Crescenta Valley’s Parque Measures Up : 5-Foot-7 Left-Hander Shows Foes a Head Beneath His Cap

Hitters don’t laugh at Jim Parque.

Not anymore.

The Crescenta Valley High left-hander is not the same 5-foot-4, 110-pound runt who took the mound as a freshman two years ago.

“He’s really sprouted,” Coach Tony Zarrillo said.

Parque is 5-7 now. But the real growth over the past two seasons has been in his reputation.

“People used to say stuff like, ‘Look at the hat out there,’ or ‘Hey, get out of that hole,’ ” Parque said. “But I’ve been pitching in the Valley since I was a little kid, so most of the better players know me and respect me now. They understand what I can do.

“I haven’t been getting lucky for three years in a row.”

A junior, Parque has become the ace of the Crescenta Valley staff. He is 6-3 with a 1.48 earned-run average. In 56 2/3 innings, he has given up 36 hits, struck out 66 and walked 13.

“There are some guys who say, ‘Look at the little 5-7 guy. We are going to rip him apart,’ ” Falcon catcher David Fielder said. “Then he throws them two curveballs and blows an 0-2 fastball by them for strike three.”

How does he do it?

“He’s got a very loose, stringy, rubber arm that never gets tired,” pitching coach Darrin Beer said. “You look at him and you don’t see him as someone who will get the ball by you.”

But he will. Although his fastball tops out at about 78 m.p.h., Parque says it is “sneaky fast” because of the way he sets it up with his changeup, slider and three types of curveballs.

Having so many pitches can cause problems, though, as Kelly Magee, who coached Parque his freshman year at Crescenta Valley and in American Legion, remembers:

“He looked in for the sign, then shook it off,” Magee recalled from a junior varsity game during Parque’s freshman season.

“He got the next one, shook it off. Got another, shook it off. Got another, shook it off. Got another, shook it off. Finally, the catcher just threw his mask down and said, ‘Hey, I only have five fingers!’

“His games would last three-and-a-half hours because he was so busy shaking off signs.”

From the windup, Parque practically shows the hitter the No. 1--the only number that would fit?--on the back of his jersey. He pushes up off the rubber onto his toes, seemingly trying to elongate his body for that extra oomph.

But it’s far more scientific than that.

“It’s a balancing point,” Parque said, “a transition point to the final delivery.”

The explanation reveals what is perhaps the true source of Parque’s pitching success, and it has nothing to do with his legs or his shoulders or his elbows or his wrists.

It is his head.

“He’s as knowledgeable a young pitcher as I’ve come across as far as what to do, how to do it and when to do it,” Zarrillo said.

Parque has a mental notebook on each of the teams and all the better hitters in the Pacific League. He knows, for example, to throw more fastballs against Glendale and more breaking pitches against Muir and Pasadena.

Beer, who pitched at Crescenta Valley and USC and spent a season in the Chicago Cubs’ organization, said when Parque is not pitching he is standing next to him in the dugout, “picking my brain and suggesting pitches.”

Parque split his freshman year between the varsity and junior varsity teams. Last season, he spent most of his time in the varsity bullpen.

“Coach Z wouldn’t start me because of my size,” Parque said.

Zarrillo said size wasn’t a factor, that Brendan Cowsill and Zosh Canale were simply better pitchers.

But late in the season, with things starting to turn sour for the Falcons, Zarrillo decided to give Parque a few starts. Parque finished the season 3-2 with a 2.90 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings and Zarrillo became “a believer.”

“I always have to do that,” Parque said, “keep pounding into people’s heads that I’m good and my size doesn’t matter. If you couldn’t see me out there, could just see the ball, you’d think someone big was throwing it.”

Sometimes you can’t see him out there. When Parque was a freshman, he was in the middle of a meeting at the mound, surrounded by 6-6 first baseman Josh Willis, 6-3 catcher Andy Saltsman and 6-3 third baseman Robb Turner.

“You couldn’t even see Jim,” Zarrillo said. “He was nowhere to be found.”

Parque has only become more visible as he has piled up innings at Crescenta Valley. And even Fielder, who has been playing with and against Parque since Little League, admitted he didn’t expect Parque to be at this level.

“He was always pretty good,” Fielder said, “but I thought there would come a time when people would just catch up with him because of his size.”

Scouts interested in Parque are likely counting on him adding five or six miles an hour to his fastball and a few inches to his stature over the next several years.

Beer figures Parque has plenty of growth left because “he’s got huge feet. They’re as big as mine, and I’m 6-2.”

Another factor in Parque’s favor is he is left-handed, and no team ever seems to be able to find enough left-handed pitching. Of course, left-handers also have a reputation of being a bit eccentric.

Teammate Jesse Mitchell brings seven sunflower seeds to each game Parque pitches, and Parque gets one after each inning he completes. Then there’s his cap.

“I put it on weird,” Parque said. “I don’t mean to do it, but all lefties do. It’s cocked sort of weird, a little to the left.”

Look at the hat out there!

He hears that catcall only rarely these days. Parque has far too many strikeouts for anyone to be yelling anything at him.

“I think that I’ve gotten to the stage where people know what I can do,” Parque said. “There’s no more of that . . . prejudice, I guess you’d call it.”