PARSONS : Thy Will Be Done? Parsons Looks to Continue Career : Baseball: Former El Segundo High, Harbor College and Illinois infielder is waiting for a chance to showcase his skills on the professional level.

There’s no place like home--to almost everyone, that is, but Will Parsons, who would rather be anyplace right now other than his hometown of El Segundo.

When his college baseball career ended in May, Parsons didn’t figure he’d spend the next month sitting around his parent’s home waiting for the phone to ring.

“My plans kind of got shot,” Parsons said. “I figured I’d be somewhere in the United States about now, playing baseball for a living. Now I’m just playing the waiting game.”

Parsons, a standout shortstop four years ago at El Segundo High, went on to have outstanding seasons at Harbor College and the University of Illinois.

Apparently it hasn’t been enough to sway major league scouts. Parsons wasn’t one of the 1,487 high school and college athletes selected in the recent amateur draft.

Undrafted but undaunted, Parsons has been left to ponder his past and his future.

“At first, I was almost going crazy thinking about it,” Parsons said. “Was it my size? Was it where I had played? Was it this or that? I thought the numbers I put up were good enough to get me drafted.”

This season, Parsons helped Illinois win the Big Ten Conference championship and was a second-team all-conference selection. The Illini went 43-21 and reached the NCAA Southeast II Regionals, where they were eliminated by Mississippi State and Florida State.

Parsons, a second baseman, hit .310 for Illinois, had 10 home runs and 51 runs batted in. He also stole 25 bases in 31 attempts. As a junior, his first season at Illinois, the left-handed-hitting Parsons hit .335 and stole 32 bases.

Illinois Assistant Coach Jody Robinson could not believe that Parsons was not drafted.

“I don’t own a ballclub, and I’m not responsible for who does and doesn’t go on to pro baseball,” Robinson said. “But I thought Will was good enough. The kid can play. He’s a team leader, he can score runs, he can hit for power and he plays great defense. I don’t understand it.”

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Parsons initially decided to attend Illinois to play for Augie Garrido, the coach who led Cal State Fullerton to several national titles before moving on to Illinois.

Widely respected as a player’s coach, Garrido is now using his influence in the baseball world to get Parsons signed to a minor league contract--although Garrido is currently on tour with the U.S. national amateur team.

Last year, Garrido was able to persuade the Chicago White Sox to sign Illinois pitcher Rich Capparelli, who was passed over in the draft.

Parsons is hoping Garrido can work similar magic for his benefit.

“The coaching staff (at Illinois) is doing what they can,” Parsons said. “Augie is still on the ball, trying to get me signed.”

Robinson has done his share too, making countless calls to scouts in California and sending faxes to the minor league independent teams with Parsons’ statistics and biography.

It’s an impressive bio. In 1988, his sophomore year at Harbor, Parsons set the California community college record with 54 steals in 58 attempts.

After his senior year at El Segundo in 1986, Parsons was named The Times’ South Bay Player of the Year. He had a .379 batting average over his four-year career and set a school season record for stolen bases with 42 in 1986.

John Stevenson, who has coached at El Segundo for 31 years, was also surprised to learn Parsons hadn’t been drafted.

“Will is one heck of a player,” Stevenson said. “He can be an offense all by himself. He can really get things going for you.”

Stevenson said that pro scouts might have been unimpressed by Parsons’ speed, but he pointed to Parsons’ base-stealing success rate as evidence that speed isn’t everything.

“Will doesn’t have great running speed when you put the clock on him,” Stevenson said. “But he’s got great instincts on stealing bases. He always knows when to go.”

Parsons figured that he would have a chance to showcase his skills at Illinois but probably didn’t get the exposure he needed in Champaign, Ill.--a college town about two hours’ drive from major metropolitan centers.

During this year’s draft, 349 players were selected from California schools--the most of any state in the nation.

“I think I definitely would have been picked if I would have stayed on the West Coast,” Parsons said. “On the Coast, scouts get to see you all the time. As it turned out, I’d only talk to a few scouts here and there.”

Illinois had two players selected in the draft--outfielder Kevin O’Connor and catcher Mark Dalesandro. But Parsons said that O’Connor and Dalesandro played for Team USA the summer before their senior season, which added to their exposure.

Parsons also pointed to a trend in recent drafts: Major league clubs tend to select potential over consistent play.

The Oakland Athletics risked a pick on prep phenom Todd Van Poppel, a high school pitcher with a 95-m.p.h. fastball, who had declared before the draft that he intended to go to the University of Texas. The Detroit Tigers also made a risky pick by drafting Tony Clark, a 6-8 power-hitting prospect from El Cajon Christian High, who had already decided to attend Arizona on a basketball scholarship.

“The scouts are looking for a guy who can do one thing outstanding,” Parsons said. “I admit I’m not the kind of physical specimen where the scouts are going to come rushing out to look at me. But I think sometimes they overlook the real part of scouting, which is to find guys who are good, consistent ballplayers.”

Parsons will probably know within a few weeks whether the efforts of Garrido and Robinson will be successful. If he fails to sign with a team, Parsons will have to earn a spot in the minor leagues through tryouts.

“Right now, the scouts are trying to sign the guys on their draft list,” Robinson said. “If they have any roster spots left after that, they’ll see what they can do for Will.”

Meanwhile, Parsons will be waiting at home, and the telephone won’t be too far away.

“I’m not ready to give up on baseball yet,” he said. “All I want is a shot. If I played pro baseball for a while and realized I wasn’t good enough, then I’d quit. But right now I want a chance to show them what I can do.”