Baseball Tryout Is Some Players Last Chance for Glory

Dan Dixon scanned the packed grandstands at Westchester High’s baseball field, cleared his throat and waited for the roar of a departing jet to pass.

To the more than 200 players sitting in the bleachers, this was just a temporary delay in what they hoped would be a magical day.

They had gathered for the opportunity to extend, perhaps for the last time, a dream many have envisioned since Little League--being signed by a major league team.

As the time to display their wares grew close, some tightened the laces on their spikes and others nervously fidgeted with their gloves. Many stared blankly.

“We have a lot of people, so it’s critical that you guys don’t forget your numbers,” shouted Dixon, who is employed by the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau. “I can see right now that some of you guys are in your 30s and, well, it probably just ain’t gonna happen fellas.”

That’s because the scouting bureau is primarily interested in quality high school juniors whom it can recommend to the 26 major league teams. Four tryouts are held in June, following the amateur draft, from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Saturday’s large turnout was tainted by various newspapers that omitted the 16-25 age limit. The majority of talented high school seniors and college players were selected in the June amateur draft, but that doesn’t prevent a visit from a few players who have been released by major league teams and others who surface because the tryout is open to the public.

To the latter, the day’s highlight is the opportunity to complete the bureau’s official 5 by 7-inch player information card.

“It’s the Gong Show of baseball,” one scout said. “Anybody who can walk and chew gum at the same time can come out. It’s their ‘Field of Dreams,’ a Walter Mitty day, and it’s our job to dash those dreams, which is the part I don’t like.”

Nevertheless, they dash quickly, narrowing 224 players to 65 in about four hours. Dixon, one of five bureau scouts who determine which players are recommended in writing, is blunt when explaining that each player will be evaluated by professional baseball standards.

“For you pitchers, the average velocity in the major leagues is 85 to 86 miles an hour,” Dixon said. “If you throw 78 to 79, well, Captain Hook might come and get you today.”

That statement might be chilling to many who have gathered with die-hard dreams of playing 30 miles away at Dodger Stadium.

Of the 5,000 players who will participate in Major League Scouting Bureau tryouts across the nation this year, an average of about 15 (less than 1%) will sign major league contracts. On Saturday, only two high school juniors--Torrance third baseman Antone Williamson and Hawthorne outfielder Armando Fernandez--received written recommendations that the scouting bureau supplies to the 26 major league teams.

Other players may be contacted by individual clubs later.

“It’s like being a movie critic,” said Ed Sukla of the scouting bureau.

If a club is interested, it will follow with its own scouting report. Players cannot sign contracts at a tryout conducted by the bureau and must wait for a club to contact them.

“You can’t give them false hopes,” said Alonzo Ganther, a scout with the Oakland Athletics. “Maybe in a classroom you can say ‘if you work real hard, son, you can get a B’, but here, you have to be honest.”

The honesty begins with a 60-yard dash.

According to Dixon, the average major league player completes the sprint in about 6.8 seconds. Only a handful bettered 7.0 seconds and, when there is a mix-up in the players’ times, bluntness prevails.

“What’s the big deal? They were all 8.0s anyway,” one scout said.

An impressive time of 6.5 is turned in by one player, but Ganther isn’t impressed.

“That kid ran the same thing last year, but when he got on the field he didn’t know what a baseball looked like,” Ganther said with a grin. “He showed up in running shoes, and was running from the time he left his car in the parking lot.”

Players are divided into positions and evaluated on their respective skills.

Sukla, a relief pitcher who was 3-5 with a 5.19 earned-run average with the California Angels in 1964-66, has worked for the bureau since its inception in 1977 and plays the role of Captain Hook. He is evaluating 47 pitchers in a makeshift bullpen along the third base line.

“Sorry, son, we won’t be able to use you today,” Sukla said. Thirty-two times to be exact. Only 15 will be asked to pitch in a simulated game later in the afternoon.

Bill Gahagan, 22, isn’t invited. Gahagan, who plays in a Sunday league in Santa Barbara and recently concluded a four-year stint in the Navy, showed a hard fastball but lacked decent location. Or any location, for that matter. Two balls sailed well over the catcher’s head and scattered players standing nearby.

“I was just trying to be as impressive as possible, but I was a little nervous,” Gahagan said. “I just can’t give it up. If they have another one, I’ll be there.”

Sukla said pitchers can be the most stubborn of prospects, and recalled a tryout in 1985 at Cal State Fullerton in which former USC basketball center Ron Taylor--wearing boots and overalls--demanded an opportunity to pitch.

“When I saw on his card that he was almost 40, I looked up to tell him he was too old and I was staring right at his chest,” said Sukla, laughing.

Taylor, 7-feet and 275 pounds, was a center for the Trojans in 1967-69 and played three seasons in the now-defunct American Basketball Assn.

“This guy should have been behind a plow in a corn field,” Sukla said. “But, hey, at 5-foot-11, who was I to tell him that?”

Sukla, as he does every pitcher, gave Taylor about 10 tosses. And, as Sukla often discovers, he wasn’t impressed. Often, it takes only one toss before Sukla has concluded that a pitcher isn’t a prospect.

“Some of these guys have no idea how to pitch, but can go home and say they were scouted by the big leagues,” Sukla said. “Most don’t realize what it takes to be a major league pitcher.”

That might not be the case with Mike Young, a former Rolling Hills High and University of Arizona left-hander who caught scouts’ eyes with his 84 m.p.h fastball. Young, now 25, was a projected first-round selection in 1985 when his left cheekbone was shattered by a line drive off the bat of Stanford’s Toi Cook.

Young needed reconstructive surgery to repair his face and has suffered from emotional trauma since. Saturday’s tryout was the first time Young has pitched since he was released by Milwaukee in spring training.

“I just read about the tryouts in the paper and have been wanting to get back into baseball,” Young said. “I still go through a lot of fear and anxiety on the mound, but baseball is in my heart.”

Like Young, a handful of players at the tryout have had a taste of professional baseball but were released before the main course.

Former UC Irvine center fielder Stacy Parker, who set a school record with 28 stolen bases in 1989, was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 42nd round of last year’s amateur draft. In his second game with the Rangers’ Rookie League team in Butte, Mont., last summer, Parker tore ligaments in his left ankle and batted only nine times all season.

Parker, 22, was released after hitting nearly .500 in spring training this year.

“The Rangers said they had too many outfielders,” he said. “I came home and started talking to as many people as I could, but nothing came about.”

Parker, participating in his seventh tryout in two weeks, ran the 60-yard sprint in 6.8 seconds and displayed superior fielding skills. He was invited to play in the simulated game, but scouts weren’t promising more than a second look.

“He’s a good player, but he must have been released for a reason,” one scout said.

Parker, who is six units shy of a social science degree, remains optimistic about his baseball career.

“I’m just going to keep doing it and hope something comes up,” Parker said. “They say if you’re not on a club by the time you’re 23, it’s too late. I’m 22, but I think I can still play.”

Some players, such as Williamson and Fernandez, are considered next year’s top prospects and were invited to play in the afternoon game--which involved players as much as eight years older than they are.

“I’m just checking out how I compare to these guys,” said Williamson, a third baseman. “I’m not really worrying about any one thing. I’m just playing.”

That attitude, however, is a luxury that is unaffordable to many. Most are sent home after basic fielding drills, their dreams departing like a plane from nearby Los Angeles International airport.

They will likely soar for at least another year, until the next tryouts are held.

“Once baseball is in your blood, it’s tough to let go,” Parker said. “I’ve put everything I can into this and I’m sure I’ll put in some more.”