Mayne Experiences Highs, Lows in Rookie Season : Baseball: Former Titan standout hits home runs and catches Saberhagen’s no-hitter, but his batting average plunged.

There were times this season when Brent Mayne could identify with that rookie catcher in the Rolaids commercial, the one who nervously watches the game film of Rickey Henderson racing down the basepaths.

Only with Mayne, the feeling didn’t come behind the plate. It was in the batter’s box.

Take the month of August, for example.

It started fine, with the Kansas City Royals’ rookie catcher hitting his first major league home run Aug. 2 in a 6-5 victory over Milwaukee.

It ended even better. Mayne hit the first of two inside-the-park homers this season, Aug. 22 against Texas, and five days later caught Bret Saberhagen’s no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox.

But the remaining three weeks in August?

“It was rough, real rough,” he said. “I must have grounded out to second 30 times that month.”

Mayne watched a respectable .271 average sink nearly 30 points. He couldn’t buy a hit . . . or a break.

“The biggest adjustment I’ve made since coming to the majors is learning to deal with failure,” said Mayne, a former standout at Costa Mesa High, Orange Coast College and Cal State Fullerton. “You have to deal with the stress and not doing well. It was a weird year, like a roller-coaster ride.”

Mayne experimented briefly with meditation and breathing exercises to help him relax before games--it was the subject of a lengthy Wall Street Journal feature that he says was completely overblown. But he blames most of the slump on a mental lapse.

“I think it’s important to learn how to get through a slump,” said Mayne, who’s hitting .251 with 31 RBI. “It’s made me a much better player.

“I look back on the season and I didn’t have that bad a year defensively, I just got out of August with a bad batting average.

“I just need to pace myself better throughout the season, that’s something I want to work on.”

Mayne, 23, is making plans for the off-season. He and his father, Mike, baseball coach at Orange Coast College, are taking a fishing trip to Montana.

Then it’s back to baseball.

Mayne’s top priority is to gain weight. He began the season at 6 feet 1 and 195 pounds, but he grew a half-inch and lost 15 pounds during spring training.

“It was crazy,” Mayne said. “It was like I went through a second puberty or something. I plan to hit the weights pretty hard in the off-season. I want to get back to 195 by next season.”

The Royals gambled somewhat when they took Mayne in the first round (13th overall) in the 1989 draft.

He had hit .393 as a sophomore at Cal State Fullerton, setting a Big West record with a 38-game hitting streak and leading the Titans to the College World Series.

He hit .350 as a junior in 1989, but missed several games with a variety of injuries, raising questions about his durability.

But Mayne quieted skeptics with a quick climb through the minor league system.

He played seven instructional league games and one season at double-A Memphis before being promoted to the Royals near the end of last season. In his first start last season, he was one for three with an RBI in a 10-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins.

Mayne earned the permanent starting job during spring training.

The Royals, 82-79 and sixth in the AL West, were expected to challenge for the division title this season, but dropped into last place early in the summer.

But a winning streak after the All-Star break pulled them over .500 and out of the cellar, where they have yet to finish in the club’s 23-year history.

“You look back on the season, and we have such a damn good record, that you can’t really say things went bad,” Mayne said. “‘But we’re a different team now, a younger team than (past) Royals’ teams.”

The Royals started three rookies--Mayne, Terry Shumpert and shortstop David Howard--and second-year center fielder Brian McRae through the middle of their defensive lineup.

“You’re hard-pressed to win with a lineup like that,” Mayne said, laughing. “I guess I can rationalize the season by saying we’re a rebuilding team. I think we have the guys who can get the job done next year.”