Romprey a Team Player

His oldest brother, Gary, the wrestler, the one who was so cool, who, being 13 years older, could offer advice without judgment, could set an example without even knowing it, died 12 years ago. It was a car accident and to this day Eddie Romprey, when he doesn’t think anybody is watching, will go through some of Gary’s mementos and photos.

“Eddie still tries to feel close to Gary, I think,” Wanda Romprey, Eddie’s mom, says. “Eddie was only 8 when his brother died and I think he still misses having an adult relationship with Gary.”

Shawn Romprey, five years older than Eddie, is a policeman in Anchorage, Alaska. Law enforcement is not Shawn’s first choice of careers. Shawn wanted to be a pro baseball player, still does if the truth were known. “It still kills Shawn he’s not playing baseball,” Wanda says. “I know it still hurts my brother that he didn’t make the majors,” Eddie says.

Having played at Cal State San Bernardino and having not been drafted, Shawn was practical. He knew his baseball career was over. “But that didn’t mean his heart didn’t break,” Eddie says. “It’s hard to give up a dream and now my dream is to make it for both of us. For all of us.”

Eddie Romprey is a 6-0, 175-pound shortstop and pitcher for the Fullerton College baseball team. He is batting .390 after 12 games this season. As a Fullerton freshman, Romprey hit .375. He is rangy and quick and has a strong arm, strong enough to help him serve as a Fullerton relief pitcher and give him a 1-1 record and a 2.25 ERA this season.

Romprey has been drafted by the Detroit Tigers--”I was drafted in the 25th round, 747th pick overall,” Romprey says proudly--and has also been offered a scholarship for next season by Texas Tech. So already Romprey has fulfilled some of Shawn’s dreams.

His coach, Nick Fuscardo, says Eddie has the physical skills, the size, the strength, the speed, to make it to the pros. Fuscardo says Eddie also has the desire and, most of all, the toughness. “We sat in my office on Wednesday and talked for 45 minutes about how proud I am of him,” Fuscardo says. “Things have been very tough for Eddie and he has handled everything so well and with so much maturity.”

Besides carrying his dreams and Shawn’s and Gary’s in his heart, Romprey is playing this season with one eye on the baseball and one eye turned to home and Wanda.

In January, when Eddie was training for this baseball season, the one he hopes will tell him whether his immediate future should belong to the Tigers or to Texas Tech, Eddie got a phone call from his dad, Edwin. Come quick, Eddie was told. Wanda was in the hospital and it was bad.

The Rompreys live in Victorville, but Wanda had been in Ontario visiting her sister.

“When my mom got to her sister’s house,” Eddie says, “she didn’t feel well. Her chest hurt. She couldn’t get her breath. Her sister knew what it was. It was a heart attack and she called an ambulance.” Wanda was taken to Pomona Valley Medical Center. “It was a terrible drive,” Eddie says. “Part of the 10 was closed, I was having to take back streets and I was getting paranoid.”

Wanda’s heart stopped three times and afterward Eddie says, “the doctors told us that the type of heart attack my mom had, they call it the widowmaker because only 10 percent of the people who have it live.”

For 16 days Wanda was in the hospital and Edwin was in the hospital every hour of each of those days. Maybe that doesn’t seem extraordinary except that, after 25 years of marriage, Edwin and Wanda had been having some problems. Things hadn’t been perfect. The idea of splitting up had been discussed.

On the day when Wanda was released from the hospital, Edwin presented her with a diamond ring. The diamond of her dreams. “The rock,” she calls it now, with a catch in her voice. Eddie’s voice thickens too when he speaks of the moment. “Diamonds are forever and so are we,” Edwin told Wanda when he gave her the ring.

“Sometimes good things can happen out of the bad,” Wanda says. “The heart attack was bad, but it has brought our family close together again.”

Wanda had another heart attack, a smaller one, a couple of weeks ago, but she is home again and eager to get her strength back. She is used to seeing Eddie play all the time and right now Edwin has to practically lock the doors to keep her in the house and out of the car on Fullerton game days.

Meanwhile, Fuscardo says Eddie has turned into one of the best infielders in Southern California. “The worst thing about Eddie,” Fuscardo says, “is that he’s too hard on himself. Every time he doesn’t get a hit, he thinks he’s letting the club down.”

But maybe that’s not it. Not exactly.

Every hit he doesn’t get, it’s a hit Shawn doesn’t get. It’s success Gary didn’t get a chance to have. Every success Eddie has, he knows it raises his mom’s spirit. And more than anything, Eddie plays for his family. “That means everything to me,” Eddie says. “It’s all I think about.”

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com