Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 21, 1993 TAG: 9307210055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
He works nights, nothing but nights. He's down to two meals per day. He's lost 10 pounds in a little over a month. And all he has time for is baseball.
Dalton would find no shortage of guys who would swap with him without the slightest hesitation.
"It's different," Dalton said.
So is he, or he wouldn't be here in the Appalachian League with the Johnson City Cardinals to begin with. Only real baseball players need apply.
Dalton's been that since signing out of Virginia Tech in June, although not without a few lurches, bumps and spills along the way.
Johnson City didn't start off so hot, and neither did Dalton. The team lost 10 of its first 13 games before settling down. Since, the Cardinals have gone 11-5.
Dalton, a Roanoke native, wasn't hitting much or playing an ultra-sound shortstop in the early going. There were a couple of problems, neither of them uncommon in the rookie leagues.
First, there was an adjustment to a new bat. They use wooden bats in the pros and an aluminum job in college. There's a big difference, as thousands of players have learned.
"The wooden bats are a lot heavier and harder to get around," Dalton said.
There are other adjustments.
"There's a big difference between the pitching you see here and what you see in college," Johnson City manager Joe Cunningham said.
Dalton, a former Timesland player of the year who hit a ton at Tech, hasn't come around completely yet, but he's working on it. He's got the batting average up to .200, which isn't much unless you take some other factors into consideration.
"I'm a lot more relaxed now than I was earlier in the season," Dalton said. "I just wanted so much to do well that I wasn't relaxed."
It isn't the volume of hitting so much as when the hits have come that has impressed Cunningham.
"Dee has four home runs, and it seems to me like every one of them has been a clutch one," Cunningham said.
Perhaps the most dramatic was a 10th-inning grand slam at Princeton that did in the Reds.
"I think all my home runs came with one out and a man on third," he said. "All I was trying to do was hit the ball to the outfield to get the runner in."
Dalton is tied for second on the team in home runs and has a team-leading 20 RBI in 100 at bats. He's playing every day at shortstop.
"Dee's a pretty good player," Cunningham said. "He's quiet, but he's hard-nosed in his own way. I'd like to see him move up in the organization."
Dalton has 13 errors in 29 games, which those who knew him in high school and college might find surprising. But he said the problems came for the same reason he struggled at the plate.
"I wasn't relaxed," he said. "I wasn't making the routine plays."
His confidence has been bolstered by work with his coaches and particularly with the traveling instructors in the Cardinals' organization.
Cunningham suspects that Dalton's destiny will be second base.
"I think that's how he'll make the major leagues," he said.
Dalton left Virginia Tech after two years to sign with the Cardinals. He hasn't had second thoughts.
"I'm glad I did it," he said. "It was hard to leave Virginia Tech, but I wanted to give this a shot, and this was my best opportunity.
"This has been fun."
by CNB