s play and reputation included “a fake. . . a lark. . . a joke.”

Wednesday’s collapse was something Stroh insisted he saw coming every time out.

“We haven’t played a good ballgame all year,” he said. “We’re a big fake, and the kids believe what they read. We haven’t pitched well or played well defensively. All we’ve done is score some runs, but we didn’t even do that against Monroe.

“It’ll keep happening until these kids realize they aren’t as good as they think they are. I tell them after every game that they aren’t playing to their potential--and unrealized potential doesn’t mean much.”

Stroh, who has coached Granada Hills to five City Section 4-A Division baseball titles, has said that this team could be one of his best. The problem, he said, is that they play like somebody owes them a trip to Dodger Stadium.

“This is a team that could be very good,” he said. “But the thing is, they’ve been told they’re good.”

Sometimes, he said, good just isn’t good enough.

“Maybe that’s one of the problems, that we have too much ability,” he said. “We’ve always won with a bunch of little guys who busted their rears to get the job done. I don’t see that anymore.

“For seven games, this has been happening. Being ranked where we are is a total fake-out.”

Team support: Perhaps more gratifying to first-year Taft baseball Coach Rich McKeon than the team’s turnaround this season has been the way his players have rallied together in his absence.

McKeon left Los Angeles for Connecticut at the start of the spring break to visit his ailing father, Richard McKeon, 71, who is suffering from heart and lung problems.

McKeon returned and coached Taft to a 5-1 win over Cleveland on Wednesday, but he may leave again at a moment’s notice to be with his father. He is confident the players will handle the situation.

“The players have been great,” he said. “We had a good thing going before I left and they made sure it stayed that way. They called practice on their own and all of them have rallied together.” In McKeon’s absence, the Toreadors won two of four games in the Holt-Goodman tournament.

Taft, which won one game last season, is 6-3 and 3-1 in West Valley League play, good for second place.

Once a coach, always a coach: After Hart Coach Bud Murray followed catcher Casey Burrill to the sidelines after the two were ejected in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game at San Gabriel, Murray made sure he was not forgotten. He settled in the parking lot and orchestrated several key coaching moves from his pavement perch. This bit of subterfuge allowed Hart (14-0) to escape San Gabriel with a come-from-ahead, 7-6 win in nine innings.

After Burrill’s ejection, Hart was without a catcher because backup Jason Edwards was pitching. As he left the field, Murray told his assistants to put third baseman David Toledo at catcher, move left fielder Lance Migita to third and put reserve Jeff Harms in left field.

The move paid off, as Toledo and Harms each threw out San Gabriel baserunners to end a Matador rally.

After Chris Matkin relieved Edwards, he was touched for a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh. Then, after he walked the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the eighth, Murray made a daring move.

“Put Robby in to pitch,” he yelled from the parking lot.

Robby Davis, Hart’s shortstop, had not pitched all year, yet he worked out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam. He then poked the game-winning single in the ninth.

Running for home: San Fernando’s Josh Bergara hit a grand slam against Birmingham that some Braves would not have called a slam, by any means.

“That wasn’t a home run,” grumbled one Birmingham player. “That was a triple and an error on the left-fielder.”

The grand slam actually was a long drive to left-center that, coupled with a slow relay, gave Bergara plenty of time to circle the bases for an inside-the-park homer, his third of the year.

And one more makes three: Senior guard Damon Greer became the third Cleveland basketball player to commit to a four-year school, saying he would sign a letter of intent with San Jose State. Center Richard Branham (Cal) and guard Michael Gray (Long Beach State) committed during the early signing period in November.

Coach Bob Braswell said a fourth player may join the list when high school seniors can sign April 13. Damon Charlot is being recruited by Chaminade of Hawaii and Gonzaga of Spokane, Wash. Of nine seniors on the varsity, six will attend college next fall, Braswell said. James Bunton (UCLA) and Earl Bodden (UC Santa Barbara) also will attend college.

Mini-Highlander: In case you were wondering, the program says junior Dennis Gildehaus wears No. 1 for Royal’s baseball team. It is somewhat difficult to distinguish on his uniform--half of the digit is tucked into the back of his pants.

Gildehaus, a reserve second baseman, stands 4-feet, 11-inches tall and weighs 90 pounds. In his Eddie Gaedel-like batting stance, Gildehaus nearly rests his elbows on his kneecaps.

“He gets all the lines, and he takes them real well,” Coach Mike McCurdy said of Gildehaus, who has a 24-inch waist and a 19-inch inseam. “He’s not self-conscious about his size at all. He’s a neat kid.”

Add Royal shorts: From McCurdy’s answering machine: “If it is daylight when you are calling, I am at the baseball field. If it is at night, I am on the way home from the baseball field.”

Staff writers Tim Brown, John Lynch, Brian Murphy and Lauren Peterson contributed to this notebook.