ATHLETE OF THE WEEK : Salkeld Stops Opponents and the Presses

Rarely does a move by Roger Salkeld go unreported. From pitching a fastball to ditching a class, Saugus High’s celebrated senior has made pretty good copy all season.

Throughout the year, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, the Fox Television Network, Baseball America magazine and scores of local newspapers all have devoted either ink or air time to the most famous pitcher in Saugus history.

Salkeld is 10-0 with 139 strikeouts and an 0.68 earned-run average through 82 1/3 innings. He has yielded just 32 hits, only two for extra bases. And never-- not in three varsity seasons--has Salkeld yielded a home run.

That’s saying something, considering the center-field fence at Saugus High is just 360 feet from home plate.

Last week, Salkeld really stopped the presses with his first career no-hitter, a 13-strikeout, 4-2 victory over rival Canyon in the Golden League finale. A sidebar to the no-hitter was Salkeld’s health: He posted his 10th complete game despite battling a fever of 102.

Saugus already had clinched the league championship, but Salkeld insisted on making the start. “It was my turn in the rotation,” he said simply.

The Centurions (19-4-2) enter the Southern Section 3-A Division playoffs Friday against visiting Hesperia, and with every ensuing feverish pitch toward the goal of the June 3 championship game at Dodger Stadium, more cameras, microphones and pencils surely await Salkeld.

How does Salkeld, a reluctant 18-year-old media personality, react to such exposure?

“If they’re gonna do this,” he said with a sigh, “they’re gonna do this.”

In its May 8 edition, Sports Illustrated ranked the 6-foot-5 Salkeld one of the top three high school pitchers in the nation entering the June 5 amateur draft.

Earlier this week, ESPN reported that Salkeld likely will be one of the top five players selected nationwide.

And last week, Fox news visited a practice session to feature the humble hurler as its high school athlete of the week--a media event Salkeld wishes he had skipped.

“I made an idiot of myself,” he groaned.

Not at all, say a proud family and friends. But he has embarrassed himself--and for all to see.

Three weeks ago, Salkeld drew a one-game suspension from school administrators after he cut class during a safety drill. That day, Saugus lost to Canyon, 6-4, with the Cowboys scoring three runs in the seventh inning while Salkeld watched helplessly from the dugout.

The local press, naturally, had a field day with Roger the class dodger. One publication dubbed the truant pitcher “Huckleberry Salkeld.”

“I’ve told him,” Salkeld’s mother, Elaine, said, “ ‘Everything you do is going to wind up in the newspaper.’ Now he knows. He’s going to have to get used to it.”

The rematch with Canyon gave Salkeld a chance to make amends.

“We lost that (earlier) game and I kinda felt like it was my fault,” Salkeld said. “And it’s such a rivalry.”

So absorbed in the close game was Salkeld that he said he was unaware of the no-hitter until the final out. Saugus needed a three-run seventh-inning rally to nullify two unearned Canyon runs.

“Everyone was acting like we won the World Series when I came off the field,” Salkeld said. “I had no clue.”

But soon, plenty of press. Fox reported the no-hitter as a postscript to its Salkeld feature, which aired that evening.

“It’s important to me,” Salkeld said of publicity, “but not as important as winning.”