1989 ALL-STARS : St. Bernard’s Versatile Dan Melendez Dominates All-Stars

Having coached Dan Melendez the last two summers, John Stevenson knows the St. Bernard High star is capable of dominating a baseball game with his bat or his arm. Or both.

So, when Stevenson’s El Segundo Eagles met St. Bernard for the Camino Real League title May 10, the veteran coach was determined not to let Melendez beat him single-handedly. After all, that nearly happened April 15 when the senior pitcher-first baseman hit two home runs and knocked in five runs in a 9-6 El Segundo victory, a game in which Melendez did not pitch.

But he was on the mound for the rematch.

“I couldn’t do anything about his pitching,” Stevenson recalled, “but I could do something about his hitting. I wasn’t going to let one guy beat us for the championship.”

El Segundo took the bat out of Melendez’s hands by intentionally walking him three times in four trips to the plate as the Eagles captured the Camino Real crown with a 6-5 win in eight innings.

The strategy demonstrated the respect coaches have for Melendez, who set 14 school records in four seasons at St. Bernard, and the decision-making ability of Stevenson, who guided El Segundo to the CIF-Southern Section 2-A title, his sixth CIF crown in 30 years at the school.

For their efforts, Melendez and Stevenson have been chosen The Times South Bay Player and Coach of the Year.

Although affiliated with rival schools, the two shared a mutual admiration that grew during Melendez’s two summers playing for Stevenson on El Segundo’s American Legion team.

“I have a lot of respect for him as a manager and a person,” Melendez said. “He’s done a lot of good things for me. He talked to college coaches for me and taught me a lot about the game.”

Melendez, who signed a letter of intent with Pepperdine and Monday was a seventh-round draft choice of the Baltimore Orioles, said he understood why Stevenson walked him in a game that ended St. Bernard’s three-year reign as Camino Real League champion.

“He came up to me after the game and said, ‘I hope you understand that I had to do it.’ I told him, ‘Yeah, I understand.’ He had to do what he had to do to win the ballgame. It paid off for him.”

Stevenson said if personal feelings had come into play, he wouldn’t have walked Melendez.

“When I stopped to look at it as a human being, I felt bad about it,” he said. “But as far as directing the game, it was an easy decision. When you’re coaching against somebody, you take all the personalities out of it. It’s like poker.”

It appeared St. Bernard had been dealt a poor hand when the season began. The Vikings returned only one starter (Melendez) from the 1988 team that had reached the 2-A semifinals. But their 6-foot-4, 185-pound ace helped maintain the program’s success.

With Melendez hitting and pitching his way into the record books, St. Bernard took second in the Camino Real League, reached the 2-A quarterfinals before losing to eventual runner-up San Marino, 7-3, and finished with a 20-6 record. Half of the Vikings’ losses were to the 2-A finalists.

St. Bernard Coach Bob Yarnall said it was more than big numbers that made Melendez the best all-around player in school history.

“The intangibles are what make him so great,” Yarnall said. “Danny was like our fourth coach. He let the other kids know when they were doing things wrong. He had tremendous respect from the other players, and they followed his examples. He really brought the team together.”

Statistically, Melendez ranked near the top of nearly every pitching and hitting category in the South Bay. The left-hander posted an 11-3 record and 1.36 ERA in 84 1/3 innings. He batted .527 (39 for 74) with 12 home runs and 40 RBIs.

Included among his school records:

Most career hits (117).

Highest career batting average (.489).

Most career RBIs (112), ranking him fourth on the all-time Southern Section list. Redondo’s Scott Davison holds the record with 147.

Lowest career (1.71) and single-season ERA (1.36).

Most single-season RBIs (51 in 1988).

Most career (31) and single-season home runs (14 in 1988). His career total is one behind the Southern Section record held by Simi Valley’s Scott Sharts.

Melendez had numerous chances to set the home run mark but homered only once in his last eight games.

“It’s something that I wanted to do,” he said. “I have no one to blame but myself.”

Some of Melendez’s other career numbers are just as impressive:

Out of 444 fielding chances, he committed just four errors.

In 235 at-bats, he struck out just 15 times.

He hit .555 with runners in scoring position.

He won 22 of 27 pitching decisions.

“I just consider myself fortunate to have had him for two summers,” Stevenson said. “I think he’s a great player, and he can only get better.”

Like St. Bernard, El Segundo opened the season in a rebuilding situation. The Eagles returned only one starter (outfielder Erik Evans) and had to break in many players with little or no varsity experience.

Worse, one of the team’s top pitchers, junior left-hander Jason Wayt, suffered a shoulder injury that kept him from pitching until late in the season.

However, it soon became apparent that this was a team that would not only survive but thrive.

Under the experienced hand of Stevenson, California’s winningest coach with a 632-243 career record, the Eagles captured their fourth league championship in five years and sixth CIF divisional title since the Stevenson era began in 1960.

El Segundo finished with a 26-5 mark and eight straight wins, culminated by Saturday’s 7-4 triumph over San Marino in the 2-A final at Dodger Stadium.

Observers, especially those who coached against El Segundo, marveled at Stevenson’s handling of a relatively young team.

“He did a great job,” said St. Bernard’s Yarnall. “One thing about the El Segundo program is that it’s always been strong because all the players come up playing together. John puts the finishing touches on them.

“This is the first year I coached against him. What surprised me was that his team ran as much as it did. I was surprised they were that aggressive. It seemed to work 90% of the time. He seems to know the right time to do certain things.”

Perhaps the best example of Stevenson pushing the right buttons was his handling of the pitching staff. Without Wayt, their one bona fide strikeout threat, the Eagles had to rely on three finesse pitchers--senior Rick Clark, junior Rob Croxall and sophomore Brett Newell. Although they had virtually no varsity experience, the right-handers combined for a 24-5 record.

The rest of the team blended together just as well. Infielders Chris Lane and Pat Llamas and outfielder Jeremy Carr--seniors who had never played varsity baseball--became steady performers. Shortstop Mark Lewis, a junior who transferred from Rolling Hills, was a valuable addition. Junior catcher Garret Quaintance provided a big bat and solid defense. Evans was the senior leader.

But, Stevenson says, there were no stars.

“We have a CIF champion and I’m nominating someone (Melendez) from another team for CIF player of the year,” he said. “Some might think that’s being disloyal to El Segundo. But when I look at my team, it’s very hard to single out one person.

“There were so many guys who were strong links. If you took one kid off the team, I’d have to feel that someone else would pick up the slack. That’s not a negative thing. It’s a positive thing. There were some who didn’t make it into the starting lineup that were very good players. When they were called upon, they delivered.”

Spurred on by loyal fans, the Eagles went 4-0 in the 2-A playoffs, including a dramatic comeback against La Canada in the quarterfinals. Trailing 13-9, El Segundo rallied for five runs in the bottom of the seventh to avoid elimination.

“The school support and crowd support at El Segundo are something you don’t find anywhere else,” Stevenson said. “We had as many people at the (championship) game as they had for any of the other finals.”

Of course, there’s a good reason. Stevenson has given the people of El Segundo plenty to cheer about in three decades.