This Young Rebel Wasn’t a Lost Cause

There was a poignant moment last Thursday night at Dodger Stadium that provided inspiration and hope.

It involved Jason Wigginton, the winning pitcher for Cleveland High in the City Division final.

Wigginton’s 10-year-old brother, Corey, leaped on his back, treating him like a hero. Friends offered hugs. His parents had tears in their eyes. His teachers looked on in wonderment.

“It’s pretty remarkable what he’s done,” Coach Steve Landress said.

Wigginton did not play in a high school baseball game until spring break this season, four years after entering high school.

What a strange journey it has been.

“I had some rough times,” he said.

Wigginton was expelled from Granada Hills High for disciplinary reasons as a 13-year-old freshman in 1995.

Two years ago, he had 35 days of unexcused absences and brought home a report card with six failing grades.

“I’d drop him off at school, watch him walk in, and he’d leave through another gate,” said his father, Robert.

Wigginton was a teenager in rebellion. He’d drive without a license and hang out with friends who really weren’t his friends.

“He was 100% out of control,” Robert said.

What’s a parent to do?

“We kept giving him our unconditional love,” Robert said. “We never gave up.”

Through the turmoil, baseball served as a buffer zone.

“It was the one thing we could always get him to enjoy,” Robert said. “Whenever we said, ‘Let’s go play baseball,’ he was always the first one in the car.”

Wigginton has been playing since he was 6. He is a left-handed pitcher with an excellent curveball.

“I love baseball,” he said.

With his baseball career in jeopardy and having grown weary of the constant battles off the field, Jason turned his life around last year.

He went to school. He got good grades. He started respecting adults again.

“It’s like somebody threw a switch and Jason came back,” Robert said. “He’s living proof you can come back from dire straits.”

Jason is getting A’s in English, science and metal shop, and B’s in algebra and biology.

Look deep into his blue eyes and you can see a 17-year-old full of life and adventure.

But what caused him to lose his compass? What made him unable to determine right from wrong?

“I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t like thinking about that. I want to think ahead. I don’t want to think of the past.”

Whatever the reason, he’s smiling and friendly again. He finished with a 5-1 pitching record and 2.54 earned-run average this season. A junior academically, he plans to seek a hardship waiver to play for Cleveland next season, his fifth year of high school.

But nothing can diminish the experience of pitching at Dodger Stadium.

“It was the greatest moment of my life,” he said.

Kim Kelly, a Cleveland teacher who works with at-risk students, watched Wigginton from the stands in admiration.

“To see him out there is one of the things as a teacher that is wonderful,” she said. “You could see it in him: ‘I’ve come so far.’ ”

Said Robert: “To see him there was the thrill of a lifetime. To come from where we were three years ago when we didn’t think he was ever going to graduate, to pitching a game at Dodger Stadium, that’s a lot for a parent to go through. Sports is what got him out of it. He found his place in life.”

The best part of Wigginton’s turnaround is the positive example he has set for his brother.

Corey asked Jason to autograph a baseball after the game. He also wants Jason to teach him how to throw a curveball.

“I love my brother,” Jason said.

By all accounts, Jason has become the big brother everyone hoped he’d be.

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Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com