Young Taking His Stance Against Major Obstacles

As a first-round draft choice embarking on a professional baseball career, Dmitri Young can expect to face plenty of obstacles. The off-the-field variety are the ones that worry his father.

“Drugs, night life, friends into other things,” Larry Young said, listing elements that can sabotage a promising athletic career.

In the past few months, with the revelation of Magic Johnson and the conviction of Mike Tyson, young athletes have become more aware than ever that a strong body is not enough to guarantee continued athletic success. That is why the elder Young has supplemented his son’s baseball education.

“I started early,” Larry said, “preparing him mentally, emotionally and spiritually and developing his maturity. I want those values instilled in him so when he’s faced with saying yes or no, more times than not, he’ll say no.”

Young, 18, said he is not about to jeopardize his future and expects he will “be very careful.” How will he avoid temptation? “I’ll just stay in,” he said sincerely.

Everybody agrees that Young is on his way to the majors “unless distractions and injuries stop him,” said his father, a former Navy pilot who now flies for a commercial airline.

The St. Louis Cardinals made Young the fourth overall pick in last year’s amateur draft after Baseball America had listed him as the top high school prospect in the country. Young, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound shortstop at Rio Mesa High, batted .486 during his four-year high school career. He had 28 home runs, 127 runs batted in, an .892 slugging percentage and only 27 strikeouts.

“He’s a switch-hitter with size and power,” Cardinal farm-system director Mike Jorgensen said. “You don’t see that many of them.”

Young also has been that rare player who has been a star from the moment he put on a uniform. When he was 8, his father wanted him to study karate with him, but Young chose baseball and was always better than kids his age, better even than older kids.

“I remember when he was 10 and the league said only 13-year-olds could make the all-star team,” Larry recalled. “That was incentive for him to work his butt off to still get recognition as the top player.” And, he added, “he always met his goals.”

In the seventh grade in Montgomery, Ala., Young made the high school team, but his heart wasn’t really in the game. Things had come too easily. “I got tired of baseball,” he said. Then his father was transferred to Point Mugu Naval Air Station in 1988, and Young discovered baseball, Southern California style.

“The talent out here was the best,” he said, “and I started loving baseball.”

Now baseball brings Young to a different place. For the first time, he will be living away from his family for long periods, on his own. “I’m kind of anxious,” he said, “but I’m really excited too. I have a chance to see the world and meet new people.”

Young already has tasted independence. Last summer, the Cardinals sent him to Johnson City, Tenn., to play in a rookie league. Playing third base, he batted .256 with two home runs in about a dozen games, but he is not concerned about that unspectacular batting average. “Sometimes,” he said, “you can hit the ball hard and it goes right at people.”

His high school coach, Rich Duran, believes that Young will blossom during a full season. “He’s best when he plays every day,” said Duran, who called Young “the most gifted high school player I’ve been associated with or seen.”

Last fall, Young impressed the Cardinals at their six-week Instructional League, batting .330. “He made great strides,” Jorgensen said, then added: “But we’re not overwhelmed by stats at this level.”

Larry said that Young has been assigned to Springfield, Ill., of the Class-A Midwest League. Young’s ascendancy through the minors is not expected to be meteoric, given that the Cardinals are known for having “patience with high school kids,” Jorgensen said. “But there’s no timetable. Everybody’s different.”

Larry Young doesn’t think his son will be down on the farm for too long. “Our goal is to force them to bring him along fast by him performing at a level they (can’t ignore),” he said.

Young lets his bat--and his father--speak for him. “He does all the talking,” he said.

It was Larry who negotiated Young’s signing bonus, a reported $385,000. “I told the Cardinals from the start: ‘We’ll go with what’s fair,’ ” Larry said. “I’m opposed to trying to squeeze juice out of a lemon.”

Young’s sudden wealth has not gone to his head. He still lives at home with his parents and three younger siblings and has “the same friends” he had in high school. He splurged for a phone in his room, new clothes and a red four-wheel-drive car.

With time on his hands before spring training, Young resisted the urge to sleep in, awakening by 9 and driving to a Camarillo gym where he worked with weights, emphasizing upper-body and leg exercises.

His father hopes his son also will make time for something else. “I want him dedicated to baseball,” Larry said, “but he should have fun too.”

Baseball: The Rites of Passage

A four-part look at players from the region in various stages of their professional careers. Today: Dmitri Young--The former Rio Mesa High standout is a fledgling in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Friday: Scott Radinsky--The Simi Valley High product is considered one of the American League’s top relievers and appears to be on the verge of becoming a superstar. Saturday: Dwight Evans--The curtain is about to close on the former Boston Red Sox great and Chatsworth High graduate. Sunday: Phil Lombardi--The one-time Kennedy High star’s potential was never fulfilled during an injury-plagued career, and at 29 he is out of baseball.