Ramos Has His Own Course
by Gordie Verrell, Press-Telegram
June 11, 2004 They have combined for nearly two-thirds of Long Beach State's victories. They are the second-winningest 1-2 pitching punch in Long Beach State history. They are one another's biggest fans.
Yet they couldn't be any more different if one was right-handed and the other left-handed.
Which they are.
Jered Weaver, the right-hander, starts off a series, going through his elaborate preparation each inning, then delighting the much- bigger-than-normal crowds at Blair Field by blowing away batter after batter with his strikeouts.
The next night Cesar Ramos, the left-hander, trots out to the mound no, he dashes out there and simply starts pitching. He nibbles at the corners, satisfied to get outs with ground balls, or fly balls, or whatever.
"He can have all the strikeouts,' Ramos said earlier this season, laughing. "I just want to get outs.'
Weaver is 6-foot-7, his shaggy hair bulging from beneath his Dirtbags cap which somehow manages to stay on.
Ramos' hair is pruned nearly as smooth as the baseball he throws.
Weaver was described this week in one newspaper as greedy. Or maybe it's his off-the-field representative. Supposedly that's why he wasn't drafted until the middle of the first round instead of No. 1 as had been speculated all season.
Ramos? He once turned down a tidy sum, something around $200,000 as a sixth-round draft pick in 2002 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays coming out of El Rancho High in Pico Rivera, just so he could be a Dirtbag.
"I always wanted to be a Dirtbag,' he said this week at practice.
So, how's it been for not quite two seasons as a Dirtbag?
"Better than I expected,' he said.
In most any other season the raves would be all about Ramos and his 11-4 record, his 2.12 earned run average and the mere .220 average by opposing batters.
But it's Weaver who's been on the front page all season, piling up the wins, and the strikeouts, going 15-1 with a 1.65 ERA and keeping batters to an even-lower average, .161.
Naturally, Ramos feels slighted, right?
"Not at all,' Ramos said. "I just want to be here.
"Last year it was all about Abe (Alvarez, who was 11-2). Jered was the No. 2 guy. Now he's No. 1.'
And, undoubtedly, next year it'll by Cesar Ramos earning that coveted Friday night start. Right now, though, his only concern is Arizona and the NCAA Super Regional. Weaver will start tonight, Ramos Saturday night.
"Obviously, they've gotten a lot better,' Ramos said of Arizona, whom the Dirtbags dispatched three in a row in a nonconference series at Blair Field in mid-March, with Ramos winning the middle game, 10-2, allowing just the two runs in 72/3 innings.
"This weekend should be a lot tougher, especially with them coming out of the Pac-10,' he said. "They want to get to Omaha as much as we do.'
The Pac-10 didn't fluster the Dirtbags last weekend, when they zipped through the Stanford Regional, 3-0, twice beating the then- No.1-ranked Cardinal. Ramos pitched the clincher, an 8-4 win over Stanford, giving up two earned runs in 71/3 innings.
More than 2,000 fans were at Sunken Diamond on Sunday, a good many of them pulling for the Dirtbags, some even chanting, "Ce-sar! Ce-sar! Ce-sar!'
Two days later, back on the campus field for practice, it was back to obscurity. Ramos sat in the empty seats charting pitches in a squad game.
In that game Sunday, Ramos threw away a ball at second base in the first inning. Another time that might have bothered him. This time he simply went after the next batter and got out of the inning.
"He is very much under control,' said Troy Buckley, the Dirtbags' pitching coach. "He doesn't let stuff like that bother him. He is very competitive, very aware, very prepared.'
None of what Cesar Ramos has accomplished his first two seasons is surprising, according to Buckley and head coach Mike Weathers.
What is a little surprising, Weathers said, is how fast Ramos has come into prominence since he wasn't even on the team until shortly before the start of the 2003 season.
"He didn't get into school until January,' Weathers said. "We'd already had our fall practice and he missed all of that. He didn't even know the players. He'd been drafted in the sixth round, and the easy way out would have been to take the money. But he wanted to come here, and that told me he is a very responsible young man, that he wanted his education.'
And he relishes the idea of pitching back of Jered Weaver.
"That's helped him, no doubt,' Weathers said. "People might tend to overlook Cesar a little. But he's his own guy. Jered made his mark. Cesar wants to make his own mark. He takes that challenge.'
On that, maybe they're not so different after all. |
