Newbury Park Family Affair Has Opponents Crying Uncle

The Newbury Park High left-hander stares in at the catcher, who flashes the sign. Fastball . Against his better judgment, the lefty grooves a heater that is slammed into left field.

Options abound for Bryant Fick, the pitcher. Decisions, decisions. Does he:

* Scream at his uncle?

* Tell another uncle to get a clue?

* Bark at the catcher and the assistant coach, knowing that one of them called the pitch?

Relatively speaking, he can do all three.

The Panther catcher, Robert Fick, is Bryant’s uncle, even though Robert is two weeks younger. Both are seniors. Newbury Park assistant Chuck Fick is Robert’s older brother. Bryant’s father, Bill, is the older brother of Chuck and Robert.

The Ficks have helped lead Newbury Park (6-4, 3-1) into a tie for first place in the Marmonte League with Royal and Simi Valley.

Chuck, 36, a former catcher at the triple-A level, usually lets Robert call the pitches. Sometimes, he intervenes and flashes a suggestion to his kid brother. Either way, it makes for quite a lineage, uh, line score.

Confused? Getting a fix on the Ficks takes time. This isn’t a family tree, it’s a forest, and this clan has extensive roots. Chuck and Robert have six other siblings, including a pair of brothers--Chris and Joe--who played ball at Newbury Park in the 1980s. Newbury Park Coach Gary Fabricius thinks he has it sorted out.

“Once you know them all, it’s not so tough,” Fabricius said.

The Ficks are tough. Last summer, while playing American Legion ball, Robert was accidentally hit in the face by a baseball bat. As he was reaching down to pick up a piece of catcher’s equipment, Robert was struck by a batter who was taking a full practice swing. His nose was shattered and it took more than 50 stitches to close the wound.

By the winter, Robert was back in action, averaging 16.2 points for the basketball team. He is a returning Times All-Ventura County baseball player who batted .459 as a junior, fifth among regional players at the large-school level.

Baseball fans might have seen one of the Ficks and not even know it. Chuck, who played in the Oakland and Montreal organizations after helping Pepperdine to the College World Series in the 1970s, has appeared in several baseball-related feature films, including “The Naked Gun.”

Chuck soon will appear in “Mr. Baseball,” a film starring Tom Selleck that is scheduled for release in August. Fick and Selleck portray U.S. ballplayers in the Japanese major leagues.

Alas, upstart Newbury Park blew a storybook chance to take the league lead Friday by falling to Royal, 8-4. Bryant (2-2) took the loss and was driven to the showers in the fourth inning. He might have had company.

Chuck was telephoned at home after the defeat, and he was in the shower. Quipped Fick when he came to the phone: “We were taking a family shower. It’s a big shower.”

Call to arms: Manny Alvarado has one too many letters in his first name. The way things have gone for his Kennedy pitching staff, he should go with “Many.”

Despite its success, Kennedy (7-2) has used a multitude of pitchers, none of whom have emerged as a stopper. In fact, before Friday’s 6-4 victory over El Camino Real, Kennedy’s six wins were divided among six pitchers.

Left-hander Tom Manning picked up his second victory Friday, pitching four innings of one-hit relief. Manning walked six, however. Alvarado said the revolving door will continue to spin.

“It’s going to continue to be like this until somebody shows me they can (be a consistent starter),” he said.

No black hat: Alemany Athletic Director Dudley Rooney said his school should not be vilified in the Bill Scheffels eligibility affair.

Scheffels, a right-handed pitcher, attended Alemany last year as a freshman and was one of the team’s best players. He transferred to Simi Valley last summer--his family reportedly lives across the street from the school--but was declared ineligible last month when the Southern Section ruled that the family did not change residences.

As a matter of routine, Rooney said he contacted the section office a few weeks ago when he learned that Alemany had not received paperwork on the transfer.

Rooney said that in instances in which an athlete transfers, the principal from the player’s former school must complete a form before the player can gain eligibility at the second school. Alemany never received the paperwork, so Rooney called to see if it was on file with the section office. It was not, he said.

“All we said is that the kid transferred and that we had never received anything (from Simi Valley),” Rooney said. “From that point on, we didn’t pursue it.”

If the section ruling stands (Scheffels is seeking a court order to allow him to play), Simi Valley will forfeit two nonleague wins in which Scheffels pitched and the sophomore will lose one year of eligibility.