Pierce Power Structure : Brawny Mike Glendenning Builds Interest Among Scouts With Each Impressive Swing

As the pitcher fell behind on the count, digging himself a larger hole with every offering, Pierce College’s Mike Glendenning planted himself in the batter’s box and waited.

The suspense didn’t last long.

On the next pitch, a fastball, Glendenning unleashed a powerful swing that sent the ball sailing over the left-field fence for another home run.

“That’s why everyone is after that kid, including myself,” said a pro scout in the crowd.

Glendenning, a muscular 6-foot, 200-pound sophomore third baseman, has become this season’s top slugger among junior college players in the region. He has 11 home runs, 44 runs batted in, a .677 slugging percentage and is batting .339.

There aren’t many pitchers Glendenning can’t decipher. But he wasn’t always able to figure out things in the classroom.

Glendenning, 19, has battled dyslexia for years, but didn’t know it until about three years ago.

He was attending Crespi High and struggling with school work when Celt baseball Coach Scott Muckey first suspected the problem.

“My junior year, I was in [Muckey’s] physiology class and he couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting the right answers to the tests because I was working pretty hard,” Glendenning said. “He suggested I should be tested to see why and that’s when they found out I had dyslexia.”

Muckey, who had to drop Glendenning from the baseball program because he was academically ineligible in his sophomore and junior seasons, recalls Glendenning’s frustration.

“He would come in and we would go over the material and he couldn’t flat out remember it,” Muckey said. “I thought, ‘Something’s wrong here. For the time and effort he’s putting here, he’s not getting the results he should be getting.’ ”

Although Glendenning couldn’t stay eligible for baseball until his senior season, he managed to play football for the Celts by making up classes in summer school.

In his senior season in 1993, Glendenning had 50 receptions for 442 yards and two touchdowns while splitting time between tight end and wide receiver. He then played right field on the baseball team and batted .356 with only one home run.

“He’s always been very strong and a very good-looking hitter but he didn’t really start hitting until the second half of the season,” Muckey said. “He was at a real disadvantage because he didn’t join the team until mid-February because he was spending a lot of time studying.”

Four months later, Glendenning was picked by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 64th round of the amateur draft but opted for Pierce.

Glendenning initially challenged Dave Supple and Brandon Murphy at catcher and then became the Brahmas’ designated hitter last season, batting .288 with five homers and 34 RBIs.

The bulk of those numbers came in the second half of the season after he became more comfortable with college baseball.

“We played Fullerton in our first game last year and he struck out his first time up and I remember him telling me that his knees were shaking so bad,” Pierce Coach Bob Lofrano said. “I enjoy the honesty of a guy like that. He has matured so much. He’s a very personable young man.”

And one who can carry a team with his bat.

Last Saturday, in a 13-12 victory over Bakersfield in an important Western State Conference South Division game, Glendenning knocked in six runs with a grand slam and a two-run blast that gave him nine home runs and 29 RBIs, both WSC highs.

“I started building up confidence right away this year and once that gets up, it’s pretty hard to get it back down,” Glendenning said. “I just try to hit the ball hard.”

Although most people focus on Glendenning’s long drives, other parts of his game also have impressed Lofrano, particularly his steady improvement at third base.

Glendenning has made 12 errors in 121 chances but committed most of them early in the season, when he was still adapting to the position.

“Now you hope the ball is hit to him, where back in September we weren’t sure how well he would handle the position,” Lofrano said. “This is showing people what kind of an athlete Mike is. His baserunning instincts are the best on the team.”

Glendenning, who recently signed to play at Cal State Northridge, has been holding his own in the classroom and carries a 2.5 grade-point average. He hopes to become a veterinarian but is also looking for a career in pro baseball.

Lofrano, for one, believes Glendenning has the necessary tools.

“He’s the complete package,” Lofrano said.

“I haven’t coached anyone that I’ve enjoyed watching develop as much as Mike.”