Home, Sweet Homer : Gordon Emerges as Scyphers’ Latest Power Hitter at Simi Valley High

Scott Sharts gazes skyward. He could be watching a baseball fly far over an outfield fence.

“Joe Gordon,” he says slowly, as if speaking of a legendary slugger. Sharts squeezes a bat and taps it to the ground. “Joe . . . Gordon . “

Sharts, a 6-foot-6, 222-pound first baseman, is not easily impressed. He was perhaps the best power hitter in Southern Section history when he played at Simi Valley High from 1986-88. He holds the career home run record at 32 and missed the single-season standard by one when he hit 15 his senior year.

Sharts still lives in Simi Valley and still bashes home runs: He leads Cal State Northridge with 17 this season.

Gordon happens to be a 5-11, 160-pound senior infielder for Simi Valley High who never hit a home run in high school before this season.

Great Scott and Average Joe.

What could Sharts possibly admire in Gordon?

Could be his hot home run trot.

Gordon has 11 home runs, including one Wednesday in a 6-4 win over Royal. He has five regular-season games and possible playoff games to reach Sharts’ single-season school record of 15.

“If he breaks the record, that’s the way it is,” Sharts said, shrugging. “It can’t stand forever. Joe is a good contact hitter. I’ve known him for a while. He’s always willing to take extra hacks.”

When he’s not in a batting cage or taking live hitting, Gordon is swinging away at a solo hitting device that his father markets. “My life is my swing,” proclaimed Gordon, who is called “Flash” by his teammates.

Yet Sharts isn’t surprised at Gordon’s electrifying power surge for two additional reasons.

Gordon, a right-handed batter, plays at the homer-friendly Simi Valley field, which measures 295 feet down the left-field line.

Gordon plays for Coach Mike Scyphers, who at 5-9, 150 pounds is the Southern Section’s unlikely bard of going yard.

“A lot of people talk about hitting, but Coach Scyphers talks about the right things,” Gordon said. “And not just about hitting, but inspiring a winning attitude.”

Home runs, of course, go a long way toward victory.

At most schools, a burly player with obvious power occasionally comes along. At Simi Valley, average-sized players hit with great power every year.

Gordon is merely the latest in a long succession of Scyphers-trained Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Sluggers.

Since taking over in 1979, Scyphers has a lifetime record of 230-78 but has not calculated his home-field record. His teams have racked up 277 home runs, including an impressive 176 in 160 games over the past 5 1/2 years.

Pitching problems this season will prevent Simi Valley (10-8, 4-3 in Marmonte League play) from posting at least 20 victories for the sixth year in a row. As usual, however, the Pioneers lead the league in home runs (25) and average a league-leading 7.4 runs a game.

“Scyphers is a hell of a coach,” Sharts said. “He’s a little guy but he knows a lot about hitting. He’s especially helpful with the mental aspect. He taught me how to be a smart hitter, what pitch to look for in what zone on what count.

“I still talk with him all the time, just about after every game.”

Scyphers does a lot of talking during games as well, constantly reminding his team that it is one swing away from breaking a game open or overcoming a deficit. Especially when the Pioneers are playing at home.

“No lead is safe at this field. We understand that and never get down,” Scyphers said. “A three-run home run by the other team doesn’t bother us at all.”

Frequently flustered are opposing batters, however. Those playing at Simi Valley for the first time react similarly.

“They walk onto the field, take one look at the fence and begin licking their chops,” Scyphers said. “Hitters try to pull every pitch, so we work with our pitchers to keep the ball down and away. Subsequently, we get a lot of ground balls to shortstop and third.”

Thousand Oaks junior David Skeels, a .500 hitter who blasted his first career home run at Simi Valley last month, agreed that the close fence is a temptation he’d rather do without: “You show up, see the short porch and everybody is saying that anybody can hit it out of there. Then you overswing.”

After watching Simi Valley from the opposing dugout for eight years as coach at league rival Camarillo, Ken Wagner is working with former Pioneers as Moorpark College coach.

“Mike prepares his kids very well,” he said. “They hit a lot of home runs and people say it’s the field, but I don’t remember too many barely making it out of the park. They’ve had some very good baseball players.

“And I think opposing kids can get psyched on their field.”

Meanwhile, home is where the homers are for Simi Valley batters.

“Our field is smaller so it gives me confidence that if I hit it to left, it has more of a chance to get out,” said Gordon, who has hit all but one of his home runs at home. And while acknowledging that all of his home runs have been hit to left field, he insisted, “I think about going to right field. It makes me patient.”

All things come to those who wait for a pitch they can drive, preaches Scyphers. He believes that a fat pitch can be found nearly every at-bat.

In practice, after each player has taken his daily 100 swings against live pitching or in a cage behind the field (“Repetition is key,” Scyphers said), the coach stands in front of the mound and pitches while each player takes a simulated at-bat.

“Sometime during the at-bat, I give them one nice, medium-speed pitch they should drive,” he said. “They really learn to lay off until they get their best pitch. If they miss that pitch or take it, I make it tough on them.”

Fifteen to 20 times in the past decade, by Scyphers’ estimation, Simi Valley won a home game after the fifth inning with a home run. Never, he claims, has a Simi Valley opponent done the same.

Most memorable is a first-round playoff game in 1981 against Mira Costa. Simi Valley trailed, 9-4, in the seventh inning and Tim Rapp hit a two-run home run with one out to pull the Pioneers to within three. With two out, the bases were loaded for Bobby Clark.

“I told him not to be overanxious, to wait on a good pitch,” Scyphers recalled. “So he drives the first pitch over the left-field fence and we win.”

Another unforgettable comeback came in 1988 with the Pioneers trailing Newbury Park, 5-0, in the seventh. Sophomore Jeff Sommer (now a senior with 15 career homers) opened the inning with a home run. The bases were loaded with none out and Darren Aurand hit a grand slam to tie the score. Sharts followed with a game-winning shot on a 3-0 count.

On his personal list of long-term, long-ball memories, Sharts adds seventh-inning blasts that defeated Canoga Park two years in a row.

Those game-winners were especially sweet for Scyphers, a Canoga Park alumnus. As a diminutive high school junior, he was sometimes asked to bat leadoff and take two strikes, at which point he would be replaced by a pinch-hitter. Scyphers is quick to point out that, for the record, he did hit one home run as a senior. “And we used wooden bats in those days,” he added.

These days, he has a blast along with his players.

“Me and Scyphers had home run contests in practice. That was fun,” Sharts recalled.

An uneven matchup, it would seem, but don’t forget that Gordon, who stands just a tad taller than his coach, is chasing Sharts’ record.

“It’s something to shoot for,” said Gordon, who added, almost apologetically, “but I’m not a home run hitter.”

He could have fooled opponents.

“That little Gordon kid has a sweet stroke,” said Don Cardinal, the Channel Islands coach. “He doesn’t seem like he tries to overpower the ball.”

But like so many Simi Valley players over the years, he does anyway.