Non-Stop Mouth : Orange’s Archuleta Talks a Good Game, Plays It Better

Saul Archuleta is talking. Then again, the Orange High second baseman is always talking.

Right now, he’s talking baseball.

“The first Dodger game my pops took me to, Dusty Baker hit a home run in the ninth. He was the first guy I ever saw hit a home run. He just crushed the ball. It won the game. The crowd went crazy. Just thinking about that makes me tingle. Man, I love baseball . . . love it.”

That subject runs its course. But Archuleta picks up another one. The guy is always talking.

Now, he’s talking life.

“I just want to be a normal guy. Have a house . . . have a pickup truck . . . have a wife . . . yeah, and a couple of dogs. I don’t want to be dodging bullets. I don’t want to have to worry what street I can walk down.”

He bounces like a pinball from the one topic to the other, baseball then life. But he’s really talking about the same thing.

Archuleta grew up close to the flame. He said his five step-brothers drifted into gangs, taking what turned out to be an irreversible path. He chose, and was pushed, down a different career track--baseball.

“My pops got me into baseball,” Archuleta said. “He saw my brothers go into gangs. He wanted me to be the positive one. I think he saw me as his last shot.”

Archuleta has not wasted the opportunity.

*

This is the fourth season on the Panther varsity for Archuleta and, in some ways, his finest. He doesn’t lead the team in any offensive category, he just leads the team.

Ed Howard, the Panthers’ coach, calls Archuleta his most important player. Archuleta, the team’s motor mouth, provides that motivational shove.

“Saul is always talking,” pitcher Gil Gonzales said. “We can’t shut him up.”

Said Archuleta: “I try to keep everyone in the game. You got to be hyped to play this game. But sometimes, I just like to hear my own voice.”

He may talk the talk, but he can also walk the walk.

Archuleta hit better than .400 the previous three seasons and is hitting .375 with 12 runs batted in this year. His ability and enthusiasm have attracted some attention. He is being recruited by Cal State Los Angeles and University of San Francisco.

“I had one (professional) scout tell me that you could stick Saul into just about any college infield right now and he could play,” said Dave Ochoa, an Orange assistant.

Said Archuleta: “I never thought I would be right here. I never thought I would be going to college. That’s all I want. I want to get an education.”

Some might say he has already had one.

*

Baseball has been more than a game for Archuleta. It has been a haven. He describes a family life that was tumultuous in its best moments and dangerous in its worst.

After his parents divorced, Archuleta said he spent a good amount of time in South Central Los Angeles, where his step-brothers lived. All, he said, were deep into gangs, so finding a positive outlet was not easy.

“It was hard growing up around those guys,” Archuleta said. “I’m not trying to put them down, but they were always trying to involve me. They would always say, ‘Why don’t you go drink with us,’ or, ‘Come hang out with us.’ I could see the mistakes they were making, and I tried to stay away from that.”

That was difficult at times.

Archuleta remembers waking up to shouting one night. There was glass all over the living-room floor, the result of a drive-by shooting. Another time, Archuleta said the police arrived, searching for one of his step-brothers.

“That’s the way it was there,” he said. “I’d be at a playground and see a cop car go by. I would wonder if they were going to my house. Someone would knock on the door and I would wonder if one of my brothers was dead. Cars would drive by and I would get nervous. The only escape I had was baseball. The baseball field was the only place I felt safe.”

Jim Archuleta, who lived in Orange, took his son away from that environment. He also signed his son up for baseball when he was six to help divert his attention.

“It wasn’t just baseball,” Jim Archuleta said. “When one sport was over, I signed him up for the next one. I never gave him the chance to hang out on street corners.”

Archuleta rarely sees his step-brothers these days. He said they appear out of nowhere at times, usually looking for money.

“They’ll say stuff like, ‘How’s it going, goody-two shoes,’ ” Archuleta said. “They used to pressure me a lot. It never worked because I didn’t want baseball to be taken away from me.”

*

Baseball engulfed Archuleta’s life. He played year-round, sometimes from dawn to dusk and later, if there were lights.

Even now, Archuleta is usually the first to arrive and the last to leave the practice field. And prying him out of a game takes a crowbar.

Last season, Archuleta strained ligaments in his ankle. The doctor said he would miss eight weeks. He returned one game later.

During another game, Archuleta twisted an ankle on his first at-bat and hurt his knee the next time up. On his third at-bat, he hit a grounder and was knocked down on a close play at first base.

“I sent my assistant coach out to get him,” Howard said. “He told Saul that we just wanted to make sure he was all right. Saul stood on first base and said, ‘I’m not leaving.’ We would have had to carry him off the field.”

Jim Archuleta saw that devotion early and used it to point his son down the right path. To play ball, Archuleta had to play ball.

If his grades slipped, no baseball. If he got into trouble, no baseball. If he got out of line at all, no baseball.

It wasn’t an immediate success. Archuleta was not exactly a model kid or student for a while. He ran with the wrong crowd, according to his father, and got into trouble and a few scraps.

“I told him he needed to change his friends or he wasn’t playing baseball,” Jim Archuleta said. “He changed friends.”

Said Saul Archuleta: “Pops was tough. He got through to me.”

*

The change has been dramatic.

Tensions were taut at an Orange basketball game this season, to the point where fans from both sides were ready to fight. Archuleta stepped in and helped cool down the Orange students.

“That’s how far Saul has come,” Howard said. “Three years ago, he would have been in the middle of it all.”

Said Archuleta: “I channel my aggression into other areas.”

Just ask any Century League player or coach.

Archuleta is far from being the most beloved player in the league--he may lead Orange County in being hit by pitches. But he is one of the most respected.

“Actually, I like the kid,” Canyon Coach Mike Najera said. “Yeah, he talks a little, but he’s not a trash talker.”

Still, he chips at players, trying to unnerve them during the game. It’s a trait that doesn’t sit well with everyone.

“He even rags on me,” said one coach, who asked not to be identified.

Said Archuleta: “When you can get in somebody’s head, you got them.”

A philosophy he doesn’t reserve just for opponents.

Archuleta was brought up to the varsity early in his freshman year and was inserted into the lineup at shortstop. The move caused some grumbling among the seniors.

“I told them if they were doing their jobs, I wouldn’t be here,” Archuleta said.

End of problem.

“He was in charge the first minute he stepped on the field,” Howard said.

That leadership guided the Panthers to the league co-championship last season. Archuleta was named co-player of the year. Orange also reached the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division II playoffs.

This season has been a struggle. Orange is mired in the middle of the pack, fighting to make the playoffs.

If Archuleta can push the Panthers into the postseason, he will. If he can’t, well, there are worse problems.

“There are a lot bigger things in life than going 0 for 4,” Archuleta said.

And that talk isn’t cheap.