BASEBALL / STEVE HENSON : Montclair Prep’s Lovullo Seeks 2nd Chance With Tigers

The words, so uplifting at first blush, draped around Torey Lovullo like a noose. And with each hitless day, the noose tightened.

Was he choking on the words or at his big major league opportunity?

After a splendid spring training period, Lovullo opened the 1989 season at first base for the Detroit Tigers. He was expected to remain there a long time. So long, in fact, that Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson stated boldly, “I’ll die before Lovullo comes out of the lineup.”

What was meant as a vote of confidence quickly backfired into a promise that, like George Bush’s “Read my lips: No new taxes” pledge, had to be broken.

Lovullo went hitless in his first 20 at-bats and was 10 for 87 (.115) with 20 strikeouts when he was demoted May 15 to the Toledo Mud Hens of the triple-A International League.

Four days later, Anderson retreated to his Thousand Oaks home for a 16-day break from managing, citing fatigue. The unkept Lovullo promise was part of the reason. It wasn’t the first time Anderson, the winningest active manager, had left a young player hanging with hyperbole. And this time, he issued himself a gag order.

“I really feel I hurt some of those kids by what I predicted,” Anderson said. “I would classify it as ego. I thought I could do anything. I thought I could make them into anything.”

A more muted Anderson has piloted the marginally talented Tigers to fourth place in the American League East this season.

Meanwhile, Lovullo remains a Mud Hen.

“I got off to such a lousy start last year, but there is nothing I can do about it this year,” he said. “I’m feeling really good. All in all, the Tigers have treated me well. I’m hoping to get another chance.”

Lovullo has moved from first base to second, the position he played while earning All-American honors at UCLA in 1987. After Friday night’s game he was batting .260 with seven home runs and a team-leading 22 doubles.

“I got off to a real quick start this year and I’ve tapered off a bit,” he said.

Whether he earns another major league look remains to be seen. Tiger first baseman Cecil Fielder leads the major leagues in home runs with 28 and veteran Lou Whitaker is entrenched at second. But this isn’t the first time Lovullo has faced long odds.

He made the UCLA team as a walk-on after leading Montclair Prep to Southern Section Small Schools championships in 1981 and ’82. He blossomed as a Bruin, and twice was named Pacific 10 Conference co-Player of the Year. The Tigers made Lovullo their fifth-round draft choice after he batted .350 with 24 home runs and 73 runs batted in his senior year.

Lovullo (6-foot, 180) rose quickly through the Detroit farm system and was promoted to the Tigers on Sept. 8, 1988, to fill in for the injured Whitaker at second. He singled in his first major league at-bat, homered in his first start and batted .381 in 12 games.

No wonder Anderson got excited.

After Lovullo made the switch to first base and batted .318 during spring training last season, the job was his to lose. Now he’s merely trying to find a spot on the Tiger roster.

“If I’m doing my job, I’ll get a chance,” he said. “I just want to help somewhere in the infield, not as an everyday player like last year.”

Left looking: Todd Zeile stood on deck June 29 believing he would enter the history books one way or another. With Pedro Guerrero at bat, Fernando Valenzuela needed two outs to complete a no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword as far as I’m concerned,” Zeile said. “If Pete doesn’t break it up and I get up there, it’s my at-bat and I’ve got to try as hard as I can to get a hit.

“At the same time, you almost can’t win. If you make the last out, it gets on every replay video and highlight video there is for the next 10 years. If you get a hit, there are 30,000 fans here who thought they’d watch history and you’re the guy who spoiled it.”

Guerrero bounced into a game-ending double play, however, reducing Zeile to just another spectator.

“I had mixed emotions,” Zeile said. “I was excited for (Valenzuela) because I grew up watching the Dodgers, but at the same time I’m part of the Cardinals and have a competitive nature and want to get a hit as bad as anybody.”

The game marked the first time Zeile, a Cardinal rookie and former Hart High standout, faced Valenzuela. He went 0 for 2 with a walk.

In Zeile’s view, it was Valenzuela’s savvy that produced the no-hitter.

“He had the best access of stuff I’ve seen,” Zeile said. “He used everything he had. He kept going outside and went further and further outside, got some calls and we’d swing at something out there. He just did everything right.”

Zeile, who batted fourth in the Cardinal lineup, flied out to center field in the first inning.

In the fourth, he grounded out on a 3-0 count.

“I was looking for a pitch to drive,” said Zeile, “and he threw a cut fastball in on my hands. It was a pitch I hadn’t seen before and it surprised me a little bit and I tried to hold up my swing.”

Zeile walked in the seventh and was hoping for another opportunity in the ninth.

“I really thought Pete had a good chance to break it up,” Zeile said. “He looked like he felt comfortable and was really anxious to get up there. It’s a letdown, because I would have liked to get the chance to face him again. At the same time, when it’s over and done, you have to tip your hat to him.”

Add Zeile: St. Louis failed to re-sign Tony Pena during the off-season and handed Zeile the catching job. Although the team is in last place in the National League East and Zeile was batting only .229 entering Saturday night’s game against the San Diego Padres, the Cardinals remain optimistic about his development.

“Todd has two very large burdens right now,” said Ted Simmons, the Cardinals’ director of player development and a former catcher. “He is being expected to contribute offensively in his first year, and even more important and more difficult, he is supposed to contribute defensively as a catcher.

“Both are tremendous responsibilities, and just learning one at a time is difficult enough.”

Zeile has eight home runs and 28 runs batted in at the season’s halfway point.

And after experiencing throwing difficulties early in the season, he threw out four of seven base stealers recently.

“Everybody at first said I was going to do good, then I was struggling, now I’m picking it up a little,” he said. “It’s a long season, that’s what I said from the beginning. I’m playing with a little more confidence.”