AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL NOTEBOOK : Granada Hills Finds Plate--and Plate Glass
Lancaster Coach Mike Eberhardt calls Granada Hills West “the best-hitting Legion team I’ve seen.” Those dwelling near Granada Hills High would tend to agree.
In Granada Hills West’s doubleheader sweep of American Legion Northern Division leader Lancaster last Saturday, Robert Rundquist homered over the fence in right field. Everyone soon became aware of the significance of the feat.
Rundquist had not homered before. And not just in Legion play.
“It was the first one ever ,” Coach Dave McElwee said. “He hadn’t even done it in Little League.”
McElwee thought it would be a nice gesture to retrieve the ball for Rundquist, who will be a senior at Cleveland High in the fall. A youngster in the stands was sent out to collect the historic ball.
A few minutes later, the breathless kid came back, hands empty and eyes bulging. It seems that the baseball landed in the middle of Lindley Avenue, which borders right field, and caromed through a plate-glass window of a nearby apartment. Neighbors were waiting when the kid arrived.
“He got over there and some adult yelled out, ‘Hey! what are you doing out there?’ ” McElwee said. “He got out of there fast.”
Baseballs have been flying out of Granada Hills, fast. Six players have two or more home runs. And it’s not just the left-handed batters, such as Mike Petruzates (five homers), Scott Berger (two) and Rundquist who are getting in on the bashing.
Last Wednesday, right-handed-batting Bryan Martin (three homers) hit a home run over the fence in left. The ball flew across Hiawatha Street and landed on the hood of a Nissan wagon.
Bad moon rising: Center fielder Jason Kane of Agoura-Oak Park was his team’s obvious nominee for last Sunday’s District 20 all-star game. He had posted sky-high numbers: a batting average of .453, three home runs, 16 runs batted in and a district-best 21 stolen bases.
There was one hangup, however. “He can’t play in the game if he’s not here,” Agoura-Oak Park Coach Joe Medaglia said.
Kane, who recently graduated from Oak Park High, left last week for Hawaii and will miss the remainder of the season. His family, it seems, had long ago booked an island hotel to ensure that they could witness Thursday’s solar eclipse in all its retina-burning glory.
Unfortunate blow: As though the cruel twist of fate that resulted in the serious injury of Newbury Park catcher Robert Fick wasn’t hard enough to swallow, it turns out that one of Fick’s longtime friends was the player who accidentally inflicted the damage.
Between outs of last Saturday’s game between Newbury Park and Conejo A, Fick asked his father and coach, Chuck, for a different catcher’s mitt. After Robert was handed another mitt, he crouched behind the plate and reached over to grab his catcher’s mask, which he had tossed aside moments earlier.
Conejo’s Brett Herman, taking a practice swing, accidentally hit Fick across the face with the aluminum bat. Herman was once a youth-league teammate of Fick and both attended Thousand Oaks High until last fall, when Fick transferred to Newbury Park.
Herman accompanied Fick in the ambulance as he was transported to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, where it was determined that Fick had suffered a broken nose. An estimated 40-50 stitches were used to close the facial wounds before Fick was released.
Fick, a first-team Times All-Ventura County selection who batted .459 in the spring--the second-highest average in the county--was scheduled to have reconstructive facial surgery Tuesday night.
Name the big leaguer: This former District 20 player is making a very successful comeback in his former stomping ground.
A right-handed pitcher, he played college ball with such future major leaguers as Fred Lynn, Roy Smalley, Steve Kemp, Dennis Littlejohn and Rich Dauer.
In the bigs, he played in a park that was anything but. Though he never played in the major league version of the World Series, he did play in four World Series tournaments at one level or another. (Answer below).
And the winner is. . . .: Honorees from Sunday’s District 20 All-Star Game, which was won by the East, 12-10, include the following players:
Heave-and-grieve award: To every pitcher except North Hollywood’s Kevon Connelly, who pitched two scoreless innings and was deemed the winning pitcher. The only other “pitcher” who was as effective was Chatsworth’s Nestor Martinez--a catcher and second baseman--who re-entered the game and threw a scoreless ninth. In all, pitchers allowed 26 hits.
Vantage point award: Awarded to Brett Farlow of Encino-Crespi, who in the seventh sent a moon shot over the fence in left for the game’s only home run. Farlow knew the ball was gone, so as it headed for parts unknown, he stood in the batter’s box and savored the moment. Though it gave the East a 12-2 lead, Farlow’s blast proved to be the margin of victory.
Gee, thanks again award: To Chatsworth left fielder Billy Blair of the West, who committed two errors in one inning to victimize pitcher Terry Morrow of Woodland Hills West. A day earlier, Blair and Chatsworth hammered Morrow to hand Woodland Hills West its first doubleheader loss in several years.
Quiz answer: Pete Redfern played for the Sylmar Legion team from 1971-73 and is now coaching the Chatsworth Legion team, which clinched District 20’s tough Western Division title on Sunday.
Redfern was a pitcher-outfielder at Sylmar High before enrolling at USC. There, he helped lead the Trojans to the NCAA World Series in 1973 and 1974.
He also played in the American Legion World Series in Lewiston, Ida., in 1973. Woodland Hills West, which won the Legion World Series in 1989, is the only other District 20 team to advance as far in postseason play.
In addition, Redfern played in the Bronco World Series in 1967.
He pitched from 1976-82 with the Minnesota Twins, who play in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, a home run haven.