Improved Saltsman Begins to Catch Praise : High school baseball: Experience gained playing with scout team has helped make Crescenta Valley senior an outstanding player.

It’s 75 degrees and the sun is shining, but that cannot stop Andy Saltsman from shivering at the memory of cold days spent on the bench for the Crescenta Valley High baseball team.

Saltsman casts a glance toward the dugout at Stengel Field in Glendale. His eyes momentarily become glazed as the images--and emotional anguish--spill forth.

“I had never sat on the bench before and it was hard, especially during the home games,” Saltsman said during practice earlier this week. “All the people are there and you’re sitting on the bench with your jacket on freezing your butt off.

“That’s why I have an attitude this year that I want to prove myself to everybody else, to let them know that I know how to play the game of baseball.”

Saltsman, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior catcher, is doing a pretty good job of getting his point across.

After playing for a local winter-league team sponsored by the Milwaukee Brewers, Saltsman has emerged as perhaps the most dangerous hitter in the Glendale area.

He entered this week batting .425 with six home runs and 17 runs batted in. Twelve of his 17 hits were for extra bases and his presence behind the plate has helped steady a Falcon pitching staff that propelled the team to a 9-5 record, 5-2 in the Pacific League.

“My whole game has improved 100% since last year,” said Saltsman, who played sparingly behind Mike Parker last season. “I’ve really worked on it because I wanted to prove some things. I knew I could play this game. It’s just no one had seen me.”

Saltsman’s opportunity to gain some exposure came at the end of last season when the Falcons were playing Beverly Hills in the Southern Section playoffs.

Actually, it came during warmups before the game. A scout for the Dodgers saw Saltsman and invited him to try out for a winter-league team made up of the organization’s local minor league players and other high school prospects. Saltsman tried out, but did not make the Dodger team. The scout, however, called the Brewers on his behalf, and Saltsman began spending his weekends refining his skills under the tutelage of Brewer instructors.

The Brewers, it is apparent, helped him with his throwing.

“We have never had a catcher throw out guys attempting to steal like we have had this year,” Crescenta Valley Coach Tony Zarrillo said. “It’s gotten to the point where people just aren’t trying like they would under other circumstances.”

The Brewers also helped Saltsman refine his mechanics behind the plate.

“He knows how to set up a pitch and frame it,” pitcher John Breckow said. “It takes a lot of pressure off the pitcher when the catcher knows what he’s doing.”

Mostly, however, the experience with the Brewers boosted Saltsman’s belief that he truly deserved to be Crescenta Valley’s starting catcher this season.

“He knew coming in that it was his position,” said Greg Vasquez, a Crescenta Valley assistant coach. “He was a little more confident in himself that way.

“His overall play has been great so far. We’re just hoping that the grind of catching doesn’t catch up with him in the second half.”

Saltsman says not to worry. He’s been involved in several collisions at the plate this season and has dished out more punishment than he has sustained.

“I love to get down and dirty,” said Saltsman, who plans to attend College of the Canyons in the fall. “It comes with the territory of the position and I love it.”

Almost as much as he enjoys blasting the ball out of the park. Saltsman considers himself a line-drive hitter. “I’m not Jose Canseco,” he said, “More like Lenny Harris. My strength is in my hips.”

Still, none of Saltsman’s homers have been cheap. “They’ve all been rockets,” Zarrillo said.

If Crescenta Valley hopes to catch Arcadia and contend for its first Pacific League title since 1980, the Falcons will need Saltsman to continue playing at a level that has helped elevate the performance of the entire team.

“We’re doing better than I ever thought we would,” Saltsman said. “I didn’t think we had the hitting or the pitching to go through the year, but they’re proving me wrong.”