Sunny Afternoon Is Perfect Time to Search for the Stars

In Hollywood they’re called cattle calls, open to just about any and all comers who think they can act.

That might work when you’re trying to cast someone to play a butler. It’s not the best method to find major league baseball talent. Stars don’t come from open tryouts promoted through flyers, a few phone calls and a small newspaper announcement.

Bruce Reid knows that. But the Milwaukee Brewer scout is at USC’s Dedeaux Field on a hazy summer day anyway. Just in case.

“You always have in the back of your mind that maybe there’s a kid who was overlooked,” Reid says. “For the most part, these tryouts are geared toward younger kids that want to come out and showcase their ability. And it gives us an opportunity to follow them.”

The idea came from a luncheon at Dodger Stadium, when Reid and partner Corey Rodriguez met South Los Angeles Little League President Martin Ludlow. A couple of months later, Reid and Rodriguez are spending 3 1/2 hours putting 30 ballplayers age 16-23 through the paces, checking their speed, throwing arms, hitting and pitching.

Reid and Rodriguez are the ones in the spiffy, crisp Brewer uniforms and caps. Everyone else is a collection of mismatched jerseys and pants in a rainbow of colors: green, orange, red, white and blue.

The hopefuls don’t have much of a chance to show their stuff. A couple of 60-yard dashes, four throws and six to eight swings of the bat for the position players. That’s all the scouts need. Even while he’s throwing batting practice he’s taking mental notes, checking how their bat speeds through the strike zone, listening to how hard the bat meets the ball.

“You can see what type of ability or future ability a player might have,” Rodriguez says.

In this case the best they can hope for is future ability.

After stretching, the players pair off to run 60 yards (the equivalent of the distance from home to second base) from the right-field line into the outfield.

“Anything under seven [seconds], they’re interested,” Gerard Pickens says.

Pickens, who runs the Compton Baseball Academy team, has brought five of his players to the tryout.

“That one there should give a good time,” Pickens says, pointing to a kid in a red jersey taking his place at the starting line.

They’re off and Masjid Khairy is flying, coming in at 6.8 seconds.

That gets the scouts’ attention.

“Where do you go to high school?” Reid asks.

“Centennial,” Khairy says.

Rodriguez asks Pickens if Khairy can hit.

“Both sides,” Pickens says.

He has a good arm too. But he’s undersized, a few inches shy of 6 feet.

That’s the frustrating thing. No one brings the total package. One catcher has a great arm, but takes too long to get the ball out of his glove and throw it down to second base. The next catcher has great technique and footwork, but no zip on the ball.

Jarrod Sinclair looks good at third base and has a go get ‘em attitude. He dives after balls like Graig Nettles robbing Dodger hitters in the ’78 World Series. But he’s 23. If it hasn’t happened by now, chances are it won’t.

“I’m just looking for an opportunity to show what I’ve got,” Sinclair says. “I know I’m getting older and they’re looking for younger kids.”

Richard Junor faces a similar dilemma. He’s a switch-hitter, has a solid physique and runs the 60 in under seven seconds. He came to the tryout after Pickens called him the night before to tell him about it. He’s 20 and hasn’t played organized baseball for three years.

“It’s kind of hard to find a place to play,” Junor says.

He plays football at West L.A. College, where there is no baseball team.

Ryan Cannon is a shortstop coming into his senior year at Crenshaw. After working out for the pro scouts it was obvious what he needs to work on.

“Arm strength,” he says. “Mostly arm strength.”

Part of what the players learn is how to try out, what the scouts look for. The outfielders were trying to hit the cutoff man on their throws to third base. The scouts would rather see them let loose, show off their arm strength and try to throw a one-hopper to third.

The Brewers never have produced a major leaguer from an open tryout, at least not in the six years Rodriguez has worked for them, although the scouts will take four or five names and enter them in the team’s master database of players to watch.

“We try to do these more to make people aware that we are looking for them,” Rodriguez says. “It’s not for now. It’s for three to four years from now.”

Maybe some of these players will be inspired to get better for the next tryout. At the very least these kids got a rare chance to play on a nice field. Cannon had to get over his jittery expectations of bad hops from his usual playing field and adjust to the true bounces of the infield at USC.

It’s a little taste of what baseball can be. A little lesson in what level these aspiring players need to reach.

“Next week,” says Karl Johnson, Cannon’s Crenshaw teammate, “I’m hitting the weights every day.”