As a Pitcher and a Draw, He's Red Hot
by Jim Alexander, Riverside Press-Enterprise
May 13, 2004 Some who watch Long Beach State junior Jered Weaver see a young Don Drysdale, with that funky three-quarters delivery and a release point that seems to come from somewhere behind a right-handed batter's left ear.
Others, sensing that the San Diego Padres will take Weaver No. 1 in next month's major league draft, compare him to the Cubs' Mark Prior, the No. 2 pick in 2001 after a similarly dominant junior season at USC.
But, at the risk of baseball blasphemy, maybe we should mention Weaver alongside Sandy Koufax - and not just because of record-shattering strikeout numbers or moments of near-perfection.
Koufax in his prime lured additional people to the ballpark. So has Weaver, on a smaller scale: an average of more than 700 extra fans per home start for a team averaging 1,496 at the gate, as well as huge crowds on the road at Cal State Fullerton (3,317) and Cal Poly (3,279). He's such a hot item, Long Beach's athletic marketing department built a mini-season ticket plan around his scheduled Friday night starts.
"This is obviously pretty unique, with all the exposure he's getting," said Tim Dickson, Long Beach's director of marketing, in a telephone interview. "We've had some good athletes around here before, but I don't think anyone had ever worked anything around them (individually)."
Friday, it's Riverside's turn to take a look. Trust us, it will be worth every penny to show up at the Sports Center - even if it means wedging yourself in among the phalanx of scouts and their radar guns behind home plate - to see if UC Riverside can solve Weaver.
No one else has. In 14 starts, Weaver is 13-0 with a 1.29 ERA, 163 strikeouts in 104 1/3 innings and an opponents' batting average of .147. He leads the nation in victories and strikeouts and is third in ERA.
A Weaver start has been just about an automatic victory - until two Fridays ago, that is, when Weaver gave up an eighth-inning grand slam to UC Santa Barbara's Chris Malec and left with his only no-decision of the season.
"I didn't think of it as a bump in the road," Weaver said in a phone interview. "Some guys are going to get home runs. I just put myself in a situation ... I threw a fastball in and the guy got it. There's nothing you can do about it but go out there the next game."
Oh, and the next game? He shut out Pacific on two hits, struck out 17 and retired the last 18 men he faced, 12 of them on strikeouts. Business as usual, in other words.
As a freshman out of Simi Valley High, he was a good pitcher. As a sophomore, teaming with Fontana's Abe Alvarez for a formidable 1-2 punch, he was a very good pitcher. Last summer, in compiling a streak of 45 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings for the U. S. National Team, he showed signs of dominance.
"What he did over the summer was remarkable, but you never know how the season's going to go," Long Beach coach Mike Weathers said by phone. "(But) he ran with that once he got here."
Now when he takes the mound he has an aura, one that's less about numbers than memorable moments.
Twice, against USC and BYU, he has struck out the first 10 men in a game. Against UCLA, he struck out eight of the last 10 men he faced. Against seventh-ranked Wichita State, 13 of the first 14 outs and 16 of the 18 he recorded were strikeouts.
Need we go on?
Along the way, Weaver has become a hot story. He's fielded interview requests from, among others, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Associated Press. At the same time, he's trying to focus on getting his team to Omaha and the College World Series - and trying to ignore the pot of gold that is almost within reach.
In handling all of this commotion, Jered can draw upon first-hand experience. In previous summers after his own season ended, he would sample the atmosphere of the big leagues in visits with big brother Jeff, who was with the Tigers and then the Yankees.
"He'd come out to Detroit and New York, and just hang out with the guys and meet some people," Jeff Weaver, now with the Dodgers, said last week in an interview with The Press-Enterprise's Allison Ann Otto. "He's seen a lot more than I had (as a college pitcher at Fresno State) ... I just think being around and having an idea what it's all about has brought him further along, as far as not only the physical part but the mental part."
Hanging around the clubhouse and getting a taste of big league life, Jared said, "opened my eyes a little bit. Then, getting a scholarship from a school like Long Beach, I realized something good could come out of this."
How much better can it get? He's enjoying a college season for the ages, he gets to see Jeff pitch regularly at Dodger Stadium, and some time in the coming months he'll almost certainly begin his own trek toward the major leagues.
Friday night, you have a chance to say you saw him when. |
