Schooler Slow Getting Started, but He Has Become a Strong Finisher

Many times, The Dream was clouded by rejection, injury and disappointment, but Mike Schooler’s commitment never wavered.

His eyes were focused firmly on the prize--a major league baseball career.

He ignored coaches when they told him he wasn’t good enough.

He stuck by his aspirations, trying to forget the criticism. He worked out on his own, played Sunday and Wednesday nights in the Orange County Amateur Baseball Assn., while patiently waiting for his talents to blossom.

Schooler never played an inning of varsity baseball at Garden Grove High School.

A broken wrist he suffered in a motorcycle accident ended his high school career after his junior season. He had played for the junior varsity up until then. And even if he hadn’t hurt himself, Schooler said he might have been cut from the varsity as a senior. He just wasn’t good enough.

Still, he pressed on undeterred. He practiced patience while polishing his pitching on the fields of Orange County, rising from obscurity to pitch for Golden West College and later Cal State Fullerton.

And, finally , Schooler’s dream of playing in the majors has led him to his personal Oz--the Emerald City of Seattle.

At age 25, having traveled a circuitous route to get here, Schooler is the Seattle Mariners’ ace reliever, leading the team in saves with seven. In Sunday’s 12-7 victory at Oakland, he pitched 2 scoreless innings and got his fourth victory of the season.

So, is Schooler thrilled to be here?

“Very. You gotta be.”

And is that a grin as wide as Puget Sound?

You better believe it.

Schooler makes his first return to Orange County as a major leaguer when the Mariners open a three-game series against the Angels tonight at Anaheim Stadium.

“I knew there was something inside me,” Schooler said recently while sitting in the Mariners’ clubhouse in the Kingdome. “I knew I wasn’t as bad as some people said I was.”

Schooler’s rise to the majors has certainly taken some people who knew him as a young player by surprise.

“I think it’s great,” said Fred Hoover, who coached Schooler at Golden West and is now the pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton. “It shows he has some bulldog in him. A lot of kids wouldn’t have stayed with it the way he did. He probably just wasn’t ready to pitch when he got out of high school. He’s one of the few kids that develop late.

“It’s much more gratifying when you see a kid like that survive to the majors because some kids make it so easily.” After graduating from Garden Grove in 1980, Schooler joined an Orange County Amateur Baseball Assn. team called the Pirates and played with former high school, college and minor league players.

It wasn’t intense competition--most were just playing for fun--and Schooler thrived under the conditions. He played two years in the OCABA, then took a tip from a friend and tried out at Cypress College. But it proved to be yet another stumbling block. Schooler pitched poorly and, disappointed yet again, he left to attend Golden West the following year.

There he met Hoover and things began to fall into place.

“Three or four years ago when I went to Golden West I just started to mature and get stronger,” Schooler said.

That 1984 season was the indeed the turning point for him. He compiled a 7-3 record and had a 3.20 earned-run average. He earned all-Southern California Region honors and a scholarship to Fullerton for the 1985 season.

“He did not have an over-amount of confidence,” Hoover said. “We always thought more of him than he thought of himself. He pitched in all of our tough games that season.”

Schooler continued to improve and impress, though slowly, as a Titan, going 8-1 with a 4.50 ERA.

The Mariners took notice and drafted Schooler on the second round of the June, 1985 draft.

From there his career moved along at a brisk pace.

He spent the ’85 season at Class A Bellingham, Wash., just up I-5 from the Kingdome, going 4-3 with a 2.93 ERA. The following season, he was 12-10 at Class A Wausau, Wis. Then he was promoted to double-A Chattanooga, Tenn., last year.

Schooler had his best season with a 13-8 record and 144 strikeouts in 28 starts.

But just as he had a taste of success, Schooler faced another challenge. At the end of last season, the Mariners said they wanted to make him a short reliever. He had been a starter since his days at Golden West and he was reluctant to change, but the club said the magic words: “It will be easier to make the majors as a reliever.”

Schooler agreed to try it and spent the winter playing for Caracas of the Venezuelan League, pitching exclusively out of the bullpen.

“I feel like I took to it,” Schooler said. “I have no desire to be a starter now. I like this role a lot better than I thought I would.”

He made the Mariners’ 40-man spring training roster and was assigned to triple-A Calgary, compiling a 4-4 record with 8 saves.

But what was most impressive was his strikeout-to-walk ratio: 47 strikeouts and 6 walks.

The Mariners brought Schooler up from Calgary on June 9. He made his debut June 11 against the Minnesota Twins and picked up his first save the following night against the Twins.

And since then, he has been the best the Mariners have had in the bullpen.

“He doesn’t get flustered,” Seattle Manager Jim Snyder said. “He has an attitude that if they beat him, they beat him. He has that kind of mentality that you need. He likes to be in the trenches when the game is on the line.” Schooler has fared considerably better than the other Seattle relievers.

No other Mariner has more than two saves.

This could be one one reason why the team is in last place in the American League West and is a cinch to post its 12th consecutive losing season.

Seattle’s hitting is anemic. In one recent six-game stretch, the Mariners were batting .083 (4 for 48) with runners in scoring position.

Consequently, Seattle fans are resigned to losing. For instance, a banner hanging from the upper deck in the Kingdome reads, “Treasure Each Win.”

This season has been particularly trying for the Mariners. The team fired Manager Dick Williams and replaced him with Snyder, who had been the first base coach. General Manager Dick Balderson was fired and former Philadelphia Phillies GM Woody Woodward took his place.

The Mariners, because of trades, are a team without veteran leadership.

But Schooler isn’t bothered by any of this. He’s having too much fun just being in the majors.

“The more you win the more fun it is,” Schooler said. “It’s not really as gloomy as it looks. There are a lot of bright spots, a lot of things to look forward to.”

Schooler is just one of the Mariners’ fine young players who possibly could brighten the future in Seattle.

Harold Reynolds, in his third season in the majors, made the All-Star team this year. He has shown considerable flair at second base. Reynolds leads the team with a .286 average.

First baseman Alvin Davis has a .285 career average and is hitting .284 this season.

And Schooler, for once in his career, has been earning praise for his fine pitching.

“His arm is very good,” Snyder said of Schooler. “He’s taking care of his body really well. He should just get better with experience.”

Schooler is looking forward to future triumphs, but always remembers the long, twisting road he took to get this far.

“It was a matter of not letting it get me down,” Schooler said. “I was trying to keep the dream alive. I knew I was getting better and better. It (his career) finally just took it’s course.

“It’s weird to hear everybody (his teammates) talking about what great high school careers they had. I played on all those crappy fields in Orange County. That’s a long ways away.”