Long Hours Pay Off for Fullerton’s Apodaca

Ramon Apodaca shows his determination in many ways on the baseball field at Fullerton College.

He’s among the first to practice and the last to leave each day. He works for hours making contact at home plate, and playing second base.

But maybe the best measure of his grit doesn’t translate into the box score.

It’s just in showing up at all.

Apodaca’s day usually starts hours before and ends hours after those of his teammates.

He lives with friends of his parents in Huntington Park and takes a bus about 35 miles each way to and from school. It takes him anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours to get to the college. He must leave by 7 a.m. to make his 9 a.m. classes.

The journey offers a chance to get some homework done, but he must stay alert so not to miss any of his three transfers. After practice or games, he usually gets home between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on weeknights.

But while the trip might seem excessive to some, Apodaca says it affords him a chance to live a dream--playing baseball in the United States.

Apodaca was born in Guaymas, a town of about 50,000 in Sonora, Mexico. He lived there most of his life and was a standout soccer and baseball player in high school.

He graduated in 1990 and came up to Huntington Park with his family for a vacation. Apodaca went to a baseball camp run by Dodger Coach Manny Mota in Los Angeles. Mota’s son, Gary, played at Fullerton.

Apodaca became friends with some of the Fullerton players working the camp and asked about trying out for the school’s team. He moved in with friends of the family in Huntington Park and set out to learn the bus system.

But it was hardly that simple for Apodaca, who didn’t speak English at the start. But he now has a good command of the language after about a year and a half.

“When I first came here,” he said, “everybody was very nice and they still are. This has always been my dream and it’s going great. I want to learn English very much, but some of my teammates and Coach (Nick) Fuscardo want me to teach them Spanish.”

On the field, Apodaca, a left-handed hitter, has had no trouble adjusting.

He is having a strong season, batting .369 (38 for 103) with 14 runs and 12 runs batted in. He also is a solid defensive player.

“He had a great knack for the game,” Fuscardo said. “He does things with ease that other players work hard at, and still can’t do. . . . He had some problems with English at first but not on the field. He didn’t miss one sign last season. He speaks baseball.”

The thing that stands out the most is Apodaca’s ability to make contact with the ball. He’s gone 115 plate appearances without a strikeout this season. The streak stretches over 133 plate appearances dating to last season. Besides his 103 at-bats, he has eight walks, three sacrifices and has been hit by a pitch.

“I don’t like strikeouts,” Apodaca said. “I work on making contact all the time. But when I have two strikes, I just try to make contact. I hate to strike out.”

Apodaca batted .299 and struck out 15 times in 205 plate appearances last season. He also was a second-team All-Orange Empire Conference pick.

He played in the Metro League during the summer and was selected to the all-star team that played against Huntington Beach, the league champion, in Anaheim Stadium.

“When Coach Fuscardo called me I thought he was kidding,” Apodaca said. “But it was great. I just kept looking around. Now I want to play in Dodger Stadium.”

Home run to the third power: Freshman outfielder David Schultz hit three home runs for Golden West in a 14-5 victory March 17 at Los Angeles Harbor. He became the second Golden West player to hit three home runs in a game.

Gary Christopherson hit three in his first three at-bats as Golden West won at Orange Coast in April, 1990. He had homered in his final at-bat in the previous game, so he has four consecutive at-bats with home runs.

Christopherson is currently playing in the Houston Astros’ minor league system.

Notes

Jackie Boxley, Cypress’ leading hitter this season, twisted her knee and is listed as week-to-week. Boxley, a sophomore outfielder, was batting .390 before the injury. . . . Todd Rolph, an assistant baseball coach at Cypress the past three seasons, has left the post to become coach for a professional team in Italy. . . . Last fall’s football media guide designed by Orange Coast sports information director Jack Shinar took first place in the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations competition. Rancho Santiago’s Dale Ruhe and Riverside’s Robert Schmidt tied for third in the same contest. . . . Fullerton sports information director Ken Hill is leaving his post at the end of this month to handle public relations for the Orange County Sports Assn.