PREP BASKETBALL 1993 / EMPIRE LEAGUE : Ruiz Expects to Make Amends at Esperanza

Poncho Ruiz says he felt “useless” in 1992, although his teammates on the Esperanza baseball team and anyone else who watched him last season would hardly put it that way.

Talented. Determined. A team player. Those are far more accurate descriptions of Ruiz, who hit a team-leading .409 in ’92. Of his 36 hits, 10 were doubles and four were triples.

Under normal circumstances, those are stats to die for. But a badly sprained shoulder suffered in the first game of the season limited Ruiz to a designated hitter’s role. He started only two of the Aztecs’ 24 games at shortstop.

For that reason, he felt like a part-timer, a guy who wasn’t able to give his all. To compound matters, the Aztecs stumbled through a rare losing season with a 10-14 record.

Now, on the rare occasions when Ruiz looks back, he wonders what might have happened if he had been healthy.

He knows he could go crazy thinking: “What if . . . ?” Most of the time, he looks ahead to opening day and the chance to sprint to his shortstop position, to field a grounder and make a strong throw to first base.

Even the winter rains haven’t dampened his spirit.

Ruiz says he has a lot to prove, to himself and the professional scouts and college coaches who didn’t see him play in the field last year. That would probably be enough motivation for most, but Ruiz also wants to bring Esperanza back to prominence.

“I want people to know I’m a good ballplayer,” Ruiz said. “I want to forget about last season. I want to prove I can play. Nobody’s seen me. I want people to say, ‘Hey, this guy is good.’

“Another goal is winning a league championship. None of us have felt that championship feeling. This is our best chance. It’s our only chance, and we better take advantage of it.”

With his shoulder at full strength, it seems an honest, hopeful goal. Only the circumstances of the last year have made it take on such urgency. Each hit, each throw means so much more to Ruiz.

“I hope I don’t get injured again,” he said. “I’m looking forward to this year. Our whole team--everybody knows we have to put it all together.”

In many leagues, a team with eight starters returning--even eight starters coming off a 10-14 season--ranks as a cinch to win a championship. But the Empire League is so tough, so competitive that Ruiz knows it might not come to pass.

Last season, no one predicted big things for Esperanza. El Dorado fielded something of an all-star team, with three all-county selections. Katella had tremendous hitting and pitching. And Cypress pulled off the surprise of the season in Orange County.

And that left Esperanza in a third-place tie, just about as expected.

Injuries to Ruiz and first baseman Marcus Jones only compounded the Aztecs’ problems.

Tossing a ball around before the start of Esperanza’s first game, Ruiz felt twinges of pain. He shrugged it off as nerves, but a few innings into the game it was obvious he had injured his shoulder seriously.

It was later diagnosed as a capsule sprain. The capsule in question is the structure that surrounds Ruiz’s shoulder joint and contains the ligaments, which stabilize the joint.

All Ruiz knew was that it hurt when he threw a baseball.

He could hit without hurting his shoulder. The pain, emotional more than anything else, tore at Ruiz.

“I didn’t really feel like part of the team,” he said. “I was only playing half the time. Every game, it didn’t seem like a whole game to me. I felt like I let the team down.”

While Esperanza was on the field, Ruiz fumed. Before each at-bat he tried to channel his pent-up energy and emotion into delivering a crushing blow to the ball.

In that respect, Esperanza Coach Mike Curran couldn’t have asked for more from Ruiz.

Only Ruiz could find disappointment with his production.

“I’m determined to come back,” he said. “I’m healthy. It’s all in the past now. I’ve only got my senior year left.”