Can’t Give Guerrero Short Shrift

A father playing catch with his son. It’s a simple but poignant gesture, almost a rite of passage, establishing a bond that can last a lifetime.

As James Guerrero nears his 18th birthday, his father, Pete, finds himself reminiscing about those early days in the front yard, sitting on a lawn chair with a pot of uncut pinto beans and tossing them to James to see if he could hit one with his bat.

“I used to wear a pair of safety classes,” Pete said. “You get hit, it stings.”

No father has ever felt prouder receiving a pinto bean sting.

“I believe in hard work,” Pete said. “With James, I never had to pressure him to practice. It was something he was born with.”

From age 5 through this, his senior season at Fontana High, Guerrero has followed a disciplined path to baseball success: Practice, practice, practice.

Pete remembers hitting his son close to 200 ground balls one afternoon in the front yard. James couldn’t come in the house until he fielded the last 50 in a row without an error. If he missed No. 49, it meant he had to start over.

Guerrero is always preparing for the next at-bat, the next game, the next challenge.

“I’m just confident in my ability,” he said. “I’m confident of hitting any pitches and taking any ground balls. My Dad instilled that in me as a young kid.”

Guerrero is 5 feet 7, his same height since arriving at Fontana as a freshman. Four years later, he owns many of the school’s hitting records besides being an exceptional fielder at shortstop.

“I’ve seen him hit a ball 450 feet,” Coach Jody Stevens said. “I’ve seen him make plays at shortstop nobody else can make. He does everything right.”

The last two summers, he has played on U.S. junior national teams in Cuba and Mexico, beating out taller, more publicized players. Get used to Guerrero surprising the skeptics, for he rarely disappoints when given a fair chance.

“As a short person, you have to work twice as hard because if you have the height, [scouts] automatically assume, ‘There’s a ballplayer,’ ” he said. “With a short person, they wonder, ‘Can he play?’ I wish people wouldn’t look at the height difference. If you can flat out play, you can play.”

Earning respect has come routinely for Guerrero. Even in youth baseball, opposing parents would ask to shake his father’s hand because of the way James played the game.

He has been a four-year starter at Fontana and a two-year All-Citrus Belt League selection. This season, though Fontana is struggling with a 2-9 record in league play, he’s batting .472 with four home runs, 10 triples, six doubles and 26 runs batted in. He has a 3.6 grade-point average and signed with San Diego State last November.

“It makes me a very proud father that people consider him a great human being before a great ballplayer,” Pete said.

Pete and his wife, Rebecca, work for Kaiser Permanente. They’ve always made time to attend games when their three children were competing.

“They’re loving parents,” Guerrero said. “They love me to death, like I love them.”

Guerrero’s confidence in his father’s teachings is understandable, considering they keep ringing true. “I remember him saying, ‘Practice makes perfect, hard work pays off,’ ” he said. “If you think about it, it’s true. I worked hard as a little kid growing up and am still working hard.”

For those who wonder if Guerrero’s size might hinder him at the college or professional levels, don’t worry.

“I always taught my kids to just believe in yourself,” Pete said. “Never let anybody tell you you can’t do it. I’ve told him every single time since he was a kid, ‘When you step between the lines, you have to believe you’re the best player on the field.’ It’s something he believes in. He never backs down. He’s always been fearless.”

Thanks to a father who cares and a pot of pinto beans, Guerrero has become one of the top high school infielders in Southern California.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.