Tradition Thrown Out

Close your eyes. Now open them. That’s the amount of time it takes--about 1.7 seconds--for catcher Tony Cicero of Cleveland High to snatch the ball from his glove and get it down to second.

“He throws better to second base than [Todd] Hundley does, than [Mike] Piazza does,” Cavalier Coach Steve Landress said.

Cicero threw out eight baserunners in a game in Las Vegas earlier this season.

He also can hit. His .542 batting average (32 for 59) is second-best among City Section hitters from the region.

Not bad for a 6-foot, 175-pound senior who is a fourth-generation member of a family that runs one of the last farms in the region.

Cicero has been riding tractors since he was 5, about the time he started playing baseball. Family members knew early on he had a strong arm based on how hard he threw dirt clods in the middle of cornfields.

“We had to dodge them,” said his father, Joe.

When Cicero was 10, he created his own Field of Dreams in a cornfield on a farm next to Pierce College his family has since sold. He designed a baseball diamond, using fertilizer bags for bases and stakes that hold up cornstalks to signify home-run territory.

Cicero still rides a tractor on weekends at the 180-acre family farm in Saugus, wearing his Cleveland High baseball cap as he plants and plows.

But Cicero leaves no doubt he won’t be continuing a 55-year-old family tradition by staying in the farming business.

“That’s not the way I want to go,” he said. “I’m not really into that way of life.”

Baseball beckons, and his father supports his decision.

“I think it’s great,” Joe Cicero said. “I hate losing the fourth generation in farming, but it’s probably in his best interest to go into a different field. Farming is going to be very hard. They’re putting houses on everything.”

Whether getting dirty planting corn or sliding into second, Cicero does everything with a purpose.

“A real positive attitude helps a lot,” he said. “When you feel you can get a hit pretty much every time up, it does a lot.”

Cicero considered himself a third baseman until he was forced to play catcher as a sophomore in a crucial game against Kennedy. The starting catcher missed practice, making Cicero the last-minute replacement.

It was one of the best pitching matchups of 1997, featuring future first-round draft pick Jon Garland of Kennedy against future Loyola Marymount ace Mike Schultz of Cleveland.

Behind the plate was the inexperienced Cicero, who remembers having butterflies in his stomach. Cleveland won the game, 1-0, and Landress quickly concluded, “Right then, we figured, ‘Hey, you’re a better catcher than a third baseman.’ ”

Baseball has become Cicero’s calling. When he’s on his tractor, the radio is usually tuned to a Dodger game, with Vin Scully’s distinctive voice coming through. It helps Cicero daydream about the future. He hopes baseball is part of his life for years to come.

*

Spring football practice begins in a couple of weeks. College coaches will be dropping by campuses to scout next season’s senior class, but when they come by Valencia High, it will be difficult not to notice 6-3 1/2, 245-pound sophomore Kaelen Jakes.

Travis Johnson of Notre Dame is the most-feared defensive lineman in the region, but Jakes is closing in.

He’s absolutely relentless in chasing quarterbacks. In the off-season, Jakes is lifting weights, getting stronger, meaner, tougher, better. Now that’s scary.

“There are very few tough guys playing the game anymore,” Valencia Coach Brian Stiman said. “The contact and physical nature doesn’t bother him. He plays with a fire.” . . .

Football Coach Keith Knoop of Burroughs can’t wait to get a glimpse of Spencer Steward, who rushed for more than 2,000 yards on the junior varsity team last season. Steward, a junior, is busy playing baseball, but he figures to blend in nicely with returning quarterback Joe Kroells. . . .

Two more candidates are scheduled to be interviewed for the position of athletic director at Cal State Northridge, but it might not matter. I believe the next athletic director will be Myles Corrigan, an assistant athletic director at Washington who has all the qualities the school is seeking. The enthusiasm and competence he showed during a Thursday interview convinces me it’s his job if he wants it. . . .

Basketball player Charles Gillig of Harvard-Westlake served a one-day internship last month as part of a career day working for the head comedy writer of the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” He plans to major in English at Middlebury College in Vermont and play basketball. . . .

Sophomore pitcher Jason Urquidez of Chaminade received quite a compliment from Coach Scott Muckey of Crespi despite losing to the Celts, 3-2, on Tuesday.

“I was very impressed,” Muckey said. “For six innings, he didn’t throw a ball above the knees. He’s going to be a tough guy to beat.”

Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.