McDonald’s College Tour Stops Again : Baseball: Esperanza graduate returns from Utah to play at Cypress. Next stop: Pepperdine.

Keith McDonald always loved baseball. But he also was a star in football. That presented a problem as he prepared to graduate from Esperanza High School. He couldn’t make up his mind.

Football? Or baseball?

So he chose both, accepting a scholarship to Utah, the only university that would allow him to play both sports.

And he hated it. Really hated it. The programs. The weather. The lifestyle. It definitely wasn’t California.

So he came back after one year. He enrolled at Cypress College, and played only baseball.

Then he was drafted--by the Boston Red Sox. Except for Carlton Fisk, the Red Sox aren’t exactly known for outstanding catchers. And McDonald, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound block of granite, is a catcher.

But he turned them down. He’s going back to college, to Pepperdine. He wants to play one more year of baseball, then become a major leaguer. And then a sports broadcaster.

“Now batting, after a difficult period of adjustment in college, the catcher . . . “ McDonald, who graduated from Esperanza in 1991, was the quarterback for a team that went 14-0 and won the school’s first Southern Section football title in 11 years. A three-year starter, he threw a school-record 35 touchdown passes, 31 during his final two years, and nearly 4,000 yards in a program that flourished in a run-oriented attack.

“He was a tremendous leader,” Esperanza football Coach Gary Meek recalled. “He really flourished under pressure. I don’t think he ever felt pressure, in either football or baseball.”

He also played three years of varsity baseball. He batted .250 as a sophomore, .310 as a junior and .406 as a senior.

The only year he caught was his first season on the varsity. He was moved to third base and was used as a closer as a junior, and as a first baseman and pitcher as a senior. He was 4-0 with three saves and a 1.90 earned-run average his senior season. He had five saves as a junior.

See the dilemma and why Utah looked so attractive?

“It gave me an opportunity to play two sports,” McDonald said. “I wasn’t ready to give up football and I wasn’t ready to give up baseball. I enjoyed both a lot and that’s why I chose to go there, to see which one I would end up liking better. It just so happens it became baseball.

“I think I came to the realization I wanted to make sports a career, and Utah isn’t a quarterback factory and there are a lot of 6-2 guys out there who can throw a football a lot farther than I can. It was more of a reality check than anything.”

Being a redshirt his first season on the football team made McDonald’s decision easier.

“I was able to look at things from the outside and see how it really was,” McDonald said. “I was behind the scenes and not a part of the glamour, and that gave me the ability to make that decision.

“I thought about it for about six months. From the time I got there, the first month was like a vacation because I was away from home for the first time. Then I started asking myself, ‘Why am I not happy? And if I’m not happy, why am I staying here?’ ”

His unhappiness and desire to transfer--”I didn’t work as hard as I should have”--kept his mind off baseball, his batting average dropped from about .290 to .250 and he found himself back on the bench after starting during the middle of the season.

“Being away from the family the first time is very hard unless you’re ready to do it and you’ve got your mind set on what you want to do while you’re at the school,” McDonald said. “I didn’t have my mind set on what I wanted to do. I was going from spring practice to a baseball game, and then from a baseball game to spring practice and I didn’t have any free time. The last quarter was really hard on me.”

He contemplated quitting sports completely but was talked out of it by his stepfather, Rick Field. Instead, McDonald came home, an unpopular decision with his parents.

“They were upset at me for all the right reasons: They didn’t have to pay for school, and all of a sudden I’m at a junior college,” McDonald said. “I have to take summer school to be eligible. I didn’t apply myself in Utah so coming back here, I was way behind. I’ll be getting my AA (degree) on two summer schools and two semesters at Cypress. My first year at college was basically a waste.

“It was my fault.”

His mother, Candis Field, said the argument for staying at Utah was emotionally charged.

“We were originally disappointed he chose to come home, though we missed him terribly,” she said. “But he had such great success at Cypress with baseball and he was so much happier being in California. It ended up being the best thing that could have happened.”

Happy and comfortable, McDonald batted .353 with eight homers and 37 runs batted in at Cypress. He caught in 55 of 57 games, missing two because of a twisted knee, and threw out 34 of 62 runners who tried to steal against him.

He also tried out for the U.S. national team but was cut. During the free-agent draft last month, he was selected by the Red Sox in the 18th round. It was low, but that isn’t a concern.

“I think I scared a lot of teams off because I told them I wanted to go to college for another year,” McDonald said, pointing out that the Giants, Royals, Marlins, Astros, Phillies, Expos and Athletics had been interested in him. “For me to sign right now, I’d be giving up a lot of money down the road. If I have as good a year (next season), and hopefully better, I’ll have a huge opportunity to raise my draft position, I’ll be signing a bigger bonus and I’ll get another year of school out of the way.”

Instead, he is getting a 95% scholarship to attend Pepperdine, the 1992 College World Series champion. McDonald turned down college offers from Miami and Texas because he wanted to stay close to home.

Getting the scholarship to Pepperdine meant everything to McDonald. It proved he could be a success. It proved he had made the right decision to return home.

“It means a lot to me, coming from turning down a full scholarship and trying to come back and work myself back into a scholarship and proving to myself that I was able to do that,” he said. “My parents were pretty upset at me for giving up a full scholarship to play JC baseball with no guarantee I would get a full scholarship again.

“My reaction was, ‘Just let me do what I want to do; I’m not enjoying myself in Utah--just let me have fun playing sports again.’ ”

Things have worked out for McDonald. Better than he ever imagined. He loves it.

He really loves it.