Saltsman, Whitaker Earn Baseball Awards : Campbell Selected Coach of the Year After Leading Franklin to City 3-A Final

The 1991 baseball season was a success for several Glendale-area high schools, especially the six that qualified for postseason play.

Just about every team in the area also had one or more players who enjoyed outstanding individual seasons. And many of those are among the 16 players selected to the All-Glendale baseball team. The team was selected by Times sportswriters based on nominations from area coaches.

Crescenta Valley catcher Andy Saltsman was named player of the year and Franklin’s Jerry Whitaker was honored as pitcher of the year.

Rick Campbell, who led Franklin to the championship game of the City Section 3-A Division, was named coach of the year.

Saltsman, a senior, was drafted by the Dodgers after a superb season in the Pacific League, which includes perennial power Arcadia. Saltsman (6-foot-3, 185 pounds) batted .342 with a school-record nine home runs and 29 runs batted in. Seventeen of Saltsman’s 25 hits were for extra bases and he helped lead Crescenta Valley to the second round of the Southern Section 5-A Division playoffs.

Whitaker, a senior left-hander, was the ace of the Franklin staff, compiling a 9-3 record with three saves and a 2.40 earned-run average. Whitaker had 61 strikeouts in 54 innings and was selected All-City after winning two games in the playoffs.

Whitaker was one of the few seniors on a young Franklin team that Campbell piloted to a 19-10 record and the 3-A championship game.

“I knew when we started the season that we’d have a good nucleus and good team,” said Campbell, who finished his 11th season with the Panthers. “But I also knew that going with as many young players as we had, we were going to have problems early.”

Franklin, which usually had two sophomores and five juniors in the lineup, finished second in the Northeast League with an 11-6 record. The Panthers defeated Roosevelt and defending 3-A champion Fairfax in the first two rounds of the playoffs before knocking off Wilson--which they had lost to three times during the regular season--in the semifinals.

Franklin lost to Narbonne, 5-1, in the championship game at Dodger Stadium.

Other area schools that enjoyed fine seasons include:

* Crescenta Valley, which finished 14-10 overall, 9-6 in the Pacific League and advanced to the second round of the Southern Section playoffs.

* Glendale, which finished 10-8 with a young team. The Dynamiters tied Crescenta Valley for second place in the league and lost their opener in the playoffs.

* St. Francis, which finished 6-4 in the San Fernando League and lost to Saugus in the first round of the 3-A playoffs.

* Marshall, the winner of the City Section’s Northwest League with an 8-9 record. the Barristers advanced to the second round of the 3-A playoffs.

* Eagle Rock, which finished third in the Northeast League and lost in the first round of the City 3-A playoffs.