Clout of the Park

The first thing that stands out about Jason Botts is, well, all of him.

Check out this tale of the tape: Six feet six, 245 pounds, with layers of rock-hard muscles packed tightly in a Glendale College baseball uniform.

He is so imposing, so strong, that the 34-inch, 31-ounce aluminum bat he has swung to hit eight home runs this season looks like a crowbar in his hands.

To opposing pitchers and coaches, it’s more like a lethal weapon.

“He hit a ball out of dead center in our field,” Ventura Coach Don Adams said. “That ball went about 450 feet. That’s the only ball I’ve seen hit out of there.

“There’s a street that runs behind our left-field fence. I told our guys, ‘When Botts comes up, maybe we should send someone out there to stop traffic. Make sure no one gets hurt.’ ”

Botts, a sophomore first baseman from Paso Robles High, laughs at the story. That’s something the good-natured Botts, who was raised with small-town charm and values, does frequently. He’s always ready to laugh.

He laughs at himself. He laughs at comments from teammates. He laughs about L.A. traffic.

Because for all of his success, for all of the praise tossed his way, Botts has his cleats squarely planted on the ground.

“Everything can be taken away as quickly as it’s given to you,” Botts said.

Botts, 19, is on a baseball and personal-growth fast track.

A former All-Southern Section selection and Los Padres League most valuable player, Botts was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles after his senior season in 1998 and by the Texas Rangers last June, after batting .351 with 11 home runs and 42 runs batted in for the Vaqueros.

The interest from the major league teams was flattering, even tempting, but Botts never seriously considered turning pro.

“I felt I needed more time to develop in college, maturity wise,” Botts said. “I needed to be mature enough to handle baseball as a job.”

Botts attended Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo for one semester before transferring to Glendale, to be a little farther from home, a little more independent. But it wasn’t an easy transition. He was homesick and struggled with the faster lifestyle.

“I thought he was mature out of high school,” said Judy Botts, Jason’s mother. “He had to experience life on his own and grow from that. . . . He knew I favored him venturing out and being on his own.”

Botts and his younger sister, Nicole, were raised by Judy for the last 11 years after her divorce. The three are extremely close, making Jason’s move to Glendale more difficult.

“She means everything to me,” Botts said of his mother, who owns a company that recruits nurses for hospitals. “She sacrificed so much for my sister and I.”

Over the summer, Botts decided not to return to Glendale and searched for other programs. His decision was prompted by, among other factors, uncertainty after former coach Denny Barrett resigned to become an assistant at Lewis-Clark State in Idaho.

Under Barrett, the Vaqueros won consecutive Western State Conference Southern Division titles, sharing the championship with Pierce two years ago.

Then Barrett’s replacement, Chris Zavatsky, gave Botts a convincing sales pitch.

“I thought my best chance of succeeding was coming back to Glendale because of Coach Zavatsky,” Botts said. “He won my mother and I over.”

Botts hasn’t regretted the decision. He is batting .386 with seven doubles, 24 RBIs and the eight moon shots that would have carried out of any ballpark. And he is becoming a more complete player, something Zavatsky promised to help him achieve.

The only drawback is Glendale’s erratic play, particularly on defense, which has dropped the team to 7-10-1, 2-4 in the WSC.

“The power is not the issue,” Zavatsy said. “The challenge has been for him to refine his overall skills. He is driven to prove himself more than a one-dimensional player.”

Botts feels the improvement with every swing, with every ball he scoops out of the dirt at first base and with every throw he beats home to score from second base. But he knows there’s plenty of work to be done.

“For me last year, an average game was hitting one over the scoreboard and striking out a couple of times,” Botts said. “But I never take anything for granted.”

That, his mother said, would be way out of character.

“He really plays for the love of the game,” Judy Botts said. “He’s about living the dream. It’s that passion that makes him work so hard.”