Mike Kelly Has Arizona State Seeing Stars All Over Again : College baseball: Sophomore outfielder from Los Alamitos evokes memories of former Sun Devil standouts. And he ranks with the best.

Watch Mike Kelly run. Watch him hit. Or catch. Or throw.

Kelly doesn’t run as much as he floats, like Carl Lewis in mid-flight of an Olympic 100 meters, sprinting to first base.

His bat seems so light in his hands when he slaps an outside pitch into right field for a single.

He catches the ball smoothly, effortlessly snapping his glove shut, the ball tucked safely inside.

Kelly’s right arm whips the ball into the infield in a blur.

His movements on a baseball diamond are so pleasing to the eye, so graceful, so elegant. At 6-feet-4 and 195 pounds, he certainly looks like the best college baseball player in the country. And many say he is the best.

His teammates on the Arizona State baseball team, third-ranked in this week’s Baseball America magazine poll, seem rough and stilted in their motions in comparison.

“I’ve never seen a baseball player that’s as pretty to watch,” said Jim Brock, Arizona State coach since 1972. “Everything he does is just beautiful. Beautiful.”

That ranks Kelly, a sophomore outfielder from Los Alamitos High School, ahead of Marty Barrett, Barry Bonds, Hubie Brooks, Brett Butler, Alvin Davis, Oddibe McDowell and Ken Phelps, former ASU players now in the major leagues.

“My coaching career spans a lot longer than I’d like to think,” Brock said. “And there have been two near-perfect human beings, Alvin Davis and Kelly. This guy (Kelly) is something. It’s an honor to be a part of his career.”

Brock had just watched Kelly hit two singles Friday in the Sun Devils’ 8-4 victory over UCLA, their 23rd consecutive.

(Arizona State’s streak ended with a 12-9 loss to UCLA Saturday. The Sun Devils take a 40-11 record into Friday’s Pacific 10 Southern Division showdown against first-place Stanford at Tempe, Ariz.).

“I’m trying to think of something to make Kelly better,” he said. “I’m not sure what it would be. He’s bigger than life.”

Baseball America has named Kelly one of four NCAA player of the year candidates.

Last season, Kelly was Collegiate Baseball magazine’s freshman of the year. He also was a second-team All-American choice, having set an ASU freshman record for RBIs with 56 and tied the freshman record for stolen bases with 16.

He batted .300 with 10 home runs, including one that traveled nearly 500 feet in a game at UC Riverside.

Jeff Pentland, in his sixth season as Arizona State’s hitting instructor, called it the longest home run he had seen.

Kelly’s sophomore season has been even better.

With 11 regular-season games left, he already has surpassed many of his totals. Kelly is batting .356 with 16 home runs and 62 RBIs. His average is the third-highest on the team. He leads the team in home runs and is second in RBIs.

His tape-measure home runs have continued to draw notice.

Last month, Brock found a ball Kelly hammered into the neighboring Salt River, dry most of the year, some 500 feet from home plate at ASU’s Packard Stadium.

The ball had an “A” from EASTON, the bat’s manufacturer, clearly emblazoned on it.

The company now uses an excerpt of a newspaper account of Kelly’s blast in its national advertising campaign.

At California this season, Kelly homered onto the roof of a building beyond the left-field fence, another 500-foot-plus shot.

Kelly calls it the best swing he has ever had. “When I connected, it was an awesome feeling,” he said.

Brock calls Kelly’s long home runs “legendary.”

“It’s flattering,” Kelly said. “There’s also a lot of pressure. I look around at all the other players that have played here and at what they’ve done. Everyone says I’ll play in the pros. It puts pressure on me with all those expectations.”

Kelly, it seems, is a humble star. One not prone to overstatements. He knows attention can be fleeting.

He still remembers the snubbing he took coming out of high school.

After hitting .463 as a senior, earning all-county and all-league honors, the college scholarship offers came in staggering numbers.

He narrowed his choices to Cal and Arizona State.

But when the major league draft was held in June, the rounds passed in agonizing fashion.

Finally, the New York Mets selected Kelly on the 24th round, offering an $80,000 contract. Brock said the pros stayed away, fearful that Kelly was intent on playing at Arizona State. Brock also said the Mets’ offer was less than what Kelly had hoped.

Kelly went to Arizona State determined to prove himself worthy of a higher selection and more money.

By last April, Kelly was batting .312 with nine home runs. And Brock was telling reporters in Phoenix that Kelly was a can’t-miss superstar.

“Obviously, it’s an embarrassment (to pro scouts),” Brock told the Phoenix Gazette last year.

“Coach made it really easy for me,” Kelly said. “After the second day of practice, he saw me take batting practice. I hit a couple of balls well. He said, ‘We’ve got to get you in the lineup.’

“My main goal was to be a starter. Then I kind of went from there.”

Now, Kelly is projected as a possible No. 1 choice when he becomes eligible for the draft after his junior season in 1991.

Yet, despite all the glowing accounts of Kelly’s skills, there are weaknesses he and his coach would like to correct.

“His personality and his approach to hitting are kind of the same,” Brock said. “Passive. We want him to be more aggressive in the count, to have a better (strike) zone. You can still pitch him and get him out.”

Kelly also wants to improve his throwing, which he said is the weak link in his game.

“I’m right where I’d like to be at this point,” Kelly said. “I’m improving. (But) there’s always something to work on.”