FIVE AREA TEAMS ARE IN TITLE GAMES, CARRYING ON THE LONG TRADITION OF ... VALLEYBALL CHATSWORTH PAIR LEAD TALENT PARADE.Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. Staff Writer It has been a little crowded in the bleachers In The Bleachers is a podcast and website that focuses on Division I-A college football. It is recorded and aired weekly during college football season and features college football experts from the Big Ten, Big East, SEC, ACC, Pac 10, and Big 12 conferences. at Chatsworth High this year as professional scouts and curious fans have shown up to watch one of the most talented high school baseball teams in the area's history. The main attractions are future first-round draft picks Mike Moustakas Mike Moustakas (born September 11, 1988 at Chatsworth, California) is a Shortstop[1] who was drafted by the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball 2nd overall in the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft. and Matt Dominguez Matt Dominguez (born June 27, 1978 in Georgetown, Texas, United States) is a top receiver for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. Matt attended Sam Houston State for college were he was the team's MVP twice and the school's first NCAA division I-AA , who've put on a home-run contest for the ages in their four years at the school. In a few days, when they are drafted by major league franchises, they likely will be on their way to being millionaires. In most parts of the country, this would be a once-in-a-generation story. People six counties away would be making road trips to watch Moustakas and Dominguez's final high school game at 4 p.m. today in the City Section championship game at Dodger Stadium • • [ . But in these parts, Moustakas and Dominguez are just the latest stars to come out of one of the richest baseball hotbeds in the country. Yes, Canyon High won a state football title last season. Jimmy Clausen James Richard "Jimmy" Clausen (born September 21, 1987, in Thousand Oaks, California[3]) is an American football player. He is a quarterback at the University of Notre Dame. played quarterback up the road. Gilbert Arenas Gilbert Jay Arenas Jr. (born January 6, 1982 in Florida[0]) is an American professional basketball player currently with the NBA's Washington Wizards. Arenas overcame his modest NBA debut, including being a second-round draft pick, to establish himself as one of the most honed his jump shot in Van Nuys. And Marion Jones Marion Jones, also known as Marion Jones-Thompson (born October 12, 1975 in Los Angeles, California), is an American former athlete in track and field. She was the winner of five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, which she later relinquished after started dusting the competition in track and field in Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. . But make no mistake, although high-school football is king on Friday nights in the fall and other sports get their share of the spotlight here, baseball is our pastime. Our Little League teams contend for a berth to Williamsport, Pa., every year. Our high school teams have won 33 of the past 34 City Section titles. You could play an All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league. The players are often chosen by a popular vote of fans of the sport and the game often occurs at the halfway point of the regular season, although this is not the case for some all-star games or two with players from the greater San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . Just look at the front-line starters: Bret Saberhagen Wolf played PONY League Baseball at West Hills, CA. , Jack McDowell "Around here, we play baseball," Moustakas said. "When you grow up, you go to high school baseball games, see the guys play, dreaming one day it'd be you. We've got great coaches up and down the system, from Little League to high school. It's beautiful and sunny about 364 days a year. There's just so much talent out here." Part of our culture Is baseball in our blood? Is there something in the water? Do we just have the perfect combination of talent, high-level coaching, facilities, infrastructure, socioeconomic conditions and weather? Any way you slice it, baseball is part of our culture. "I think any time an area takes as much pride in something, like we do in baseball, you end up drawing more interest from the kids," said Chuck Crim, a former Thousand Oaks High standout who pitched for eight years in the majors. "It doesn't force them to play; it makes them want to play, to follow in the footsteps of all those big guys they've grown up hearing about." For Moustakas, the choice to play baseball was easy. He grew up playing a lot of sports. By high school, he'd whittled it down to football and baseball. He was great at both. In the fall, college scouts would watch him play quarterback. In the spring, professional scouts clocked his fastball and evaluated his swing. But midway through his junior year, he broke his ankle playing football. It was probably too late to come back for that season, but if he'd wanted to, he could've returned and been one of the top quarterbacks in the state as a senior. Moustakas knew the time had come, though. His future was in baseball and fortunately, so was his heart. "It wasn't that hard of a decision," he said. "Baseball's always been my first choice. Football was fun, but I always knew that I was a baseball player." If Moustakas had grown up in Texas, who knows? Things might have been different. But when you grow up in baseball country, that decision might be made young, whether you know it or not. Pro players abound It's not uncommon to learn the game from a former minor leaguer. By Little League, you'd probably have met a major leaguer or two. And by high school, a top prospect has most likely played in front of hundreds of professional scouts. You bump into former major and minor leaguers all over the place in these parts. You can even watch them play if you stop by the Valley Adult Baseball League one weekend. "People in this town have no clue how good they have it," said Crescenta Valley High baseball coach Phil Torres, who reached Class AAA AAA: see American Automobile Association. (Triple A) A common single-cell battery used in a myriad of electronic devices of all variety. Like its double A (AA) cousin, it provides 1.5 volts of DC power. When used in series, the voltage is multiplied. in the Dodgers' organization before becoming a coach. "My whole coaching staff has played professionally. Between the four of us, there's not a lot of situations we haven't seen before. And there's probably not a major league player we haven't played with or against. "I think we're just high-school coaches to them. We're the old guys." That's not to say the players are ungrateful. Maybe just a little desensitized de·sen·si·tize tr.v. de·sen·si·tized, de·sen·si·tiz·ing, de·sen·si·tiz·es 1. To render insensitive or less sensitive. 2. Immunology To make (an individual) nonreactive or insensitive to an antigen. in a seen-one-former-major-leaguer, you've-seen-them-all kind of way. For more specialized instruction, a top player can head over to one of the many baseball schools in the area for private lessons. West Coast Baseball Schools has offices in Agoura Hills, Burbank, Encino, Sherman Oaks and Simi Valley. It's run by former major leaguers Tim Costic (Minnesota Twins) and Wes Rasmussen (Atlanta Braves) and Bryan Maloney, who is a scout for the Atlanta Braves. The school offers private lessons at $70 per hour and six-week, highly competitive camps for high-school players at around $1,300. Attendees get high-level baseball instruction, advice from nutritionists and advanced speed-and-strength training. Its alumni include major leaguers Delmon Young (Camarillo High/Tampa Bay Devil Rays), Conor Jackson (El Camino Real/Arizona Diamondbacks), Russ Ortiz (Montclair Prep/San Francisco Giants), Freddy Sanchez (Burbank High/Pittsburgh Pirates) and Jack Wilson (Thousand Oaks/Pittsburgh Pirates). "I played with Delmon at one of the high-school camps," said Tyler Rinaldi, a former Thousand Oaks High standout who is now an instructor at the school. "We'd talk all the time since we were in the outfield. It was amazing. You could tell he was just a few years away from the major leagues." Dodger giving back Even those who don't have the money for one of those elite camps can rub elbows with former major leaguers. Former Dodgers pitcher Bobby Castillo does speaking engagements for the Dodgers at local Little Leagues and on his own. "I just want to give back, show the kids that the dream is possible for everybody if you've got the fire and desire," Castillo said. "I grew up in East L.A., 10 minutes from Dodger Stadium. I used to sneak into the park and watch them. ... But I never got to meet any major leaguers or minor leaguers. It was different back then. I was just a rug rat from the neighborhood. "One year in spring training, I finally got to meet my idol, Sandy Koufax. It was like, 'OK, God, you can take me now.' I want to see kids feel what I felt when I met him." This spring, Castillo has been working with the first-year team from Arleta High, which will play in the City Section small schools championship game at 10 a.m. today at Dodger Stadium. That's one of four championship games today that involve San Fernando Valley schools. ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3617 Today's title games CITY SECTION AT DODGER STADIUM City championship Cleveland vs. Chatsworth, 4 p.m. Invitational final Granada Hills vs. Westchester, 1 p.m. Small schools final LACES vs. Arleta, 10 a.m. SOUTHERN SECTION DIV. VIII FINAL Viewpoint vs. Upland Christian, 11 a.m. at UC Riverside CAPTION(S): 5 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) Little Leaguers are all smiles as they watch fireworks fireworks: see pyrotechnics. fireworks Explosives or combustibles used for display. Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to during Opening Day ceremonies of the Encino Little League. Alex Collins/ Special to the Daily News (2 -- color) THE PRESENT: Chatsworth's future first-round draft pick Mike Moustakas, center, will lead his team against Cleveland High in the city title game. Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer (3 -- 4 -- color) THE PAST: Don Drysdale, left, went to Van Nuys High and played for the Dodgers while Robin Yount, of the Milwaukee Brewers, went to Taft High School. MLB MLB Major League Baseball MLB Minor League Baseball MLB Middle Linebacker (football) MLB Motor Life Boat MLB Matt Leblanc (actor) MLB Mother Love Bone (band) Photos via Getty Images (5) Cleveland High celebrates after beating Kennedy in the city baseball semifinals Wednesday. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer Box: Today's title games (see text) |
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