AMERICAN LEGION NOTEBOOK : Suppan’s Style Suits Muckey

Scott Muckey, coach of the American Legion Encino-Crespi entry, is responsible for more conversions than a minister working Skid Row. Most of the time, the changes keep his pitchers from hitting the skids.

Former Crespi High and Valley College pitcher Dan Carroll was one such player whose conventional over-the-top delivery was changed by Muckey. Chris Haslock, a former outfielder at Valley, also was converted by Muckey and became an All-Western State Conference pitcher.

And so, Muckey has a long-established knack of turning so-so pitchers into standouts by having them throw sidearm. Right-hander Jeff Suppan, who will be a junior in the fall, is Muckey’s latest pitching prospect. But don’t expect Muckey to monkey with Suppan’s delivery. Suppan is on top, in terms of results and delivery, and Muckey plans to keep it that way.

“He’s not gonna drop down,” Muckey said with a laugh.

Suppan’s numbers in District 20 play couldn’t drop much lower. In 24 innings of relief, Suppan has allowed one earned run on 13 hits, struck out 38 and walked 10. In one relief stint two weeks ago, Suppan pitched five perfect innings and struck out 10. Overall, he is 2-0 with a 0.33 earned-run average.

Suppan first jumped into prominence as a freshman last summer when he threw a no-hitter in a District 20 game.

“He’s got a chance to be very good if he keeps getting better,” Muckey said. “He’s just throwing it right by the Legion kids.”

He was nearly as effective last spring as a sophomore at Crespi High. Suppan (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) was named the Mission League’s pitcher of the year after a season in which he was 6-4 with a 1.75 ERA.

Success revisited: Camarillo, which is 10-1 and atop the District 16 standings, is considered by many coaches to be one of the strongest teams in the area. In fact, it is perhaps the best Camarillo team in eight seasons, and its coaching staff knows exactly how good the 1983 team was.

Camarillo coaches Gary Wagner, Pat Waid, Scott Cline and Rick Torres all played for Camarillo’s Legion team in 1983, the first and only season in which the team advanced to the state tournament in Yountville, Calif.

All four eventually played baseball at Pacific 10 Conference schools. Jeff Tackett, a second-round draft pick in 1984 who now plays triple-A ball in the Baltimore Orioles organization, also was on the team. How could Camarillo lose?

“There were a lot of distractions for us,” said Wagner, who later played with Waid at Arizona.

For example, teams in the state tournament stay in barracks at Yountville, a hospital and retirement facility for military veterans, located north of Napa.

“The barracks were right out of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ ” Wagner said. “It was the first time Camarillo had ever gone up there. We didn’t know what we were in for.”

Camarillo found out in its first-round game against San Mateo. Gregg Jefferies (now with the New York Mets) beat Camarillo with a late-inning home run and outfielder Rickey Bonds, the younger brother of 1990 National League Most Valuable Player Barry Bonds, threw out two runners at the plate.

Name the big leaguer: He made just a short stop in the minors. He also didn’t stick around long during the American Legion season of 1973, when he signed a professional contract after the completion of an early District 20 game.

He is a major league player who can usually be found rockin’ the opposition, but for years he wasn’t even the most valuable player in his own household. He changed positions a few years back and is in his third decade with the same team. (Answer below).

Tour de prance: Newhall-Saugus outfielder Jason Bates said he is seeing the ball so well that “it looks like a beach ball.” That may be the case, but Bates is not running the bases like he is walking across hot sand.

Bates hit two solo home runs in Sunday’s 5-2 win over Las Virgenes, drove in three runs and raised his batting average to a team-high .462. Perhaps knowing that hot streaks inevitably come to an end, Bates, according to his coach, took approximately 45 seconds to tour the bases after each home run.

“He definitely savored the moment,” Newhall-Saugus Coach Frank Bildner said. “His dad was in the stands, so I guess he wanted to make sure everyone noticed.”

Quiz answer: Robin Yount, a 1973 graduate of Taft High, spent less than one season in the minors before he was called up by the Milwaukee Brewers as an 18-year old shortstop in 1974.

Yount was signed after playing for Woodland Hills in a District 20 game against North Hollywood. According to District 20 Commissioner Mel Swerdling, Yount struck out his first three trips to the plate and made three errors in the field.

“His fourth time up, the kid who was pitching threw him a change-up on the outside corner and (Yount) belted it over the left fielder’s head,” Swerdling recalled.

After the game, Yount, who was the third player taken in the 1973 amateur draft, signed with Milwaukee for $65,000. Yount, who now plays center field for the Brewers, was named the American League’s most valuable player in 1982 and ’89. Robin’s older brother, Larry, pitched in the majors with Houston in 1971.