AMERICAN LEGION NOTEBOOK : And After the Third Game, Boldt Rested

Woodland Hills West Coach Don Hornback said he got “goose pimples” watching Sean Boldt play in an American Legion District 20 game Sunday.

Boldt might have preferred goose down. As in pillow.

Never mind pitching on two days’ rest. Boldt pitched on two hours of rest.

Boldt capped an incredible three-game spree by allowing one earned run in a 5-3 complete-game victory over Granada Hills West on Sunday.

Hornback said that Boldt, a senior from El Camino Real High who was an All-City Section 4-A Division selection as a football defensive back, worked the graveyard shift Saturday night at a supermarket and did not get off work until 6 a.m. Sunday.

“He went home, slept a couple of hours, then came straight to the ballpark,” Hornback said. “He threw about 14 warm-up pitches and said, ‘Let’s go.’ ”

A lack of Zs did nothing to diminish Boldt’s ration of Ks. Boldt, a right-hander, struck out nine and walked one in the nine-inning game and did additional damage with the bat. He was three for three and drove in three runs against Granada Hills West, which entered the game with a record of 5-1.

Boldt’s performance was not an anomaly. In three District 20 games last week, Boldt was 11 for 13 with six doubles and a triple, drove in nine runs and scored five. In 14 innings on the mound, he allowed one earned run on six hits, struck out 19 and walked two.

“That’s the best three-game performance I’ve ever been associated with,” said Hornback, whose team is the defending state champion. “It was absolutely amazing.”

Sweet dreams are made of this.

Flashback: Players from Woodland Hills West’s Legion world series championship squad of 1989 will play the current edition of the team in an exhibition game at El Camino Real on Friday at 5 p.m.

Expected to play for the 1989 team are former standouts Paul Geller, Rick Banuelos, Del Marine, Jason Mitchell, Jason Cohen, Jeff Marks, Gregg Sheren and Chris Castillo.

Marquee day: Sepulveda Coach P. C. Shaw tried two catchers, neither of whom had much luck. To Sepulveda catchers Brent Polacheck and Dylan Jones, the blur on the basepaths that was Quartz Hill’s Carl Grissom might well have been the Montreal Expos’ Marquis Grissom.

On Saturday, Grissom was one for three with the bat. With his legs, though, he was six for seven. Grissom stole seven bases last season at Quartz Hill High.

In the first inning, Grissom walked, then stole second and third against Polacheck. In the second, he doubled, then stole third and home with Jones behind the plate.

In the sixth and ninth innings, he walked and stole second. Yet it was the one that got away that spoiled it for Grissom and Quartz Hill.

In the sixth, a Quartz Hill runner was picked off first and Grissom was tossed out--technically, caught stealing--while trying to move from third to home during the rundown. Sepulveda won with a run in the 11th, 6-5.

Name the big leaguer: This former District 20 pitcher spent three years on the farm but served only a few games as a farm hand.

He was among the best of the 1987 baseball crop, when he was selected in the first round of the amateur draft.

By that time, though, being first was becoming commonplace. His combative high school team was briefly ranked No. 1 nationally and his college team won an NCAA title. (Answer below).

Voodoo child: When Van Nuys-Notre Dame right-hander Cary Wichmann starts his windup, strange things happen in his glove. Some might call it Wich-craft.

During last week’s game against Woodland Hills East, someone in the stands termed Wichmann’s wiggles “voodoo.”

Like most pitchers, Wichmann retrieves the ball from the catcher and digs in on the mound. Once the ball is nestled within his leather clutches, however, Wichmann places his right hand in the glove and wiggles his fingers at the ball.

He looks as though he believes hypnotism of the ball might help him post goose eggs. Or something to that effect.

“He’s a weird egg,” Coach Jody Breeden said. “He’s been doing the whammy thing with his fingers for a while. I’ve asked him about it. He says he’s more comfortable getting a grip that way.”

Get a grip, indeed. Wichmann’s foibles don’t end when he walks off the mound. Included among the items in Wichmann’s duffel bag is a baseball with a picture of actress Julia Roberts attached to its side.

“I started that a couple of years ago,” Wichmann said. “Each year I make up another Julia Roberts ball and I carry it around with me all day at school.”

That’s not all he totes around. Wichmann admitted that he also wore the same polka-dot-patterned boxer shorts on game days.

But who can argue with his methodology? In three years at Notre Dame High, Wichmann was 25-6, including a no-hitter.

Quiz answer: Jack McDowell, a right-hander from Notre Dame High and the Van Nuys-Notre Dame Legion team, played three seasons at Stanford before he was drafted in the first round in 1987.

Notre Dame High was the top-ranked team in the nation during his senior year in 1984, and, while at Stanford, the college All-American helped pitch the Cardinal to an NCAA Division I title.

After his junior season at Stanford, McDowell was selected fifth overall by the Chicago White Sox and received a $175,000 signing bonus. He appeared in just six minor league games before he pitched in the majors. McDowell is 7-3 with a 3.57 earned-run average this season with the White Sox.