Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 25, 1993 TAG: 9304250092
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Mike Tucker, the former Longwood College and U.S. Olympic team infielder, has as many tools as a NASCAR mechanic.
Watch him run. Watch him hit. Watch him hit with power.
Furthermore, his manager likes him, his teammates like him, the girls like him.
There's a lot to like about Mike.
And - egad! - he doesn't even have the big head yet, despite accepting one of those gargantuan six-figure signing bonuses as the Kansas City Royals' top choice in the 1992 amateur draft.
But he did have another kind of noggin at a recent Carolina League game for the Wilmington (Del.) Blue Rocks.
"What a knucklehead," Rocks manager Ron Johnson said as Tucker interrupted an infield practice conversation by mugging goofily.
Mike can mug all he wants if he keeps giving facials to Carolina League pitching staffs like he has the first three weeks of the season.
Through 12 games, Tucker had carved up the opposition for a .358 batting average, 19 hits, 11 runs, 10 driven in and seven steals.
"I've been in this organization since 1978 as a player, coach and manager and he's one of the best pure hitters I've ever seen come through here," Johnson said.
By the way, those 12 games are his first as a professional.
"I kind of looked at the Olympic team as playing in the rookie leagues," said Tucker, who has followed fellow Bluestone High and Longwood alumnus Jerome Kersey (Portland Trail Blazers) into the play for pay trade.
Tucker came roaring out of college last year as the Division II player of the year and immediately began polishing his resume as a top major league prospect by batting .321 with 34 hits and 29 RBI in 36 games for the Olympic team. He also made good on 28 of 31 steal attempts and cracked four homers.
"It was a good experience," he said. "It'll help you excel in your abilities more when you play that kind of good competition."
Tucker played shortstop at Longwood, was a designated hitter in the Olympics and has been moved to second by the Royals. With an adequate but not great arm, second or the outfield seems to be his destiny. Tucker has been projected as having the potential to hit 25 or more homers and steal 30 or more bases a season. The Royals obviously would love to have a Ryne Sandberg-style offensive force at second, traditionally a low-production position.
"There's no question it's Mike's bat that's going to get him to the big leagues," Johnson said.
Tucker has been mellow enough to accept the shifting around from position without complaint.
"Second isn't very much different than shortstop except the pivot is different," he said. "It's been a smooth transition. I like it there."
A lot of folks will like him there.
\ "THERE'S A SINGULAR AND PERPETUAL CHARM IN A LETTER OF YOURS . . . ": Bob Feller, the Hall of Fame pitcher, is a man known as something of a curmudgeon these days (he talks much the same way he used to throw - hard and fast), but he has a sweet heart, as Kitty Koomen of Roanoke can attest.
Koomen was casting about recently for something to do for her mother, a lifelong baseball fan who is 93 and in failing health. Koomen hit on the idea of writing to Feller, with whom she was acquainted in the 1950s. She was working for the Polio Foundation in New York City and he was then the March of Dimes chairman for Ohio. He'd even arranged a box seat for her to see the 1956 World Series in which the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games as Yogi Berra batted .360 with three home runs and 10 RBI.
Feller replied at once, by return mail, sending an autographed glossy photograph and a nice letter.
Wonder if Barry Bonds or Jose Canseco would do anything like that 40 years from now?
\ THE FINAL FOUR? THAT WAS NOTHING: North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, who threw out the first pitch at the New York Yankees' home opener, said the experience had shaken him badly. "I was more nervous than I'd ever been in my life," said Smith, who was substituting for gravely ill Jim Valvano. "More nervous than when I had a 4-foot putt on national television."
\ DISARMED?: The Durham Bulls have two of the Atlanta Braves' top-rated pitching prospects in Chris Seelbach and Jason Schmidt. They also have such proven winners as Kevin Lomon, John Wilder, and former Virginia Tech right-hander Brad Clontz, who will be the closer. The Bulls figured to have as solid a pitching staff as anybody in the Carolina League.
"This is as good a group of young arms as I've had a chance to be around," Bulls pitching coach Matt West said before the season
But they're off to a rough start. The Bulls were seventh in the league with a 5.20 team ERA and had surrendered 64 walks (tied for second) and 134 hits (second) through 14 games.
\ SURE YOU GOT THE RIGHT GUY?: Some Salem Municipal Field historians of the academic discipline of physiology greeted Frederick Keys reliever Dave Paveloff this way: " Ding - arf, arf." . . . Former Peninsula pitcher John Cummings, most valuable player in the 1993 Carolina League All-Star Game, started the season with the Seattle Mariners. He was one of only three players to make the leap to the big leagues after not playing higher than the Class A level. . . . Left-hander Matt Young, released by the Boston Red Sox, latched on with AAA Charlotte and heaved a no-hitter his first time out. Roanoke's George Canale also is playing at Charlotte. Buena Vista native Charlie Manuel is the manager.
\ AMATEUR HOUR: Going into the season, everybody assumed Ferrum's Billy Wagner would be the first player from Virginia taken in the June draft. Don't look now, but scouts are saying Old Dominion right-hander Wayne Gomes is gaining on him. . . . Amherst County pitcher Peyton Martin is going to VMI. . . . When Virginia Tech beat James Madison 10-2 April 19, it was the first time the Hokies had won in Harrisonburg since 1986. It also snapped a five-game losing streak in the series. . . . The American Legion Blue Ridge District has expanded to 10 teams. The newcomers are South Boston and Patrick County. They join Danville, Franklin County, Giles County, Martinsville, Roanoke North, Roanoke South, Roanoke West, and Tri-Counties. . . . John Mader of Bellmawr, N.J., signed with Virginia Tech. Mader, who hit .505 with 21 steals and three homers as a junior, played for the Brooklawn 1991 national champion American Legion team.
by CNB