Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1993 TAG: 9304070139
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
VIRGINIA TECH SHORTSTOP DALTON HAS A HEALTHY APPROACH TO GAME
Once, Dee Dalton shattered his discipline.Ate 13 tacos in one sitting.
"They were beef," he said, chagrined, a man acknowledging his sins.
Dalton, Virginia Tech's redoubtable sophomore shortstop, normally spikes red meat. Tosses out fatty foods - eggs, bacon, the like. Usually considers soda as attractive as taking a fastball on the hip. Alcohol strikes out, too.
He strays occasionally, as in the Mexican fast-food escapade, but Dalton takes care of his body and his game. A diet of healthy foods and nearly year-round side dishes of baseball - and his studious adherence to both courses - have the Roanoke native's star rising.
He's been hitting nearly .350 for the Hokies, who are 17-4 entering today's 3 p.m. game at English Field against Virginia. Pro scouts are scribbling. Some are videotaping. Dalton, 20, just shrugs and keeps on.
"I really like vegetables," he said, sounding like a gift to nutritionists. "I like healthy foods. They taste good to me."
Simple. Just like baseball, it seems.
"He's gotten into keeping the fat out of his body," his father, Doug, said.
Out of his game, too, he might have added.
Dalton, at 5 feet 11 and 175 pounds, has an economical swing that can be nasty; he had 17 extra-base hits last year, third-best on the team. On Tuesday, he hit a two-run home run in the first game of Tech's doubleheader against West Virginia. He is a graceful shortstop who has too many errors this year for his taste (seven before Tuesday) but who embraces the extraordinary. The other day, Tech coach Chuck Hartman said, Dalton caught a ball in short right-center field.
"I thought the second baseman was supposed to catch those," Hartman said. "I guess I'm learning something about baseball."
To Dalton, no revolution.
"The second baseman and shortstop have to communicate. I was going after it until I heard something," the former Cave Spring High School star said. "I didn't hear anything."
Simple. But his 14-year-old underpinnings make it so.
"He was watching the ball hit the bat from six years old," Dee's father said.
During high school winters, Dalton would rise at 6 a.m. for a workout in the basement. Arm exercises first, then hit 150 or 200 balls off a tee before the school bell rang.
Hartman said he's seen Dalton, alone, take a bucket of baseballs to the outfield and throw them to the backstop - strengthening his arm with long tosses even when no one was around to toss with.
And the summer before he went to Tech, when he was too old for American Legion baseball, he and friend Bill Petty worked out almost every day. Doug Dalton said his son improved dramatically that summer. Petty, a Roanoker who also worked informally with former Cave Spring player George Canale, made himself available.
"I couldn't have done it without him," Dalton said.
Typically, Dalton respected the off-the-field needs of his sport. In fact, he began his eating habits after his youth soccer coach, Danny Beamer, mentioned that nutrition is important to athletes.
Beamer coached Dalton for five years. The outwardly reserved athlete has something cunning inside, he said.
"He might get clobbered, and most kids would retaliate," Beamer said. "He'd just wait until there would be a 50-50 ball, and he'd just go in extremely hard on the person who got him."
Dalton has turned some heads non-violently, too. At least three times, Dalton went to former major-league shortstop Bucky Dent's camp in Boca Raton, Fla.; twice, the last at age 16, the current St. Louis Cardinals coach personally tutored Dalton for a day.
Dent probably saw then what scouts do now: a major-league prospect. Hartman calls Dalton one of the top shortstops in the country. Although baseball's annual summer draft normally includes only high school seniors and college juniors, Dalton is eligible because he will be 21 within 45 days of the end of the draft.
Doug Dalton said Dee has been a year older than most of his classmates since he repeated first grade after it was determined he had dyslexia, a reading impairment that he learned to overcome. Doug, a successful Roanoke builder/developer, said he too is dyslexic.
Dee's age means he may be in the minor leagues at this time next year.
"Age has a lot to do with it," said Dalton, a 37th-round pick by California out of high school. "Next year I'll be 22, and that's old, I think, to start a professional career."
It's obvious the majors have been on Dalton's mind, and Hartman said he thinks his shortstop had "pro-itis, trying to impress people." He's out of it now, Hartman said - more disciplined at the plate, better concentration afield.
"I guess I wonder if I'm good enough to make it," Dalton said. "I haven't had anybody tell me I'm good enough to make it."
There's only one thing under his control: work. Dalton seems more likely to wolf down New York strips for a month than to stop refining his game.
At times, it seems baseball is his nourishment. He didn't play in the prestigious Cape Cod League last summer (he will this year) so he could spend a few months with his girlfriend. He doesn't regret it but says it "hurt my baseball." How do you figure, he was asked, considering what you've done at Tech this year?
He shrugs and says with a shadow of guilt, like a man who skips a class or two but still aces the test: "I don't know. Not hitting, not seeing pitches, not seeing ground balls."
Simple. Typical.
"He just wants to get better at his game, and he's going to keep getting better," Hartman said.
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