Pitcher Silva Grows Tired of His Life in the Fast Lane

Ted Silva just flew in from Millington, Tenn., and, boy, is he tired.

From early May, when his Cal State Fullerton team qualified for the NCAA regional playoffs, until the mid-August, when the U.S. national team was eliminated from the World Baseball Championships here, Silva visited eight states, three countries, two continents and crossed the international dateline twice.

The experience didn’t quickened his fastball or improve his slider, but it did teach the former Redondo High standout how to handle the suitcase, something he says will make him a better pitcher.

“That’s going to be the key for all of us,” Silva says of himself and his Team USA teammates. “It’s just the experience of traveling, playing international ball. When we get back to school, those little getaway weekend trips you’re going to have during the season are going to be nothing compared to (this).”

Silva’s odyssey began in November, when he was invited--along with 63 other top college players--to Homestead, Fla., to try out for the U.S. team. Silva earned the honor by going 4-2 with seven saves as a freshman relief pitcher at Fullerton.

His stock improved last spring during a sophomore season in which he saved 13 games in 33 appearances and registered a 2.29 earned-run average. But in his final game, after matching a career high with four shutout innings in relief, Silva gave up a game-winning, 12th-inning home run against Georgia Tech that eliminated the Titans from the College World Series in Omaha.

He continued to struggle this summer, primarily from a lack of work. In Team USA’s 29-game warm-up for the world amateur championships, Silva pitched only 10 innings, giving up five runs. In Nicaragua, he got in three games, the most memorable appearance coming against South Korea in a game the U.S. had to win to advance to the medal round.

Silva came on with one out in the eighth inning to protect a 5-3 lead, but gave up a two-run home run to the first batter he faced. His teammates rallied in the ninth inning, however, and Silva retired the Koreans in order in their final at-bat to pick up his second win of the summer.

The U.S. was eliminated a game later when it fell to eventual champion Cuba, 15-2, in the sudden-death quarterfinals to conclude its long summer with a 24-13 record.

“I just haven’t been all in it this summer,” said Silva, who struck out 14 batters in 13 innings with Team USA but finished with a 5.54 ERA. “I’m not bearing down as much. I don’t think my mind’s been here all the way either.

“I’m used to throwing at least two times a week in games. (With Team USA) I maybe pitched once every three, four games. It’s not like I’m getting a lot of work in. My arm’s been pretty much resting.”

A three-sport star at Redondo, Silva actually won more varsity letters in basketball than he did in baseball. In fact, that was the sport he wanted to pursue at El Camino College. But a standout senior baseball season--in which he went 9-3 with an 0.64 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 66 innings--changed all that.

After Silva was named all-Southern Section in 1992, four-year schools that had previously ignored him suddenly began offering scholarships.

“I never got recruited until after my senior season,” Silva says. “That’s mid-June. I didn’t sign until mid-July. That’s pretty late.”

Among the late bidders were USC, UCLA and Cal State Los Angeles but, Silva says: “Fullerton came in with a real fair deal. I guess I got pretty lucky.”

Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido was undoubtedly saying the same thing a few months later. In the team’s first game of the 1993 season, Garrido brought the 18-year-old freshman in to face highly regarded Stanford. Showing his age and lack of experience, the jittery Silva walked the only two batters he faced before being pulled.

Two days later, Garrido gave Silva the ball again against the same team and he responded by striking out four in 3 1/3 innings of no-hit relief, earning his first college victory. That effort established Silva as the Titans’ bullpen stopper, and he went on to appear in 32 games, the second-highest total in school history.

He upped that number by one last season, when he was named a second-team All-American by Mizuno. But he really proved his worth in the NCAA regional tournament, pitching in four consecutive games and earning the victory in the regional final against Oklahoma State.

Despite his success as a reliever, the 6-foot, 165-pound right-hander would like to try his hand--and arm--at starting this season.

“I’d like to try something different,” he says. “Relieving. . . . I’ve gotten used to it. It’s no big deal now. But two years of late relief is enough. I’d like to start.”

But wherever he winds up, Silva’s goal will remain the same: a national title. It’s the only thing that’s eluded him in his first two years at Fullerton.

“Coming off the College World Series, that was a major high,” Silva says. “I want to get back there again.”

But first, he’s going home. In the past four months, he’s spent a total of 2 1/2 days there, so he has a lot of catching up to do with his parents. And one of the things they’re sure to talk about is Silva’s experience in Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

“It’s real different here,” said Silva, who celebrated his 20th birthday in Central America. “It just makes you respect what you have more.”

The poverty he saw apparently weighed on Silva the way his suitcase did when he landed here more than two weeks ago. Because of that, his luggage--and his conscience--were both a little lighter on the return trip.

After Team USA’s final game, Silva gave away baseballs, sweatbands and whatever else he could legally take off in public before returning to the hotel.

“You know, it makes you feel good just to give a person a ball,” he said.

That might be another lesson Silva learned about traveling: Sometimes just packing the memories is enough.