August 23, 2007

Arce knew first base fit Parker like a glove
Paul Oberjuerge

A golden moment that began in Claremont ...

Bill Arce knew he had an unusual talent on his hands when he started practice with the first baseball team in Claremont-Mudd-Scripps history, in 1959.

"There was a freshman who was very athletic and who loved to practice defense as much as he loved to hit," Arce said. "That's something you just don't see. Everybody would rather hit."

But not Wes Parker. And nearly 60 years later, Parker's practice-field commitment to fielding a baseball landed the former Dodgers standout as the first baseman on the star-studded Rawlings All-Time Gold Glove team.

Parker is joined on the all-time team by outfielders Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente and Ken Griffey Jr.; shortstop Ozzie Smith, third baseman Brooks Robinson, second baseman Joe Morgan, catcher Johnny Bench and pitcher Greg Maddux.

Parker didn't hit much, but he was an almost elegant figure around the first-base bag. He also had great range, soft hands and a near-perfect career fielding percentage of .995.

"I'm thrilled to be recognized as one of those who worked hard at what is an under-appreciated skill," said Parker, 67. "I'm particularly pleased to be the lone representative of the Dodgers and the only awardee who is not and will not be in the Hall of Fame. This is my Hall of Fame."
Parker credited Arce with helping make him the player he became. "He was the best amateur coach I ever had. Better than some of the professional coaches I had."

Arce said he remembers working on the subtleties of first-base play with the kid out of Harvard-Westlake. "The drop step to the line," Arce said, "the crossover step toward second base."

Parker played three seasons at Claremont, wangled a tryout from the Dodgers in 1962 and was in Chavez Ravine by 1964.

He is the only Claremont baseballer to play in the majors.

The public voted on the all-time Gold Glove team. Rawlings ran the contest to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the award, first given in 1957. Parker was on 53 percent of the 1 million votes cast and easily beat Don Mattingly, Keith Hernandez, J.T. Snow, Vic Power and Bill White.

Arce said he and wife Nancy did their part at the polls. "I voted for Wes every day," said Arce, now 82 and retired from Claremont since 1985.

The slaying early Tuesday morning of Donnell Jury, 25, hit Scott Smith hard. Smith coached "Donny" in basketball for four years at San Bernardino Pacific High School.

"This area lost a great person," Smith said, fighting back emotion. "He was the future of this area. To have a kid of that character, for San Bernardino to lose him, it's a blow to everybody."

Jury played football in college, at Chaffey and Texas A&M-Kingsville, but he was a better basketball player in high school. He was the defensive specialist on a 27-3 CIF semifinals team as a Pacific junior, then led the team (and was third in San Bernardino County) in scoring at 26.8 points per game as a 6-1 senior guard.

Jury was following his grandfather, former NFL ref Al, and his father, also named Donnell, into football officiating. He was scheduled to be on a varsity crew for this first time this fall and was scheduled to attend an organizational meeting the day after he died.

Mark Collins, former All-Pro cornerback out of Pacific, will be inducted into the Cal State Fullerton sports hall of fame this fall, Titans official Mel Franks said. Collins was the New York Giants' second-round pick in 1986 and won Super Bowl rings with the Giants and Packers.

Collins is retired and living in Redlands.

Collins' jump from Fullerton to the NFL reminds us football standouts had more choices than USC and UCLA if they wanted to play Division I football in SoCal 15 years ago.

Fullerton fielded a team into the 1990s, as did Long Beach State. Cal State Northridge lasted till 2001. None still play, and it's too bad.

Go back far enough, and Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Los Angeles and UC Riverside played D2 football. Actually, two of the Inland Empire's most prominent coaches, Dick Bruich of Fontana Kaiser and Don Markham of Bloomington, played college football at Cal State L.A.

Ryan Nece, another Pacific alumnus, has had something of a surprise NFL career. He signed with Tampa Bay as an undrafted free agent in 2002, and five years later he has 35 starts on his resume - though he appears to be pegged as a backup this season now that the Bucs have signed Cato June.

Diana Taurasi won't be MVP of the WNBA this season. Not after her scoring average fell from a record 25.3 points per game last season to 19.2.

But she and the Phoenix Mercury are in the playoffs together for the first time after going 23-11, and we're sure the Chino Don Lugo alumnus would trade an MVP award for a league title in her fourth pro season.

Taurasi decided this season to "get her supporting cast involved," to invoke Kobe-speak. Teammates Penny Taylor (17.8) Cappie Pondexter (17.2) and Tangela Smith (12.6) are serious scoring threats.

Meaning Taurasi can distribute the ball rather than shoot it on every trip.

Lauren Jackson, the 6-5 center from Australia, is the likely 2007 MVP, but her Seattle team isn't expected to survive a first-round, best-of-three series with Phoenix. Game 1 is in Seattle tonight.

Adam Parada, an Alta Loma High School graduate, is playing for the Mexican national team in the FIBA Americas Championship in Las Vegas. Parada, 25, a 7-foot center, scored 11 points in Mexico's 100-89 victory over Puerto Rico.

Snoop Dogg, rapper and generic celebrity, may be a special guest after the Pomona Diamond Ranch football scrimmage at 11 a.m. Saturday, Panthers coach Roddy Layton said. Snoop sponsors a Southern California youth league and the Pomona team practices on Diamond Ranch's field.

Prep football season begins with Week 0 next Friday. Some interesting matchups include Diamond Ranch at Huntington Beach Edison, Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos at Bishop Amat, Redlands at Vista Murrieta, Etiwanda at Serrano and Bloomington at San Bernardino Cajon.

Redlands Unified still is trying to figure out the mascot name for its third high school. Citrus Heights will be built on land covered by orange groves just a few years ago. It should be an easy call: Has to be the Packers, as Redlands HS coach Jim Walker has suggested.

Allen Bradford, the Colton alumnus, went from a face in the USC tailback crowd to one of the Trojans' top healthy ballcarriers during a scrimmage Wednesday night. Playing against the first-team defense, Bradford gained 56 yards in 10 carries.

Jeremy Ito, Rutgers kicker and Redlands alumnus, is getting some exposure in Playboy. On its preseason all-America team, that is.

Kudos: To the Baltimore Orioles, for jumping to a 3-0 lead over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.

Condolences: To the Orioles, for allowing the Rangers to rally for 30 runs, most in a major-league game since 1897.

Lookalikes: Reader Chris Runnels suggests Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez, Milli Vanilli lip-sync fraud Rob Pilatus. "I call him Manny Vanilli," Runnels wrote of Ramirez.

Where are they now? Wes Parker lives in Pacific Palisades and is active in several charities and the Dodgers' speakers bureau.

They said it: "Of all the kids I've had, I'd like to have a hundred like him." - Scott Smith, on the late Donny Jury.

And finally: Wes Parker, on retiring young, at age 33: "I didn't want to cheat the fans. I didn't want them to watch me go through the deterioration of my skills." Well-played, again.