A Season on the Jinx : Adams Is Trying to Put Injuries and Turmoil Behind Him

Tommy Adams waits. There’s nothing else he can do.

The professional baseball draft--his next and possibly last hope--is still two months away, leaving a lot of time to kill. So Adams looks for ways to stay busy.

Every morning, he’s up and out the door for his daily run, which sometimes takes him around Lake Mission Viejo. In the afternoons, it’s down to Capistrano Valley High School to keep his swing, one of the sweetest in college baseball, from getting rusty.

There are other diversions. He plans to attend a scouting combine, maybe two, in May. And, hey, on Sundays there’s that semipro league.

This was not the way Adams envisioned his junior season at Arizona State. After two years of injuries on the field and turmoil off it, he was ready to demonstrate why one baseball magazine called him a certain first-round draft pick.

That vision has blurred with yet another injury and more turmoil. First a contusion of the spleen early in the season and then a bruised ego after being dismissed for breaking team rules.

So, now, Adams waits.

“Naturally, this is not where I expected to be in April,” Adams said. “I really felt I was going to have a big season. I was completely healthy for the first time in a long time and I had matured as a person. Well, I’ve had setbacks every year and, every year, I’ve come back. This should be no different.”

Everything appeared to be going well for Adams at the start of this season.

An all-Six Pac selection as a sophomore, he was part of a “million-dollar” outfield for Arizona State. All three, Adams, Mike Kelly (Los Alamitos) and Jim Austin (Mater Dei), are expected to go high in the June draft.

Adams was ranked as the No. 8 collegiate outfielder in the nation by Baseball America.

Last season, he hit .310 with 13 home runs and 51 runs batted in despite a nagging leg injury. In one game against Nevada Las Vegas, Adams drove in nine runs with a pair of three-run homers and a bases-loaded double.

“Tommy has every baseball tool you would want a player to have,” Arizona State Coach Jim Brock said. “He’s as exciting as they come.”

That excitement sometimes has extended beyond the field. Adams twice was suspended by Brock and quit on another occasion. Each time he returned.

Adams admits he has made some “stupid” mistakes.

“It was never anything major; I just did dumb things,” Adams said. “Like I skipped classes one day when I was a freshman. There was a team rule that you couldn’t miss a class as a freshman. I wasn’t very mature sometimes.”

Before this season, Brock met with Adams to lay down the ground rules--no more slip ups, no matter how small.

“I could live with that,” Adams said. “I wanted to do well and didn’t want any more trouble. I knew I was going to have a great season, something like 25 home runs and 100 RBIs.”

Through the Sun Devils’ first 10 games, Adams was hitting .429 with four home runs and 16 RBIs.

Adams felt good. It was his first injury-free season since he was a junior at Capistrano Valley. He missed his entire senior season because of a groin injury, which bothered him throughout his freshman year at Arizona State.

Early in the season, Adams was leading the Six Pac in homers and was among the leaders in batting average and RBIs. He also was becoming known as a dangerous clutch hitter.

Against Long Beach State, after Kelly was intentionally walked to load the bases, Brock said Adams stepped up and hit the first pitch 500 feet for a grand slam.

“He was off to a fantastic start in every way,” Brock said. “Certainly in the way he was playing, but also in his attitude. His outlook was very impressive.”

The troubles began in February during a series against Florida State in Tallahassee. On a botched hit-and-run play, Adams slid into second and was kneed in the back by a Seminole player.

Although his back and neck hurt and he was short of breath, he stayed in the game. But the next time he came to the plate, he could barely swing the bat.

“I took two cuts and the pain was so bad I couldn’t lift the bat again,” Adams said.

A CAT scan revealed a contusion of the spleen. Adams spent a week in the hospital and missed 19 games.

“I think that the trauma of that injury really had an effect on Tommy,” Brock said. “He was so focused when the season started, but the injury knocked him out of sync.”

Adams returned and was used as a designated hitter for five games. He struggled at the plate and his average dipped to .387.

After the Sun Devils were swept in Hawaii, Adams and some other players missed curfew.

“It was an off day the next day, so I didn’t think anything about it,” Adams said. “But, before the season, Coach and I made an agreement. One more rule violation and I was off the team. I didn’t show much discipline in Hawaii.”

When the team returned, Brock informed Adams that he was dismissed from the squad.

“In 20-some years of coaching, that was the hardest thing I’ve had to do,” Brock said. “It wasn’t an overwhelming problem and it certainly wasn’t anything that would shock you. He did something he shouldn’t have done and, because of his past, it tied my hands.”

Adams went home to Mission Viejo the next day.

Being thrown off the team hasn’t diminished Adams’ professional potential. The day after he came home, the first scout called. They’ve kept in contact ever since.

Of course, teams have been willing to take a chance on him before. Even though he didn’t play one inning as a senior at Capistrano Valley, the Atlanta Braves drafted him in the 10th round.

“One day a scout wanted to see Tommy hit when he was a senior,” Capistrano Valley Coach Bob Zamora said. “So he got in the batting cage and takes 10 swings, all of them line drives. Five were home runs, two were tape-measure jobs. Everybody stood around and watched. The varsity, the junior varsity, the freshman teams, all stopped what they were doing when Tommy started swinging.”

Zamora has helped Adams rebound from his latest pitfall.

Besides allowing him to work out with the Capistrano Valley team, Zamora invited Adams to join his semipro team. He will make his first appearance Sunday.

“Interest in our team has gone way up in the last few days,” Zamora said. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had a scout at one of our games. I’ve already had a half-dozen call me this week asking when we play.”

What they will see will be a player who wants to put the past--the injuries and the turmoil--behind him.

“I guess some people think I’m injury-prone or that I’m a troublemaker,” Adams said. “I’m out to show that those images are wrong. I can’t wait for that.”