West’s Marine Overcomes Change of Place to Remain Heavy Hitter : Legion: All-star makes himself at home at third base, but he tends to move from school to school.

Nobody says that Del Marine isn’t coachable. Nobody claims that he doesn’t pay attention. Nobody maintains that he isn’t open to new ideas. Heck, nobody remembers hearing Del say “no.”

Actually, Marine probably is a little too receptive to the input of others and he knows it. Or at least he’s pretty sure he knows.

Offered as self-incriminating evidence is the summer of 1988, when Marine decided that he would transfer from Canoga Park High to El Camino Real for his senior year and would no longer play football. Marine, who had just completed a summer of American Legion baseball with the highly successful Woodland Hills West team, planned to focus on baseball.

The kicker is that Mike Maio coaches football and baseball at El Camino Real and Marine was afraid that with the slightest twist of an arm from Maio, he’d agree to play football too.

“He already asked me to come out for football,” said Marine, who quarterbacked Canoga Park to a 6-3 record as a junior in 1987. “He gave me his phone number when he found out I was coming (to El Camino Real).

“But I didn’t call him because he would have tried to talk me into it--and he probably would have, because I know how I am.”

While Marine’s academic career in high school and college has been punctuated by a couple of confusing changes of direction, Marine’s consistency in baseball over the past three summers has been nothing short of, well, predictable.

Now in his third season with Woodland Hills West, Marine has been chosen to play third base in the District 20 All-Star Game today at 1 p.m. at Birmingham High.

Marine’s catch-as-catch-can style might have befuddled a coach or two over the past few years, but it hasn’t hindered his Legion play.

Food for thought: It’s too bad that decisions don’t come as easily for Marine as swinging the bat.

“When I step up there, all I say to myself is, ‘Meat of the bat,’ ” says Marine, who more often than not hits a hot potato somewhere.

Marine’s most noteworthy streak started last August in Lewiston, Ida., land of spuds and site of the Legion Northwest Regional. With Marine providing a hot bat as a starter at both catcher and third base, West advanced to the World Series in Millington, Tenn. First baseman Ryan McGuire, however, did not make the trip to Millington--he honored a commitment to play in an all-star series--and catcher Bobby Kim was injured, so team expectations were mixed.

Marine, however, picked up the slack as well as nearly every postseason award in leading West to the series title. For his clutch play, Marine won the George Rulon Trophy as the Legion national player of the year, which included a $2,000 scholarship.

He also won the Louisville Slugger Award for having the highest batting average (17 for 37, .459) and Rawlings Big Stick Award for rolling up 24 total bases. All three trophies were based on his performance over 10 games of regional and Series competition. Additionally, Marine’s jersey and cap were put on display for a year in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N. Y.

For the summer, Marine batted .447 (68 for 152) with 48 runs batted in and 16 doubles, yet Valley College was his next scheduled stop for baseball. As Marine was being handed his check for $2,000 in Millington, one of his teammates quipped, “That should go a long way at Valley.”

As it turns out, it would, but Del wouldn’t. Marine enrolled at Valley and started winter ball during the fall. But before the spring semester and regular season opened, Marine announced he was enrolling at Moorpark College in the spring. He also said that he planned to play football after a two-year layoff.

He said he decided not to play sports at Valley for a variety of reasons, but mainly because he was “burned out.” Marine said Valley’s winter-league schedule started two weeks after the Legion World Series ended. West finished 38-7 and its schedule had begun immediately after the conclusion of the El Camino Real season.

Factor in a couple of bizarre injuries suffered during Valley’s winter-league season and Marine said the signs were clear. If he was going to get beat up, he might as well play football again.

“One practice we were taking BP and we had to bunt two and then swing away,” he said. “The first one I tried to bunt hit me right in the nose.”

Additionally, Marine broke his thumb while catching former Notre Dame High standout Jack McDowell, now a starter for the Chicago White Sox. Soon afterward, Marine thumbed his nose at sports for the year and transferred to Moorpark, where his older Pete, is a wide receiver. During Christmas vacation last year, his brother talked him into resuming his football career.

“We were watching a lot of the college football games on TV and Pete says, ‘Come on out, we need a quarterback,’ ” Del said.

Here today, gone to Moorpark.

Marine seemingly has the credentials to succeed as a junior college quarterback. In nine games at Canoga Park in 1987, Marine completed 68 of 142 passes (47.9%) for 843 yards and six touchdowns. He ranked fifth in yardage among Valley City Section players and led all juniors.

Yet he transferred to El Camino Real High because of the friendships he established while playing for West, which is primarily composed of El Camino Real players. But Marine (6-foot, 190 pounds) surprised many when he quit football.

While it proved to be Marine’s first end-around, his reasoning seemed sound. He batted .359 (28 for 78) for West in ’88.

“After baseball that summer, I came back for football and my shoulder was just gone ,” said Marine, who was suffering from a minor rotator cuff injury. “We had just moved into the El Camino (attendance) area and I had the option of going to Canoga or El Camino. I’d played with the guys from El Camino, and they all said, ‘C’mon, come here and play with us some more.’ ”

Ah, the magic words. Marine, of course, said yes. He batted .350 at El Camino Real in 1989 and was a late-round draft selection of the Seattle Mariners, to whom Marine uttered the rarest of phrases in his vocabulary--”no thanks.”

Yet a career in professional baseball has by no means been ruled out. Marine is just 18 years old and has four years of college eligibility remaining.

Throughout it all, Marine hasn’t lost his Legion touch. Entering the final week of the regular season, he was batting .377 and ranked among regional leaders in every offensive category. Just as important, Marine has helped provide leadership to a West team that is neither as experienced nor deep as it was last season--yet West has won its last 16 games and 18 of its last 19.

“The kid’s a talent,” said former West Coach Gary Gibson. “Put him anywhere and his stick will carry him wherever he wants to go.”

If he sticks it out. It seems Marine has come to realize that the football-baseball double-dip won’t be easy. One gets the impression that in his worst nightmare, a Moorpark football coach sends in an option play as Marine prepares to handle his first snap. Decisions, decisions.

“The one thing I’m afraid of is that I’ll burn out my shoulder playing football, then I won’t be able to play baseball,” he said. “I’ve really been thinking about that a lot. It worries me.”

If not his coaches.