JANELLE STRAWSBURG
Staff Writer
Waking up at the first light of morning to head down to the baseball diamond is not how the average college student would choose to spend summer. However these athletes are anything but average. With their dedication and hard work ethic, collegiate baseball players chose not to spend their summer lounging on the beach but instead head across the country, leaving family and friends, to compete in summer baseball leagues.
For three Pepperdine players, senior Luke Salas and juniors Donald Brown and Danny Worth, the summer was a culmination of growing experiences, hard work and memories with new teammates and new host families.
Brown spent his summer up in the cool of Alaska playing under the Alaska Baseball League for the Mat-su Miners.
“Alaska was awesome,” Brown said. “It was a great growing experience as both a player and person being out in the wilderness, experiencing a ton of adventure.”
Adventure would be a key word for Brown, who was transplanted from the beaches of Malibu to the rough country of Alaska with nothing but a baseball field and a lot of time to keep him company. The turning point for Brown, however, was the people he found himself surrounded by, whether it be on or off the field.
Brown stayed with the Whismans, a military family that includes a dad about to leave for his third trip to Iraq, an ex-military mom and six kids.
“For my roommate, Jon Hee, and I, they were more than accommodating,” Brown said.
The right fielder not only competed every night but also worked part time for the organization in field management.
The hard work paid off, as he was awarded All-Alaska League honors and named Co-Player of the Year. For Brown, however, the real success of the summer was making quality relationships with his fellow teammates.
“The benefits of summer ball are you get to bond with a lot of guys that maybe you’ll never see again,” Brown said. “You share a special thing with your teammates, you see them day in, day out, good days, bad days. It’s a special bond, you’ll always remember those guys.”
Pepperdine teammate Luke Salas, who spent two months of his summer in the blazing heat of McKinney, Texas, playing for the McKinney Marshals, shared a similar sentiment about the importance of host families and teammates in the summer ball experience. The first Pepperdine player to play in the Texas Collegiate League, Salas would strongly recommend it for future players.
“Summer ball is made or broken by the host family you have,” Salas said. “My host family this summer was great because they literally take you in and treat you like one of their own sons.” The highlight this summer came for Salas when his team won their entire league and the subsequent championship ring he is expecting in the mail.
“Playing in Texas was amazing,” he said. “It is a league of good players and good schools. You get to compete with players from Big Twelve and Midwest schools that you wouldn’t normally get to face being out on the West Coast.” The friendships he made with his teammates, however, will last even longer than the thrill of victory.
“That is the great part about summer ball,” he said. “You get to go and meet guys from different parts of the country and you become lifelong friends. You connect, you trade shirts and hats, and throughout the years you’ll hear from them.”
For Wave shortstop Danny Worth, his host family is what made his summer in the Northwoods League playing for the Alexandria Beetles a summer he hopes to repeat next year.
“The Hammerbacks were the best host family you could ask for,” Worth said. “They are pretty young, with three small boys that are awesome.
“As a family they came to 45 out of the 52 games I played this summer. It felt great having the boys look up to me and always ask me baseball questions and getting to hang out with them all day before our games.”
Worth said every player should experience the Northwoods League “because of the fishing in the morning, baseball in the afternoon, staying up until three in the morning talking with my host parents, wrestling my host brothers every night and dominating them — it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Worth also appreciated the chance to improve on old skills and try out new ones.
“I got to pitch twice this summer,” he said. “That was really cool since I don’t pitch at Pepperdine. We were winning by a lot, and the coaches were messing around so I got to go in and pitch. I dominated with the knuckleball, no one could hit it.”
For some players the new experience of hitting with a wood versus an aluminum bat can be daunting. Worth, however, wasn’t phased by the smaller sweet spot, and his numbers prove it, leading his team batting .344 for the summer.
“Hitting with a wood bat is a lot harder, but it really teaches you how to hit,” he said. “It is not nearly as forgiving as a metal bat, you have to hit it on the sweet spot every time to get results.”
The primary downfall of summer ball for the players is the never-ending barrage of game after game. Leagues play anywhere from 40-70 games in two months, similar to an entire amount’s worth of games during the regular collegiate season.
“It can get pretty tiring playing every day, but it does give you a taste of being in the majors,” Salas said.
However, in the grand scheme of the baseball season, summer ball is essential to the furthering of skills required to make it in the majors and to improve collegiate careers. Just ask Pepperdine baseball coach Steve Rodriguez.
“Summer ball is a great mental challenge for our players to get through,” Rodriguez said. “This game isn’t easy. No one ever said it was.”
And for the majority of collegiate players the positives of the experience outweigh the bad by far.
“We’re living the dream,” Brown said. “Playing baseball every day, someone putting you up in their home, and getting to see a great part of the country, it is a great opportunity.”
08-28-2006