Langston Likes His View, From the Ground Up

Around the horn with Mark Langston, the new baseball coach at Orange Lutheran High School.

First base. Langston made a big turn around the bag . . . while driving the cart pulling a metal screen that smoothed the infield dirt. This was the first step on the first day of baseball practice.

Second base. Langston slid in . . . letting the engine idle, he got out and kicked some rocks away. No bad hops here.

Third base. He hit the brakes . . . and began giving orders to Lancer players. First on the list was to move the soccer goal from left field into foul territory.

Langston has found home. He picked up a rake and began grooming the foul lines, looking occasionally at the overcast skies, hoping the rain would wait.

“I don’t even do yard work at my house,” Langston said, laughing. “I pay someone to do it.”

At Orange Lutheran, it is his chore. He slowly walked across the infield Monday, scanning the ground for imperfections. He stepped gingerly on the mound, as if it were hallowed ground.

Langston, left elbow swollen from 16 years of throwing curveballs and sliders in the major leagues, has a new job--several of them, in fact.

He is a bureaucrat, pushing through the red tape that comes with being a high school coach.

He is a gardener, and actually finds puttering around the infield “therapeutic.”

And finally, as of Monday, he is a coach. Langston, aching to stay involved in baseball, took the job last spring and has thrived.

“I’m more organized than I have ever been in my life,” the 40-year-old Langston said. “There is so much to do that it makes me forget that I’m usually in spring training right now.”

Reminders come when the phone rings.

Tim Mead, vice president in charge of communications for the Angels, called from Arizona. Hi Mark, how ya doing, boy it’s beautiful in Tempe.

Cleveland Indian pitcher Jaret Wright rang one day, from a golf course in Florida. Wow, Mark, wish you were here.

“This is the first time since 1981 that I haven’t been in camp,” Langston said. “Really, the only time I think about that is when people called. Jaret was on the 18th hole. I know exactly what it looked like there. That was like a scratch-and-sniff call.”

The aroma and sights were a little different at Orange Lutheran’s water-logged baseball field. A drain empties a mildew smell behind the Lancers’ dugout. The grass in left field, which is also part of the school’s football and soccer fields, was badly in need of seeding to patch bald spots.

And coaching on this day was like running an army induction center. Langston spent the first half hour passing out hats and shirts.

Yet there is no place Langston would rather be. He had opportunities to coach elsewhere. But he found his level. Even the gardening duties are good.

The seed was planted a year ago, when Langston was preparing for the Indians’ camp. He was working out at Cal State Fullerton and Tim Wallach, a Titan coach and long-time friend, asked the question a player rarely thinks about.

“He asked me what I was going to do when I retired,” Langston said. “He wondered if I wanted to coach. I told him I did, but I didn’t want to travel. I thought high school would be the perfect job. It was like a door opening.”

At a time that another one was closing. Langston gave up 12 earned runs in nine innings during spring training in 2000 and called it quits after a successful, if sometimes gut-wrenching career.

He won 179 games and had 2,464 strikeouts while playing for the Angels, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians. But elbow problems left him fragile and he won only 13 games his last four seasons.

Langston was a marquee free agent when the Angels signed him in 1990, and he combined with Mike Witt for a no-hitter in his first start. He also provided a vivid image of the team’s 1995 collapse, when the Angels blew an 11-game lead and lost a one-game playoff to the Mariners.

He was the starter, and victim, that day when light-hitting Luis Sojo cued a ground ball that became a bases-loaded triple, then scored on Langston’s throwing error. Langston lay on his back at home plate after the play.

Langston spent 15 seasons toiling to reach the World Series, and finally did so with the Padres in 1998, then gave up a game-winning grand slam to New York Yankee Tino Martinez in Game 1.

Such been-to-the-mountaintop, got-knocked-off moments certainly give Langston perspective. That was apparent when he addressed his team Monday.

“A lot of baseball is mental,” Langston told the Lancer players before starting.

“When you take infield, don’t throw the ball all over the place. The other team is going to be watching. If you’re throwing the ball all over the place, it might give them an edge. If you look sharp, they’ll start saying, ‘Dang, this team is good.’ This is all about having a presence.”

Langston’s presence at Orange Lutheran is due in part to his daughter, Katie, who is a freshman at the school. He liked the school’s philosophy and jumped at the chance when he learned there was a coaching vacancy.

“He had a great desire to impart the tremendous knowledge he acquired from his storied major league career,” Orange Lutheran Athletic Director Jim Kunau said. “Mark has very strong Christian beliefs and that fit with our school. Someone mentioned to me that Mark might be interested, and I called him right away.”

Langston has already had an effect on the Lancers, who finished 6-19 a year ago.

“I think he gives us a great chance to get better,” sophomore outfielder Brent Concolino said. “He’s always going to be this big boy who played in the major leagues. We can learn a lot from him.”

There are advantages to having a former major leaguer as coach. For starters, Barney Lopas, who manicures the grounds for the Angels, redid the Lancer infield, bringing over dirt from Edison Field.

“Our pitching mound is as good as those in the major leagues,” Langston said.

Langston has brought in guest speakers Rex Hudler and Wallach, who was helping organize practice Monday.

“You hope the players can absorb what these guys tell them,” Langston said.

If they don’t, well, Langston has honed another skill. His gardening technique.

Said Langston: “Maybe Barney Lopas can give me a winter job.”