Making A PITCH FOR HIS Family : Banning’s Busby Dazzles Scouts While He Waits for the Draft

When Mike Busby of Wilmington Banning High talks about his future, it is clear that he plans to be a professional baseball pitcher.

With a wife and a 3-month-old daughter, Busby hopes that his strong right arm can soon support his new family.

He does not talk about college after high school graduation in June. Reality for Busby is playing baseball for money now. Many young baseball players only dream of the day when they make it to “the Show,” but Busby appears good enough to make it happen.

For the past three years, his baseball stock has risen.

“Mike will definitely be drafted,” said Dodger scout Bobby Darwin, who coached Busby in a rookie league during the summer of 1989. “Every year he has improved mentally and physically. The major league average fastball is in the 90s (m.p.h.) and he is very close to that. But, the thing that makes him so effective is that his ball naturally moves very well.”

At 6 feet 4 and 215 pounds, Busby is this year’s prep pitching sensation. Every time he takes the mound, he is a featured attraction among scouts, who turn out in droves, armed with radar guns, camcorders and other talent-measuring devices.

Scouts call him nearly 60 times a week, and on game days as many as 20 will call Banning to see if he is pitching. At times, the scouts there to see him pitch make up nearly half of the attendance. Banning Coach Syl Saavedra calls them “the ‘Star Wars’ crowd.”

Busby, 18, is considered a man among boys in high school games. With an overpowering fastball and an impressive array of off-speed pitches, he has not disappointed his growing fan club.

In seven starts this spring, Busby is undefeated with an 0.51 earned-run average, 71 strikeouts and only 22 walks in 56 innings.

“He is almost unhittable for high school kids,” Washington High Coach Kermit Taylor said.

Busby was altogether unhittable for Taylor’s team, pitching a no-hitter against Washington.

Even though his talents were widely recognized before this season, Busby has surprised many with his improvement over the outstanding season he had as a junior.

Busby was an All-City selection and the Pacific League’s most valuable player after posting a 9-4 record and 1.45 ERA in 1990. During the off-season, he gained attention with several outstanding performances in national all-star games.

Those close to Busby, though, credit his marriage to his longtime sweetheart, Misty, last September, and the birth of their daughter, Marisa, for his improvement.

“I tend to believe that the marriage has helped him,” said Saavedra, who has coached Busby since his sophomore year at Banning. “He has a lot of responsibility, and he takes pitching a lot more seriously now.

“When he first got married, I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, what is he doing?’ But, it really has been a blessing in disguise. We talk a lot about being married, and he agrees that it really has helped him.”

Busby said, “I’ve had to get more serious because I have a family now. I take baseball like it is going to be my career now. Hopefully, I can stick with this. I don’t want to worry about working the rest of my life because I would be doing something that I enjoy and at the same time I’d be supporting my family.”

Busby is very close to his parents, who seldom miss a game in which he pitches. He is quick to point out their role in pushing him with his pitching career.

As a youth, Busby was bigger than most of his classmates but was not a successful athlete. He was a nonstarter as a catcher on his Little League team and an often-injured tight endon his Pop Warner football team.

“I was always the big kid who didn’t grow into his body,” Busby said. “I was a guy who tripped over his feet all of the time. But, I always dreamed of being a baseball player.”

At 14, Busby started pitching and soon became a hot prospect around the parks in Wilmington. With urging by his parents, he gave up his football career and began to concentrate on baseball.

His career took off when he became a sophomore and made Banning’s varsity baseball team in 1989. Even though he had an erratic first season, Busby showed enough potential that several pro scouts took notice.

After his sophomore season, Busby’s mother, Frances, took him to Randy Vanderbilt, a private pitching coach in La Mirada. Vanderbilt worked with Busby every Saturday the summer before his junior year.

“We have always been very supportive of Mike, and he has always taken baseball very seriously,” Frances Busby said. “We’re proud of him to see that he’s on his way to be a major league player, since that is his goal.

“We’ve always encouraged him to do the best, and we’ve always tried to do whatever it takes to help better him with his baseball career.”

Thanks to Vanderbilt’s coaching and the experience he gained playing on the Dodger rookie team during the off-season, Busby became one of the City’s most dominating pitchers during his junior season.

From a wild, strong-armed sophomore, Busby became a savvy veteran with a blazing fastball as a junior. Saavedra says that Busby learned that he could not just overpower hitters.

“At first, Mike was an unrefined type of ballplayer,” Saavedra said. “But because of his size, his potential was unlimited. What has paid off for him is that his parents took an interest in his career.”

That interest has helped make Busby one of the most intriguing prospects in this year’s professional draft. His domination over high school batters is at times frightening.

“When I first started playing baseball, I did it just to stay off the streets and keep away from the other stuff out there, like drugs and gangs,” Busby said. “I always threw the ball hard, but now I am learning how to pitch. I feel that I do overmatch opponents.”

Busby’s immediate goal is to lead Banning to a City 4-A Division title, which would make it the first non-San Fernando Valley team to win a major division title since 1973. Then comes the draft.

“I think that it is a very positive thing that he is a young man who knows what he wants,” Dodger scout Darwin said. “You have to respect that. The scouts know all about him and they have seen his stock go up. They’ve seen him mature.”

So, what will Busby do with the money he may earn after being drafted?

“The first thing I would do would (be to) buy my wife and daughter some clothes,” hesaid.