AMATEUR BASEBALL DRAFT : Royals Make Titans’ Mayne the 13th Pick

What was to be Brent Mayne’s glorious junior season at Cal State Fullerton instead became a season filled with aches and pains that kept him from playing behind the plate for close to a quarter of the Titans’ games.

But there was no disappointment for Mayne in baseball’s amateur draft Monday, when the Kansas City Royals made him a first-round draft choice, taking him with the 13th pick overall.

That left Mayne feeling pretty good Monday--”outstanding,” in fact, he said.

Next up for Mayne and his father, Orange Coast baseball Coach Mike Mayne, will be negotiations with the Royals. For the time being, the Maynes plan to handle the negotiations without an agent. Soon enough, there should be a nice signing bonus and an assignment to one of the Royals’ minor league teams--perhaps Baseball City, Fla. (Class A), although Mayne said he has had no indications.

Mayne joins Tim Wallach (1979), Bob Caffrey (1984) and Mike Harkey (1987) as Fullerton players who have been drafted in the first round.

For a time, Mayne had worried about how his sundry ailments would affect his selection in the draft. After a sophomore season in which he batted .393, put together a 38-game hitting streak that set records for Fullerton and the Big West Conference and helped take his team to the College World Series, Mayne’s stock was high. When this season began, he was 15 pounds stronger and heavier. But as this season unfolded, he had his doubts.

“I was actually (worried) when it first happened,” said Mayne, who missed several games at the start of the season with the flu, then missed more time when he bruised a biceps muscle in a collision at the plate. Then, in his first game back after that injury, he suffered a hip pointer in a slide at second base that plagued him the rest of the season.

“I worried that all those things would really affect how I would be seen through scouts’ eyes,” Mayne said. “But I learned a lot about myself, and stopped worrying about things I couldn’t control. I could just play my game when I was healthy.”

The scouts, clearly, were not bothered. Mayne, who hit .350 this year, had hoped to be chosen late in the first round or early in the second. He went higher than he allowed himself to hope.

“I didn’t want to put too much stock in what I heard,” Mayne said. “I didn’t want to be disappointed.”

But had he allowed himself to think of the ideal situation, this would have been it, he said.

“It seems as if this is a great situation for me to move (up),” Mayne said. “From what I’ve heard, the organization is really top-notch and treats players well. . . . I’ve been thinking the past couple of weeks that the team I wanted to go play for was Kansas City. But I didn’t want to get in a mind-set. You know these things are highly shaky, you never know what’s going to happen.”

Mayne’s enthusiasm for the Royals extends to the Southern California scouts who graded him and stayed in contact with him: Floyd Chandler of Fullerton, Gary Johnson of Costa Mesa, Al Kubski of Carlsbad and Rick Cardenas of Rowland Heights.

And one encouraging indication for the future is the age of the Royals’ starting catcher, former Angel Bob Boone, who is 41.

But talk of the big leagues, of course, is for the future. On Monday, Mayne enjoyed a day he had worked and waited for.

“It was kind of like something hit me,” Mayne said of the morning phone call that informed him he was a first-round choice. “It was something I thought about and was somewhat prepared for, but when it happened, it was like a bolt of lightning hit me. I realized what I had done, what they had done. It felt good.”

Draft Notes

Cal State Fullerton right-handed pitcher Mark Beck, who was projected to be a first-round draft choice before undergoing shoulder surgery in February, had not been chosen through the seventh round of the draft, which continues today and Wednesday. Fullerton designated hitter/first baseman David Staton (.371, 18 HRs) was taken in the fifth round by San Diego, and right-handed pitcher Matt Watson was taken in the seventh by San Francisco.

Greg Hansell of Kennedy High School was taken by the Boston Red Sox in the seventh round. He was 12-1 this season for the Fighting Irish, including a 1-0 victory over Saugus Saturday in the Southern Section 3-A championship game.

Hansell has signed a letter of intent to play football at Nevada Reno. He was a linebacker and wide receiver for the Fighting Irish football team.

But Hansell said he has not decided whether he will sign with the Red Sox or attend college.

“It’s a tough decision for an 18-year-old kid to make,” he said. “I’ll discuss it with my parents and with my coaches. To tell the truth, I’m pretty lost right now.”

Brett Grebe and Ryan Klesko of Westminster also were drafted, both by the Atlanta Braves. Grebe, an outfielder and pitcher, hit .410 last season and had a 9-4 record. Klesko, a first baseman, hit .333 with five home runs.