A Fielder’s Choice : Titans’ Peters a Positive Influence After Learning From Drug Mistake

Day after day, Rex Peters watches his teammates make mistakes. He would like to help, but there is not much he can do.

“Shake it off,” he will tell the Cal State Fullerton infielders after another ground ball eludes their gloves or another throw to first sails out of Peters’ reach. But he knows that this is something easier said than accomplished.

Peters is probably the best defensive first baseman Cal State Fullerton’s Larry Cochell has had in his 24 years as a coach. He plays with a defense that may be the worst. In 50 games, the Titans have made 114 errors. Peters has made only four at first base and has a .988 fielding percentage.

He wants to help, but what can he do?

“To tell you the truth, you can’t really help someone who’s making errors,” Peters said. “You can say, ‘Hey, shake it off,’ try to keep their confidence up. But I can’t field the ground balls for them.”

There are other things Peters cannot do for his teammates, other decisions he cannot make for them or anyone else. But he sometimes feels that if he talks about what happened to him, someone may listen and keep from making the wrong choice.

Last year, Peters made what he calls a one-time mistake that cost him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Sometime before the Titans went to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. regionals, Peters said, he tried cocaine for the only time. He had used marijuana before, but never cocaine, he said.

“At a party, some friends presented it to me and said, ‘Try it, it’s not going to hurt you. You won’t get caught.’ That’s what they said,” Peters said. “Famous last words.”

During the Titans’ appearance in the regionals, Peters, then the starting right fielder, was selected at random for NCAA drug testing. He tested positive. The Titans went on to win the regional, earning a trip to the College World Series at Omaha, Neb. Peters, ineligible under NCAA rules, was suspended from the team for “disciplinary reasons,” the school announced.

Even when he learned that he would be tested, Peters did not expect to test positive.

“To show how naive I was, I didn’t know how long it would stay in your system,” Peters said. “I didn’t think I would test positive. I went through the drug test, then we won the regional, and I was all excited to go to Omaha. Then (Cochell) says, ‘Rex, you tested positive.’ My whole world came to an end. You don’t know how hard it is to tell your Dad you’re not going to the College World Series because you tested positive.”

His family had made plans to travel to Omaha to watch him play. Peters had to tell them to cancel the plans.

“I wasn’t an addict,” he said. “It was strictly recreational use. I overcame it by myself, without counseling or rehabilitation. I got caught before it got out of hand.”

Failing the drug test has changed him, Peters said. It changed the way he thinks about drug use, and the way he thinks about his life.

“There’s so much you can throw away with one dumb mistake,” he said. “You embarrass your family, you embarrass Cal State Fullerton, all the people you ever played for in high school, in junior college. You don’t realize. You think you’re just hurting yourself. You don’t realize you hurt other people along with it.

“It was a real disappointment not playing in the College World Series. It gave me a wake-up call. I saw how you can throw away parts of your life on one mistake. It made me realize how much you can lose. I’m determined to make sure that mistake never happens again.”

Peters said he has not used drugs since and that he now rarely drinks, and then in moderation.

He said some of the changes in his life are a result of maturity, a maturity that perhaps simply comes with age.

“I’m pretty old,” Peters said. “I’m 23, one of the oldest guys on the team. When you’re young, like most of these guys, 19 or 20, you’re saying let’s have fun. You’re not worrying day to day. Through the things I went through last year, I realize there are other things in life than baseball. I want to make sure those things are the way I want them to be.”

Peters had time to ponder his future while the team was in Omaha. He did not know what to expect from Cochell, who had said they would talk about the drug test when he returned.

Peters had reason for concern about the reaction of Cochell, who has a reputation with his players for being decidedly straight-laced. He hardly curses; how would he react to drug use?

“I was prepared for him to say, ‘We don’t want you in the program,’ ” Peters said.

Cochell allowed Peters to come back, but cut his scholarship by more than 50%. Further, he has been subject to unannounced drug tests under school policy since testing positive.

Now, Cochell is full of admiration for Peters.

“He has really made some adjustments in his life,” Cochell said. “Everything has gone well for him. He has made a commitment to school and baseball. He would have my highest recommendation in anything he wanted. I would hire him as a graduate assistant, anything. . . . I think the real mark of a person is how they react to a bad experience. That probably is a very difficult thing, to miss the World Series. Every boy wants to play in the College World Series.

“Rex had three choices: He could do what he’s done, stay about the same or quit on baseball and feel sorry for himself. The real mark of a person is how they react when they’ve had some adversity.”

Peters said the incident made him feel a need to prove himself.

“After that, I wasn’t satisfied with myself as a person,” he said. “I was down on myself. I wanted to prove to myself, my coaches and my family that it was a one-time deal and I could overcome it. I was anxious to come back and prove I was a different person.”

Now when Peters talks about different aspects of his life, he talks about consistency.

He has been remarkably consistent in baseball.

After hitting .330 as a right fielder last season with powerful Keith Kaub at first, Peters returned to his natural position this year.

“When I got back to first base this year, I just relaxed, and my offensive numbers got better because of it,” he said.

Peters, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound switch-hitter, began this season by getting at least one hit in each of the first 23 games, mounting a hitting streak that lasted from Jan. 31 to March 19. He has started every game this season, the only Titan to do that, and is batting .359 overall, .466 in Big West Conference games.

If Peters doesn’t get a hit, he often gets on base anyway. He has walked 27 times and been hit by pitches five times. His on-base percentage is .448, .548 in conference games.

He has five home runs and 20 doubles. And he has stolen 10 bases in 10 attempts.

Although he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners out of high school in Denver, Peters didn’t draw much attention as a right fielder after last year--his junior season and his first at Fullerton after transferring from Orange Coast College. His prospects are likely to be better after the numbers he has produced this season, along with evidence of his defensive ability at first base.

But as well as Peters is doing, the Titans seem unlikely to return to Omaha. They are in third place in the Big West going into a three-game series against first-place Cal State Long Beach that begins tonight at Titan Field. They have a series against second-place Fresno State remaining.

“I threw away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play in the College World Series,” Peters said. “I was hoping I would come back and we would have a chance to go. We had the talent, but things just haven’t worked out well.”

The Titans lost All-American pitcher Mark Beck for the season because of surgery. All-American catcher Brent Mayne has missed time with illness and injuries. And then there has been the matter of the struggling defense.

“I realize now our chances of getting to Omaha are real slim,” Peters said.

So failing the NCAA drug test--a controversial policy that has been challenged in court--may have kept Peters from his only chance to play in the College World Series.

But contrary to what one might expect, Peters supports the policy.

“I’m all for it,” he said. “I think it’s great. If a kid has got a problem, you can catch it early enough where he can overcome it. . . . I’m glad I went through something like that at that point in my life, when I could do something about it. It’s not like I was 35, had a whole career and family. I could have lost it all. I’m grateful in a way it happened at that time.”