Lodding Is Taking New Path

Darren Bragg homered Sunday night in his debut with the Seattle Mariners. The same Darren Bragg that Sonora assistant baseball coach Rich Lodding remembered as a talented pup at Class-A Peninsula in 1991.

Lodding, on the other hand, spent Sunday stacking boxes in the plumbing department at Home Depot. It was miles, and eons, away from his former teammate. No complaints, though. Lodding is on a new path.

Baseball’s opening day has come again and Lodding, a former Western High and Cypress College pitcher, has felt that itch before. He spent four years in the Mariner chain and was released in 1993. He went back, for fun, last year when the cattle call went out for replacement players.

Lodding got close to playing major league baseball, at least in name. If the strike had not been settled, he would have played for the so-called Toronto Blue Jays. So much for dreams.

But Sunday passed and Lodding was a little too busy to notice the season was under way. Life has moved on.

He is close to a degree at Cal State Fullerton and eyes a teaching credential. From there, it’s an easy leap to a career as a coach, which he’s begun at Sonora.

The bill, for the most part, has been picked up by baseball’s college scholarship fund, which offers up to eight semesters of college. The hitch is you have to begin school within two years of your last professional season.

“That first semester back was pretty rough,” Lodding said. “I can see why most guys give up on it.”

But Lodding won’t be stacking boxes very long.

“It’s pretty important to my mom,” he said. “I’ll get the college degree. She didn’t get one and neither did my dad. Only my sister has one.”

That will probably change.

So many players let that opportunity slip away. Last season, major league baseball went through 87 rounds--taking a large chunk of high school talent--in the June amateur draft. A very select group will make it to the big leagues. Most will be out of pro baseball in less than four years.

Very few seem to take advantage of the college scholarship fund.

“A lot guys say they are going to use it, then that fades away,” Lodding said.

Even Lodding debated. It was hard to give up the dream.

He was a solid pitcher. He helped Western reach a Southern Section title game. He helped Cypress reach the Southern California regional final. He was drafted in the 16th round by the Mariners and never got higher than Class A. He was weeded out as younger arms came in behind him.

When Lodding was released, he wondered, ‘What next?’ What tipped the scale toward education was coaching.

Lodding gets a much-needed break from work and school in the afternoons, when he goes to Sonora to work with the pitchers. He joined the staff days after being released. Pat Tellers, Raider co-coach, called as soon as he heard Lodding was available.

“I had played with Pat’s brother at Western and he said they had a uniform waiting for me,” Lodding said.

It has paid off, for Lodding and the Raiders. It gave Lodding a leg up as a coach. It gave the Raiders a little fine tuning on their pitching staff.

Sonora won the Southern Section Division II title.

So Sunday, his work in the warehouses continued. Monday it was school and coaching. No, Lodding won’t play in the major leagues.

Lodding might not be chasing a dream, but he’s living his life and was smart enough to let major league baseball lend a financial hand.