One Hot Summer : Newbury Park Shortstop David Lamb Played Hard, and It Has Paid Off

David Lamb didn’t have the time or the inclination to put pencil to paper. Heck, he’d been back in the United States for three days when his senior year began at Newbury Park High.

Had he been asked to report on the report of his bat--which rang loud and long last summer--it would have made interesting reading. The senior shortstop made short stops all over the country, then took his act abroad. Have bat, will travel.

Before Lamb’s vacation was over, he catapulted from the ranks of superior players to the top of the national prospect pack.

“Everything went my way,” Lamb said succinctly.

In fact, one publication last month ranked Lamb as the third-best high school prospect in the nation.

Ask Lamb today what he remembers about the whirlwind tour and the details blur.

“We played a lot of games,” Lamb said, “in not a lot of days.”

He was in a daze. Yet if Lamb had been asked to write a synopsis of his vacation, while the details were fresh in his mind, it might have gone something like this. . . .

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER

By Shortstop David Lamb

If it’s Tuesday, this must be Seoul.

Man, what a summer. Sometimes, I can’t believe it actually happened. The itinerary was as punishing as it was thrilling. What started as some fun with my American Legion teammates from Newbury Oaks ended up as a monthlong road trip through the torrid Nevada desert and frigid Great Plains. It caused us great pains, but it was definitely worth it.

August started in Ventura County and ended in North Dakota. It seemed as if I spent a lifetime standing between second and third. Talk about 30 days in the hole:

* Legion Area 6 Championships at UCLA--As the runaway champs of District 16, we played teams from other districts around Los Angeles in the first round of postseason action.

Had some trouble with the team from Notre Dame High, but we still won the darn thing. Maybe we are pretty good, huh? P.S.--I went 12 for 19 in the four-game tourney and turned some heads.

* State Legion tournament in Yountville, Calif.--Where the heck is Yountville, and why am I sleeping on a cot in a Veterans Administration Quonset hut?

The Yountville facility might be a little rustic, but the people are nice. So were the other teams, from all over California. We whipped ‘em with ease to win the state title.

* Area Code Games in San Jose--A brief detour between Legion stops. Played for two teams in the games, a showcase event for promising high school seniors-to-be. No rest for the wicked. Scouts and college coaches were everywhere.

* Legion Western Regional at Las Vegas--Now this was more like it. We stayed at a posh hotel and played at Cashman Field, home of the triple-A Las Vegas ballclub.

Las Vegas is where the stars come out, and so does the scathing sun. On the second-to-last day, we played a night game that didn’t get over until about 11.

The next day, in triple-digit heat, we played the first of two games at 8:15 a.m. To win the title, we played 33 innings in 21 hours. Not a nice day to be wearing an all-black uniform.

* Legion World Series in Fargo, N.D.--The big show. Despite some chilly weather, the stands were packed with fans and scouts, and we didn’t disappoint anybody. Despite a loss in the first game, we stormed back to win five straight and the national championship.

I had two hits in each of the first five games and three in the final, which was televised on ESPN.

After the last game, I was voted the Legion’s national player of the year. Why? I was 20 for 47 in 12 Regional and Series games. In all, I was 43 for 85 in postseason Legion play (.506).

And they said I couldn’t hit in high school? Heh, heh, heh.

* All-star series in South Korea--Everybody else on the Legion team went home and slept for about two days. I flew back to L.A. for the night, then hopped on a plane for Korea, where I played a bunch of exhibition games with a team of U.S. high school standouts.

The food was pretty bad. Like I needed to lose weight. After the tour was over, we flew home. Less than a week later, I started my senior year at Newbury Park.

After all this, I still have something to prove.

THE END

OK, so teachers didn’t assign Lamb the aforementioned. But his summer exploits were nonetheless given an “A” grade by most college and professional scouts. Last fall, Lamb signed an NCAA letter of intent to play at Pepperdine, the defending Division I champion.

Lamb, who has a grade-point average of 3.6, fielded offers from colleges across the nation, yet he canceled recruiting visits to North Carolina State and Texas A&M.;

“I had enough miles on me already,” Lamb said, laughing. “After I went to Pepperdine, I figured nothing could be better than that.”

Unless he’s a top selection in the June amateur draft. His Legion coach, Chuck Fick, told everyone in Fargo that Lamb was a “can’t-miss” prospect. Some described Lamb as “can’t hit” in high school.

Lamb, you see, has never batted .300 in two high school seasons, though he was painfully close as a sophomore (.295) and within a squib single (.297) as a junior. He is 50 for 169 in two seasons. One more lousy hit would give him a two-year average of .302.

Yet Lamb says there are those who believe his summertime feats were, well, let him tell it.

“Some people think it was a fluke,” Lamb said. “I don’t know that I’ve heard that exact word, but some people probably think I can’t do that well again.”

Lamb acknowledges that the 1992 high school season was a grind. He was often compared with shortstop Dave Landaker of Royal, who was drafted by the Astros in the second round last June.

That’s right: Some experts now consider Lamb the best high school shortstop in the nation, but a year ago, he wasn’t even the best shortstop named Dave L. in the Marmonte League.

“I’m not happy with past two high school seasons,” Lamb conceded.

Nor should he be. Coaches say he will show his true colors this spring.

“I said last year going into the season that Lamb was every bit as good as Landaker defensively,” Simi Valley Coach Mike Scyphers said. “He can go in the hole and gun you, go over the middle and get you, go behind the mound and throw you out.

“He’s got that quick release, a cannon. That makes him a pro prospect.”

Lamb agrees the high expectations wore on him in ’92.

“I got into trouble last year for keeping track (of his average),” Lamb said. “I’d be sitting in class trying to figure, ‘OK, If I go two for four today, what will I be hitting?’

“I jinxed myself.”

Curses, foiled again. Nonetheless, scouts believe in the slick-fielding senior’s many tools. An area scout said that if the draft was held today, Lamb probably would be selected in the second or third round, which would command a signing bonus of $100,000 or more.

If Lamb has a superlative senior year, his stock undoubtedly will rise. If he fills out--Lamb is a lanky 6-foot-2 and 165 pounds--he should attract even more attention.

Scyphers owns a batting-cage complex in Camarillo.

“He’s there almost every night,” Scyphers said. “He’s very dedicated in reaching his goal.”

So much so that when Lamb was 11, he decided to switch-hit to increase his long-range chances.

Though Lamb isn’t a power hitter--he hit two homers and drove in 11 runs in 1992--and isn’t particularly fleet afoot, he does possess a variety of skills that make him a top prospect at the position.

“He moves like a shortstop and he’s got a shortstop’s body,” said Baseball America magazine’s John Royster, who was an official scorer at the Legion World Series. “He covers enough ground to be a pro shortstop.”

As much as Lamb developed as a player last summer, he also made strides in terms of personality. As the youngest player on a Legion team full of free spirits, Lamb was subdued. That will change.

“I’ve learned to talk to people more,” Lamb said. “If a reporter asked me a question last year, I had trouble saying what I was thinking. I’ve matured, I guess.”

The most pressing question is, “How do you explain last summer?” Lamb said the surrounding Newbury Oaks cast--the team was loaded with first-year college players from Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park--definitely helped his development. He batted third and was an indisputable catalyst on a team that won 32 games in a row during one stretch.

“It was a great team, and that helped me play good,” Lamb said. “It was a long season and when you play every day, you can get in a groove.

“In high school, if you get eight at-bats in a week and go oh-fer, you’re in trouble.”

Oh, for a few hits more this spring. With scouts sure to be watching his every move, this is high-stakes poker. He could be swimming in cash.

“He’s much more fluid than the average kid and he’s very fundamentally sound,” Royster said. “With a big year. . . .”

Lamb is determined to handle the limelight.

“It’s a no-lose situation,” Lamb said. “If I don’t do all that well, I’ll go to Pepperdine. I’m not going to press.”

* SOUTHERN SECTION PREVIEWS: C12