Some Gulls Still Make a Flap : Former Ventura County Players Break Into the Big Leagues

Todd Stottlemyre meant it as a compliment.

Really.

“In a sense,” he said, “it was baseball the old-fashioned way. It was like sandlot baseball.”

Stottlemyre, a long way from sandlot ball in his Toronto Blue Jays’ uniform and reclined in the visitors’ dugout at Anaheim Stadium, reminisced about the 1986 Ventura County Gulls, their stadium and their fans.

It was a season without lights, without beer and, finally, without a refrain.

The boys and Gulls of summer, one of whom was Stottlemyre, lasted but one year. Owners Ken McMullen, Jim Biby and Jim Colborn were unable to secure a site for a new stadium, and the Gulls, a member of the Class-A California League, were eventually sold to a group from San Bernardino, where they became the Spirit.

“I got my start there,” Stottlemyre said of the Gulls. “And that’s something I’ll always have, regardless of whether they have a Blue Jay team there or not.

“It was two months of the most fun I’ve had playing the game of baseball.”

Stottlemyre’s former and current teammates seem to share his affinity for the summer on the Gold Coast.

Rob Ducey, recently called up from Toronto’s triple-A affiliate in Syracuse to replace injured outfielder Lloyd Moseby, often reverts to his days as an aggressive outfielder in Ventura.

“Oh, jeez, I think about Ventura all the time,” he said. “Whenever I’m not swinging too good, I think about that time, because it was my best year. I think about my approach at the plate.

“I had a great time in Ventura. That was one of the best years I had in pro ball. The best year. I wish I could go back say ‘hi’ to all those people back there.”

The game, however, becomes increasingly intricate as a player ventures beyond the Class-A level.

Ducey, who spent some time on the Toronto roster last season, was hitless in 13 at-bats since being recalled until going 2 for 4 Tuesday. His record 3-8 and his control gone awry, Stottlemyre returned to Syracuse on July 27 to regain his confidence and his control. He is also developing a slider.

“It’s temporary,” Stottlemyre insisted when reached in Syracuse. “Nobody likes to go down, but I look at it as a positive for me. Pitching down here has allowed me to concentrate from pitch to pitch without all of the pressure. I really think I’ve reacquired my confidence.”

After pitching well for the Blue Jays early in the season, left-hander David Wells stumbled back to the minor leagues at the All-Star break with a 4.40 earned-run average and a tired arm. The former Gull has pitched one-third of an inning since.

Shortstop Eric Yelding and outfielder Geronimo Berroa, despite solid seasons with Syracuse, have yet to see Toronto in the summertime. Yelding and Berroa started for the American Assn. in this year’s first triple-A all-star game in Buffalo.

Left-handed hitting catcher Greg Myers was called up by the Blue Jays when rosters were expanded last September and is the heir apparent to Ernie Whitt, who is 36. Myers, however, injured his shoulder in Syracuse earlier this season and has been sent home to Riverside after playing in only 34 games. He will not play again this year.

Right-handed curveball artist Jose Mesa, who signed with the Blue Jays as a 15-year-old pitcher out of the Dominican Republic, was sent to the Baltimore Orioles in an off-season trade for veteran pitcher Mike Flanagan. Mesa was demoted to Rochester, the Orioles’ triple-A club, the day before Baltimore began its season, sparing him their 0-21 streak.

Of the former Gulls, only left-handed pitcher Jeff Musselman is contributing consistently for the Blue Jays. His victory Monday, in which he held the Kansas City Royals to 3 hits and 1 run in 7 innings, improved his record to 4-1. Musselman was 12-5 as a rookie last season.

“What I remember about A-ball is the guys that do well that continue through the organization and you keep seeing them at the different levels,” Musselman said. “That team, as a whole, has had a lot of players do really well.”

And then there is Glenn Ezell, the manager of the Gulls. Ezell went from Ventura to Knoxville, a Blue Jays’ double-A affiliate, and then out the door at the end of the 1987 season.

“You never want to be fired,” Ezell said, “but I think I came into a real good situation.”

Ezell was hired by the Royals’ organization, where he has managed the triple-A Omaha Royals to a 5 1/2-game lead over Iowa in the Western Division of the American Assn. Ezell, however, has not forgotten his season or players in Ventura. Syracuse, of the International League, was in Omaha for a weekend series earlier this season. Ezell took special interest in Ducey, who was struggling at the time.

“He told me what I was doing wrong, after the series was over and he knew we wouldn’t play against him the rest of the year,” Ducey said, laughing. “He had seen me at my best and was making a personal observation. He said I wasn’t aggressive enough at the plate. From that point on, I hit over .300.”

The impromptu instruction helped hasten Ducey’s call back to the big leagues. Ezell figured he was only following up on a previous commitment.

“I try to check up with guys I’ve coached in the past,” he said. “In Ventura we had some pretty good athletes, which makes it easier.”

Ezell and his athletes produced a 45-26 record through the first half of their California League schedule to finish three games behind first-place Palm Springs. The promotion of players like Stottlemyre, Musselman and Mesa to Knoxville, however, ruined their second-half chances. The Gulls were 30-41 in the second half, 13 games behind Visalia in the Southern Division.

Perhaps apathetic because of the team’s poor second-half showing, fans did not flock to Ventura College to spy their Gulls. The season’s paid attendance for 71 dates was 38,962, or a scant 548 per afternoon.

Stottlemyre, Musselman and Todd Provence, a right-handed pitcher in 1986 who is now trying to prove himself as a hitter, shared a condominium in Ventura. But, with all their home games during the day, they had to take people’s word for it that the living room window had a fine view of the ocean.

“It didn’t matter if we had 1,200 or 1,500 or 1,600 people,” said Stottlemyre, who struck out the first four batters he faced in the first Class-A game he played, the Gulls’ home opener against the Reno Padres at Ventura College. “It was always a real enthusiastic crowd. It was good, clean fun.”

Musselman, however, was less than enthusiastic about the “college atmosphere.”

“There was a certain lack of a professional atmosphere,” Musselman said. “I think that with a complex or stadium better than what they had, it would have been more of a success than what it was.

“They really didn’t draw a lot of people, but when you’re playing day games at a college field, it’s hard to draw even if you are winning.”

And that was not meant as a compliment.

Really.

PROGRESS OF FORMER GULLS PITCHING

Pitcher, Age Club G IP SO BB W-L ERA Todd Stottlemyre, 23 Toronto 20 102 65 37 3-8 5.63 Syracuse, AAA 3 21 14 5 2-0 2.57 Jeff Musselman, 25 Toronto 5 30 17 12 4-1 1.80 Syracuse, AAA 10 49 31 17 4-1 2.94 Jose Mesa, 21 Rochester, AAA 11 15 15 14 0-3 8.62 David Wells, 25 Toronto 37 59 51 31 3-5 4.40 Syracuse, AAA 1 1 1 0-0 0.00

BATTING

Player, Age Club G AB 2B 3B HR RBI SB Avg. Rob Ducey, 23 Toronto 6 17 0 0 0 1 0 .118 Syracuse 90 317 14 4 7 42 7 .256 Geronimo Berroa, 23 Syracuse 108 390 25 1 8 54 6 .272 Eric Yelding, 23 Syracuse 110 455 14 2 0 32 42 .264 Greg Myers, 22 Syracuse 34 120 7 1 7 21 1 .283

Major league statistics through Aug. 9th.