Players Embrace Kernen Program

Kevin Kloek had never run so much in his life. Almost daily last season he found himself slogging through four- and five-mile runs with the other members of the Cal State Northridge pitching staff.

Kloek thought it was overkill.

“I’d gripe and complain and say to the other pitchers, ‘We don’t need to run this much,’ ” Kloek recalled. “But looking back on it, I had a lot of energy when I was pitching.”

Kloek also was influenced by Kenny Kendrena, the ace of the 1992 staff. Kendrena believed in the running program and its dividends. In two seasons at Northridge, he completed 25 of 37 starts, including two complete games in three days in the NCAA West II Regional final in 1991.

As the foundation for Northridge Coach Bill Kernen’s complete-game pitching philosophy, his running program conditions the heart, lungs and legs.

Kloek has jumped from Northridge where he was 8-2 with a 3.15 earned-run average in 1992 to the double-A El Paso (Tex.) Diablos in less than a year. He is 3-1 with a 2.60 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 45 innings for the Diablos, a Milwaukee Brewer affiliate. Kloek continues the program with a few modifications and a new off-season program.

“If I go more than two days now without running, I feel awful,” he said.

While skeptics wonder how running can be so supportive of shoulder joints and arm muscles repeatedly forced into an unnatural motion, Kloek has an answer.

“The leg muscles are the strongest in the body,” he said. “You can work them harder than the arm. And you are pushing off the mound and doing an endurance activity. Sometimes you sprint to first to make plays, then you go back to the mound. If you are tired you can’t concentrate.

“Anybody can pitch when they’re not tired. You go through a game when you’re not tired and it helps immensely. You hit your spots, you throw harder, and you can stay more consistent.”

Physical conditioning also benefits the mental game.

“If you push yourself that hard you feel like you can do anything,” Kloek said.

Chicago Cub pitcher Mike Harkey, a member of Kernen’s pitching staff at Cal State Fullerton in 1986 and 1987, said the regimen made him mentally tougher.

“If you can get through Bill Kernen’s conditioning program, you can handle anything,” he said.

But not all baseball people agree on the benefits of distance running. Kendrena, for example, is banned from his daily morning run. His coaches at High Desert, a Florida Marlin Class A affiliate, fear it will wear out the second-year reliever.

In contrast, former Matador Scott Sharts, a closer for Cleveland’s Class A affiliate in Columbus (Ga.), arrives at the park two hours before the rest of his Red Stixx teammates to get in extra running.

A first baseman and pitcher in college, Sharts is 1-1 with four saves and a 3.63 ERA. His goal in the pros is the same as it was at Northridge, the same as it is for many Kernen proteges: Work harder than anyone else.