Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 20, 1993 TAG: 9306200048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I'm still looking for my first baseball card," he said. "I haven't come close."
Seems like he always has been somewhere else when the other guys were getting their mugs snapped for the cards. Bad as it was, missing a chance for immortality of a type, it couldn't have been as bad as those bone-breaking bus rides last year in the Pioneer League.
"Terrible," said Ponder, who hit .273 with 14 steals at Lethbridge, Alberta.
What could be so bad about a bus ride? Everybody knows when you sign that bush-league contract that the mode of travel isn't exactly the Concorde.
True, but there's no way to prepare yourself for that Lethbridge-to-Salt Lake City trail of tears. Ghengis Khan may have had an easier trip across the Mongolian steppes on an ill-fed steed.
"Twenty-three hours," Ponder said of the ride to Salt Lake City.
And to think, they didn't even provide the travelers with a complimentary package of beer nuts.
But Ponder says that Lethbridge has a bad rap.
"Man, I loved Lethbridge," he said. "The town is nice. The people are friendlier than just about any place I've been."
But even the garden spot of Alberta has its limitations.
"The food wasn't any good," he said. "No matter what you ate, it wasn't any good."
The team - an independent co-op outfit - wasn't much, either, going 24-50 and finishing 28 games out of first place in the league's Northern Division.
"That was one [uncomplimentary expletive] team," he said.
Despite such hardships, Ponder's health didn't go into serious decline. These days, Ponder checks into the batter's box as a 5-foot-11 package of gristle. But don't think he's up there because of his looks.
"He puts the ball in play, moves the runner over; his batting average is in no way indicative of the contributions he's been making on the field for us," Bucs manager Scott Little said.
Ponder's average had been nothing to write home to Moultrie, Ga., about. That was until he got hold of the Durham Bulls during the week of June 13. Ponder went 5-for-8 with a home run, his first, to ratchet his average up to .253 in the first two games of the series.
"I started choking up on the bat and taking a two-strike approach," he said.
Even though Ponder has been making better contact and has launched one over the fence, he still doesn't fancy himself a long-ball threat. But he can run a little - his eight steals rank third on the team - and he does cover a lot of ground in the outfield. Kind of gives you an idea what he could do on a football field back in his playing days at Colquitt County (Ga.) High School. Ponder was a wide receiver and defensive back.
"Baseball was just a side thing for me in high school," he said. "I loved football."
Ponder played the game with enough flair to catch the eye of some college recruiters, notably from NCAA Division II schools Albany (Ga.) State and Troy (Ala.) State. But at about the time that the football offers began coming in, he began having second thoughts.
It seems his baseball coaches were telling him they expected big things of him.
So Ponder left those college football offers on the table. Quite a gamble, when you think about it. There was no guarantee that he'd have a future in baseball, a sport that, by his own admission, had less than his undivided attention.
"I thought about that," he said. "But that's the chance you've got to take."
Of course, this little tale had a happy ending. Ponder went on to play baseball at South Georgia College, a two-year school, and subsequently was taken in the 35th round of the 1991 draft.
For that, he can be thankful. By what other means would he ever have enjoyed the luscious Lethbridge cuisine and a pleasant bus ride to Salt Lake City?
\ GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES: The Northern League, that independent association dreamed up by North Carolina publisher and general baseball grand poobah Miles Wolff, has turned up as the latest port of call for a number of well-traveled souls who may be known to you.
Among them are: Leon "Bull" Durham, the former Chicago Cubs first baseman, a designated hitter for the St. Paul Saints; former Olympian Ty Griffin, a total bust of a No. 1 draft choice for the Chicago Cubs in 1988, now with the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks; and right-hander John Mitchell, who toiled for parts of five seasons with the New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles, now serving the Sioux Falls Canaries.
Other somewhat lesser lights include infielder Rob Bailey, who spent three years with the Salem Buccaneers before being released by the parent Pirates during spring training; right-hander Dave Tellers, another erstwhile Buc, who last worked at Class AA Carolina; and right-hander Scott Ryder, a recent employee of the Durham Bulls.
Also earning one more go-round is manager Mal Fichman, the boss at Duluth-Superior. Fichman, it will be recalled, is a man whose name will live in infamy as the last manager of the Rocky Mount Pines, who went up in a 24-114 inferno of futility in 1980 to achieve the Carolina League's all-time worst record.
\ SIGN HERE, SON: It appears former Ferrum left-hander Billy Wagner is going to come to terms with the Houston Astros, who made him the 12th choice in the amateur draft this year.
"The scouts are coming in here tonight and we'll talk then and tomorrow," Wagner said Friday. "It looks like I'm going to sign Monday or Tuesday."
Wagner said he expects to report to the Astros' complex at Quad City in Florida to get in shape for a week, then report to Auburn of the New York-Penn League.
In other draft developments, Jeff Lewis, a former multisport star for Liberty High School, has signed with the Florida Marlins after being drafted in the 34th round. Lewis has been assigned to Kissimmee of the rookie Gulf Coast League, his father, Frank, said.
Lewis, spent the past year at Dundalk (Md.) Community College, where he played the outfield and batted .398 with seven homers, 38 RBI and 39 steals. He missed his senior season at Liberty because of academic difficulties, but Minutemen coach Jim Cutler believed in him enough to give him individual workouts and and see to it that he got to a number of pro tryout camps. Kansas City showed some interest before backing off.
\ GIVE THAT KID A CONTRACT: There has to be a place in baseball for some recent draftees. What lineup wouldn't be spruced up with names like Fausto Abad (Red Sox), Gorky Estrella (White Sox), or Wonderful Monds (Braves)? Another youngster, an outfielder by the name of Marshall Faulk out of San Diego State, also may be able to play a little.
Keywords:
BASEBALL\
by CNB