Tustin Pitcher Frequently Gives Himself Sermons on the Mound : 3-A Division: Dan Baker rants, raves--and even sings--between pitches. His 14-1 record also speaks volumes.

Dan Baker talks a pretty good game . . . usually while it’s in progress.

Between pitches, the Tustin High School pitcher has been known to take a little stroll behind the mound for a conference. He talks and yells, even babbles. Sometimes, he sings.

But mainly Baker just gets angry--at bad pitches he has thrown or untimely hits he has allowed. It’s a ritual his teammates are used to and opponents, not to mention umpires, are baffled by.

“Every now and then, an ump will lean over and whisper to me, ‘Who’s he talking to?’ ” Tustin catcher Ryan Relph said. “When I say, ‘To himself,’ they lean back and we get on with the game. I don’t think they want to know any more.”

It can be annoying to hitters, who must stand at the plate watching the 6-foot-2, 200-pound left-hander stalking and talking. But Baker is even more annoying to hitters when he returns to the mound.

This season, Baker has pitched--and talked--himself to a 14-1 record, which is one victory short of the recognized Orange County single-season record.

Andy Messersmith was 15-3 for Western in 1963. Baker will get a chance to match that mark when he pitches against La Serna in the Southern Section 3-A championship game at 1 p.m. today at Anaheim Stadium.

Yet for all his victories--27 in three seasons--the talk about Baker is about Baker talking.

“I can see where some coaches might look at what Baker does and think he’s a hot dog,” Saddleback Coach Bob Mangram said. “But it’s not directed toward anyone but himself. If I had a pitcher who was that good, he could do whatever he wanted to do on the mound.”

Said Tustin Coach Vince Brown: “I hear some criticism that Danny’s immature on the mound. He’s not trying to degrade anybody, he’s just getting mad at himself. He gets angry and then he attacks the plate.”

The method of Baker’s madness has worked. He comes into today’s game with a 1.23 earned-run average and has won five consecutive games, four of which have been shutouts.

Baker has allowed only two runs in the past 47 innings. He had a string of 34 consecutive scoreless innings before it ended in a 6-2 quarterfinal victory over La Quinta last Friday.

So Baker’s talk is anything but cheap.

“He’s a left-hander, you know,” La Quinta Coach Dave Demarest said. “They’re a different breed. They do everything backwards or maybe we’re the ones who do everything backwards.”

Baker can’t explain why it all began. He said he has never heard of Al Hrabosky or Mark Fidrych, two of major league baseball’s most famous stalkers and talkers.

Baker said he developed the pitching rap on his own. When he was 12, he began singing songs to himself on the mound. It soon progressed to singing--out loud--while he was pitching to remain focused on the game.

He expanded his routine to include talking and yelling.

“I’m not a psychotic or anything like that,” said Baker, a senior. “I talk to myself out there because it gets me pumped up to pitch. Sometimes I yell at myself when I make a mistake or when there’s a pitch I think was a strike. I’m a perfectionist, I think any pitch that’s close to the plate is a strike. But I’m not crazy.”

Relph has been Baker’s catcher for the past four years, in youth leagues and then at Tustin. He quickly got used to Baker’s habit.

“It was weird the first time I caught Dan,” said Relph, a senior. “I went out to the mound to see who he was talking to. He said, ‘To myself.’ I thought, ‘OK,’ and went back to the plate. It works, so why mess with it?”

And it has worked.

After helping the Tillers’ frosh-soph team win the Sea View League title as a freshman, Baker was moved up to the varsity as a sophomore. He became the team’s No. 2 starter and finished with a 6-3 record.

Last season, Baker was 7-2 with 100 strikeouts.

“The first time I saw Dan pitch was when he was in Pony League and he was great,” Brown said. “I knew he was going to help our program. Of course, when I saw him storm around the mound, I felt I was going to have to break him of that habit of talking on the mound.”

Brown has since changed his mind. He said the routine is an important part of Baker’s pitching style.

He did get his pitcher to calm down a little this season, but when Baker’s pitching suffered, Brown took the restraints off.

“Dan is just emotionally into the game,” Brown said. “You can’t take a kid’s personality away from him. He works within the ‘team’ concept, but he also has to have some individualism.”

The combination has been deadly.

Baker won his first eight decisions before losing to Newport Harbor, 4-0. After that game, he adjusted his pitching style because he wasn’t getting the velocity on his pitches.

Baker began using his legs more when he pitched and the results were immediate. After the Newport Harbor loss, Baker pitched four consecutive shutouts and didn’t allow a run for 34 innings, one of which was in relief.

“Early in the season I had been trying to be too fine, I wasn’t over-powering batters,” Baker said. “After the Newport Harbor game, I watched a video of (Foothill pitcher) Kent Donnelly and saw how he used his legs when he pitched. I changed my motion so I ended up in more of a crouch like Donnelly.”

Baker said that he has picked up five-to-seven miles per hour on his fastball since the change. He has 102 strikeouts in 92 innings pitched.

Yet, the one knock on Baker by college recruiters is that he doesn’t throw hard enough, according to Brown. And, about the only one talking about where Baker will be pitching next season is Baker.

Despite his impressive record and the fact that he’s a usually coveted left-hander, few schools have been recruiting Baker. He has received a partial scholarship offers from UC Irvine and Chapman. Baker also made a recruiting trip to California, but was told there was no money left for a scholarship.

“My fastball is in the mid-to-low 80s, but that doesn’t seem to impress the scouts,” Baker said. “How can I be 14-1 and not be a good pitcher? It has been really frustrating.”

Baker said that, for a while, the lack of interest by recruiters affected him on the mound. He went out to prove them wrong, but it only hurt his pitching.

Last month, he finally put the frustration behind him. He went to talk to Rancho Santiago College Coach Don Sneddon and decided to pitch for the Dons next season.

“That was a big relief,” Baker said. “By going to Rancho Santiago, I can keep all of my options open. I can pitch there for two years and then go on to a four-year school. I’m not locked into anything.”

Of course Sneddon was happy to help.

“I’m not complaining at all that no one has been recruiting Dan,” Sneddon said. “He’s the type of pitcher that can make a program like ours very successful. He may not have a major league fastball, but he knows how to pitch and he knows how to win.”

And that’s something to talk about.