BASEBALL / GARY KLEIN : Bonds Becomes a Catch for A’s

As expected, Dmitri Young of Rio Mesa High and Mike Rossiter of Burbank were selected in the first two rounds of the draft last week.

Other Valley-area players, including UCLA outfielder Joel Wolfe and Cal State Northridge utility man Craig Clayton, were selected in the first six rounds.

But the most intriguing local story to emerge from the draft pertains to Jim Bonds.

Yes, that Jim Bonds.

The former All-Southern Section quarterback from Hart High who has languished for three years as a backup for the UCLA football team was selected by the Oakland Athletics on the final day of the three-day draft.

This past season, Bonds pitched for the Bruin baseball team, compiling an 0-2 record and a 6.00 earned-run average in 21 innings.

Like just about everyone else, the A’s were not impressed.

At least, not until Bonds went through a tryout at The Master’s College after the season.

“I guess I got their attention that day,” Bonds said.

Indeed. After an average performance throwing off the mound, Bonds stuck around and blasted a half-dozen balls out of the park with a wood bat.

Impressed, Oakland scout Craig Wallenbrock said the A’s drafted Bonds in a “50something” round with the intent of turning him into a catcher, a position he played throughout youth baseball and part time in high school.

“Here was a chance to get a really good athlete that people had kind of forgotten about because of the football thing,” Wallenbrock said. “We’re going to work with him.”

Wallenbrock said the A’s will ask Bonds to participate in a local summer league, gauge his progress and, perhaps, offer him a contract in the fall with the understanding that Bonds first will return to UCLA to complete his commitment to the UCLA football program.

“I always wished I could get back behind the plate,” Bonds said. “The reason I had been pitching was (UCLA Coach) Gary Adams told me that it would be the easiest way to make the team.

“But catching is a quarterback and point-guard type thing. You’re in on every pitch and controlling the atmosphere of the whole game.

“I’m just happy that someone was willing to take a chance to see what I can do.”

Friendly advice: The day after Young was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals with the fourth pick overall, he got a long-distance phone call from Mike Lieberthal in Spartanburg, S. C.

“(Dmitri) said he’s already starting to feel the pressure,” said Lieberthal, a Westlake High product who was taken by the Philadelphia Phillies with the third pick overall in 1990. “I told him to just relax and concentrate on getting ready for when he gets out there and starts playing.”

Lieberthal batted .228 with four home runs and 22 runs batted in last season at Martinsville (Va.) in the Appalachian Rookie League. This season, he his batting .296 at Spartanburg in the Class-A South Atlantic League.

“The first month after you sign, everyone looks you over because they think you’re supposed to be awesome,” Lieberthal said. “I told Dmitri that the organization is just looking for improvement every year. As long as you show that, you’ll keep moving.”

Raring to go: After off-season surgery to remove bone chips and, “probably a couple of beer caps,” from his elbow, left-hander Dennis Moeller is pitching for Memphis, the Kansas City Royals affiliate in the double-A Southern League.

Moeller, taken by the Royals out of Valley College in the 17th round of the 1986 draft, was 7-6 with a 6.25 ERA last season at Memphis and 5-2 with a 4.02 ERA at triple-A Omaha.

This season, he is 3-3 with a 1.79 ERA.

Moeller said he is ready to join fellow Cleveland High alum Bret Saberhagen on the Royals’ staff.

“I’ve shown I can pitch at triple-A,” he said. “I feel right now that I can pitch in the big leagues. I’ve never really felt that way until now.”

Recommended reading: Tony Lucadello worked for 47 years as a scout for the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies. Fifty of the players whom Lucadello signed between 1942-1989 made it to the major leagues, including Mike Schmidt, Ferguson Jenkins, Toby Harrah, Mike Marshall (the former Dodger reliever) and Jim Essian.

Phillies owner Bill Giles once asked Lucadello his secret to uncovering prospects. “I found them,” Lucadello said. “There’s more to it than that, really, but it only amounts to this: I found them. That’s what I’m paid to do.”

Lucadello’s approach to scouting is the focus of “Prophet of the Sandlots,” (The Atlantic Monthly Press, $18.95), author Mark Winegardner’s account of the 1987 season he spent traversing Ohio and other states with a man who was regarded by many as one of the best scouts ever.

The book is especially captivating when Winegardner recounts incidents relating to “The Wall” that Lucadello recommended be built in every boy’s back yard to practice fundamentals.

Lucadello committed suicide at age 75 on a Fostoria, Ohio, sandlot in 1989, ending the life of a man who helped give birth to several All-Star careers.