Cey Carves Own Identity in El Camino Real Victory

A rosy-cheeked kid with a flat-top timidly approached a ballplayer named Cey and fidgeted as he palmed a beat-up baseball and a felt pen. The kid waited patiently as the ballplayer finished his postgame business before building up the nerve to pop the question.

Cey took the ball and darn near blushed. Say what?

“Coach, should I do it?” Cey asked. Cey’s coach laughed and nodded in the affirmative.

It was Dan Cey’s first autograph, and he scratched his name alongside that of his father Ron, the former Dodger All-Star who attended the game and had been corraled by the same youngster.

Based on the game Dan had in El Camino Real High’s 6-4, eight-inning victory over host Granada Hills in a Northwest Valley Conference game Wednesday, it’s a toss-up which signature the boy will cherish more.

Cey, a 15-year-old, 132-pound sophomore second baseman, went five for five and drove in the winning run. In his past 18 at-bats, Cey has 12 hits. A baby penguin might be called a chick, but that’s one manly hitting streak.

“He’s helped me out all my life,” Dan said of his father. “Whenever I do something wrong, he’s been there to help me correct it.”

Dan, at 5-foot-9 1/2, already is a half-inch taller than his dad. Although by game’s end, a grinning Ron--who traded high-fives with the parents of other Conquistadore players--looked to be floating above ground at about 6-foot-6.

With the score tied, 3-3, in the sixth, Cey stepped to the plate with three hits to his credit and a runner at second. Cey singled to center to drive in Jason Fleming, giving El Camino Real (8-5, 6-4 in league play) a one-run lead.

With the score tied, 4-4, Fleming led off the eighth with a single and was sacrificed to second, again creating an open base for Cey. Coach Darryl Stroh of Granada Hills (10-7-1, 5-4-1) walked to the mound to talk to Heath McElwee.

“What do you think we talked about?” Stroh asked, rhetorically. “Maybe four pitches in the dirt?”

Certainly not one that would end up in the outfield ivy. Cey, who, according to Stroh, “wasn’t supposed to see a strike,” ripped a double off the fence in left-center to drive in Fleming with the go-ahead run.

Shortstop Gregg Sheren--who with runners at second and third in the seventh sent the game into extra innings with a dive to halt a grounder up the middle--singled to drive in Cey. “They know I’m not really a power hitter and I’ve never played against them,” Cey said. “I guess they figured they might as well pitch to me.”

If family genes have much to do with things, it might have been a signature ending.