St. Francis High Baseball Bleeds Dodger Blue

Dodgertown may be located in Vero Beach, Fla., but St. Francis High has a good argument to steal the name.

Three varsity players have roots in the Dodger organization.

Junior Matt Blaney, the Knights’ top pitcher, is the son of Charlie Blaney, the Dodgers’ vice president of minor league operations.

Reserve outfielder Matt Seidler is the nephew of Dodger owner Peter O’Malley. Seidler’s mother is O’Malley’s sister.

And just guess who is the father of freshman Fernando Valenzuela?

All three players have missed St. Francis games this season because of their family ties.

The Seidler and the Blaney families vacationed together in Vero Beach during spring break, causing Matt and Matt to miss the Babe Herman tournament early in April.

Valenzuela missed a game on April 3 while in San Diego to watch his father’s first start of the season for the San Diego Padres.

Young Valenzuela is a much better hitter than he is a pitcher. Entering this week he had a .429 batting average in 49 at-bats and a 14.00 earned run average in four innings. His dad, a former Cy Young award winner, had a career batting average of .200 and 10 home runs entering this season.

Blaney (2-3) has an ERA of 2.42. Seidler is hitless in one at-bat.

Homeless: In its second season competing in the Foothill League, Valencia High’s baseball team has continued to make progress with a record near .500, and is in contention for a playoff spot with four weeks left in the season.

Not bad for a team that barely has a field to practice on, much less play games.

The Vikings have yet to play a home game this season because their field isn’t ready.

A drainage problem discovered when the fences were moved back is only now being repaired.

The warning track was installed last week and Valencia Coach Dennis Mifflin is hoping the field will be ready for Tuesday’s game against Saugus.

“When it rained, the outfield was just a mess,” Mifflin said. “It would take forever to drain because there was no place for the water to go.”

Meanwhile the Vikings have been playing “home” games at opposing sites and practicing around the construction.

At one point, the Vikings held practice with an earthmover in center field.

“We made a game out of it,” Mifflin said. “Anybody who hit the earthmover during practice didn’t have to run.”

Aced out: When talented Royal pitchers Matt and Mike Rainer opted to play soccer at Royal this winter, baseball coach Dan Maye worried that a lengthy readjustment would be required when the brothers returned.

The seniors signed with Northridge in September and entering the week, Matt had shrugged off the cobwebs and become the Highlanders’ ace.

Mike, however, has seen little game time on the mound and is used as an outfielder or a designated hitter.

Maye said Mike Rainer has struggled with control problems and that the emergence of Mike Byer as a solid No. 2 pitcher leaves little room for Rainer to receive extended outings.

“This time of year we’ve only got two games a week,” Maye said. “If we had an extra nonleague game each week [Mike Rainer] would be throwing it.”

All-star: Josh Glass of Campbell Hall High was left off the list of All-Southern Section basketball players in Thursday’s Times. He made the Division V team. He averaged 12.7 points and 5.8 assists last season.