The Good Sam Club : Death of Former Teammate Rutherford a Rallying Point for Undefeated Calabasas

The rain on Jan. 23, 1995, was hard and unrelenting. Cooped in a classroom at Calabasas High that day, about 40 candidates for the Coyotes’ baseball team whiled away the sixth-period P.E. class while co-coach and English teacher Rick Nathanson did his best to keep the group under control.

Few players noticed when Nathanson was called into the hall for a short discussion, but when he returned they immediately sensed something was wrong.

“I have to tell you guys some horrible news,” said Nathanson, close to tears. “Sam Rutherford died this morning.”

Two months passed.

Again, heavy rains pelted the Calabasas area. The baseball team was to play Notre Dame in a game designated as the Sam Rutherford Memorial Game in honor of one of the squad’s 1994 team captains.

Calabasas pitcher Brandon Cohen, one of Rutherford’s close friends, recalls anticipating a rainout.

“But then it stopped when we got to the field,” he said. “And 20 minutes after the game it poured. It was really weird. . . . That day got me believing that Sam was with us and watching over us.”

It certainly seems as if the Coyotes’ season has been blessed. Calabasas has set a school record for victories at 19-0 and is exhibiting balanced hitting, a strong three-man pitching staff and nearly flawless defense. But for all of the skill and savvy the team has shown, Calabasas followers say Rutherford’s death from a heart condition while sleeping in his UC Santa Barbara dorm room has resulted in team members forming a tighter bond leading to their success on the field.

“Adolescents think of themselves as invincible but they suddenly realized I was talking about one of their own,” Nathanson said. “I think the guys really like to believe that his spirit is hanging around the dugout. It’s a spiritual feeling we have and we refer to him like he’s there.”

The left sleeve of each Coyote uniform features a black, circular patch with Rutherford’s No. 22 on it and for home games a similar banner hangs on the outfield fence. The banner is also brought on the road and hangs in the dugout, where Calabasas players touch it before taking the field and believe in its ability to bring them out of hitting slumps.

There haven’t been many of those. All nine starters are hitting .300 or better, the team’s batting average is .373 and it is averaging more than 11 runs a game.

The Coyotes, many of whom played in youth leagues together, offensively have better balance than a tightrope walker, but it is their defense, which is allowing opponents fewer than two runs a game, that keeps them from playing catch-up.

Pitching, an uncertain commodity before the season started, has become one of the team’s strengths, and the staff’s earned-run average is 0.99. Cohen, an All-Frontier League catcher in 1994, has moved to the mound and is 7-0. He is followed in the rotation by Montclair Prep transfer Jared Sandler (6-0) and Tanner Trosper (5-0), a ’94 all-league outfielder who plays center field when not pitching.

“This team has great defense and our pitchers are more confident,” first baseman Darin Reisman said.

“Last year they were pressured to strike people out but this year we want the ball hit to us. There are more ‘baseball guys’ on this team and they know when to dive in the outfield and when to throw behind a runner.”

Playing in the Division IV Frontier League, Calabasas does not face strong competition on a regular basis, but the Coyotes’ triumphs include victories over Hart and Notre Dame and two over Chatsworth.

“That game against Notre Dame, nobody expected us to win,” Reisman said. “Then we beat Hart and I could see guys thinking, ‘We are this good; it’s going to be a great season.’ ”

Six starters returned from last year’s 18-6 Calabasas team that finished second in the Frontier League and the Coyotes’ lineup was supplemented by four transfers, giving the team experience at all nine positions.

Burly third baseman Brett Niles, hitting .555, and catcher Josh Goldfield transferred from Crespi and Westlake, respectively. They have blended well with Josh Harris, a first-year shortstop, and returnees such as second baseman Mike Melucci, Reisman and outfielders Billy Hoover and Zach Fields.

Having two head coaches doesn’t hurt, either. Nathanson, 47, is in his third season of sharing the helm with 42-year old Scott Drootin.

Nathanson coaches the outfielders, monitors the team’s academic progress, takes care of administrative matters and spends time with the players on a daily basis. Drootin, an assistant with Kennedy’s 1985 City Section championship team, handles pitching and hitting and usually makes the on-field decisions.

The two met in 1991 when Nathanson was in his second year as the Calabasas junior varsity coach and Drootin took charge of the freshman team. The next season, Nathanson replaced Bob Wade as head varsity coach and Drootin was his assistant. The arrangement worked fairly well, but the Coyotes lost seven games by a run and Nathanson was overwhelmed by the pressures of running the program.

“I live 40 minutes from the school and driving home all I could do was replay games in my head,” said Nathanson, who played at Grant from 1962-65.

“I would get emotionally down during games and the players saw that.”

The Calabasas administration was apprehensive when Nathanson and Drootin proposed to be co-coaches for the 1993 season, but any doubts were erased when the team went 15-6 and shared the Frontier League title with Moorpark.

“I’m very comfortable with Scott orchestrating things on the field spontaneously; it works out best for us this way,” said Nathanson, in whose classroom the majority of the team eats lunch and watches TV daily. “He’s very calm and relaxed and that’s carried over to me.

“I’m able to concentrate on some of the responsibilities, but not all of them, and we confer on almost everything.”

Drootin and Nathanson are known for running long and disciplined practices but humor plays a large role in their coaching philosophy.

The two stage batting practice showdowns after workouts, exhibitions that fail to awe their players.

“It’s hysterical to watch,” Sandler said. “Two grown men having arguments over who can hit pitches you could catch with your bare hand.”

Nathanson has shown up for practice in a tank top and bicycle shorts, and Drootin once instigated a prank in which the team convinced Nathanson that a brand-new, $8,000 outfield fence had been stolen by a rival school.

“The team has a lot of fun with Nate,” Drootin said. “He loves the kids and does silly things to make them laugh.”

Even third-base coach Kon Slettedahl gets into the act. After each victory the longtime assistant performs a hip-shaking, belly-wiggling dance and sings the Calabasas fight song while the team crowds around him.

But for all the light-hearted banter and high jinks, the Coyotes are as serious as a hall monitor when they take the field.

“Everyone’s into the game, no one’s talking to people outside the fence,” Trosper said. “Everyone loves baseball and wants to do something with it.”

At the top of the list is winning a championship in Rutherford’s memory.

“Everybody always builds people up when they die but Sam was really the perfect individual,” said Cohen, who had known Rutherford since age 10. “He had fun, he stayed away from the bad things and he influenced people. He was exceptional.”

Rutherford’s mother, Volda, attends Calabasas games and has received much support from the coaches, players and their parents.

“Coming to watch keeps me going,” she said at Friday’s 8-1 home victory over Moorpark. “It makes me feel closer to Sam, and I’ve known so many of (the players) since they were little. They’re playing so well.”