Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994 TAG: 9404210203
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NARROWS LENGTH: Medium
Does this development bode danger to those who conspire to stop him?
Like carbolic acid.
Nuclear reactor meltdown.
A safe free-falling from a 12th-story ledge.
"I almost always used to pull the ball or go to left center," said Blankenship, who bats right-handed.
Using half the field a year ago, Blankenship hit .587 with seven home runs and 30 runs batted in as a junior. Such a productivity wasn't as pleasing to him as you might have thought.
"I just missed the [Timesland] triple crown," he said.
Back he came this season with a new plan. Wisely speculating that opposing teams would pitch him delicately if they chose to hurl to him at all, Blankenship took the field with a new resolve.
"I'm going to hit the ball where it's pitched," he said.
In practice, this means putting aluminum on a lot of breaking deliveries. That sort of patience launched him on a 6-for-12 start to the season.
"I'm hitting them up the middle, to right field - I can't remember the last time I did that," he said."All of them have been line drives, too. Frozen ropes."
Once that intelligence reached enemy outposts, the impact was immediate.
"That'll make him all that more dangerous," Floyd County coach Skip Bishop said.
Clever strategists are probably wondering at this point why pitch him at all?
Why play with yellow jackets?
Why insult the sheriff to his face?
Why taunt the IRS?
The answer is, you may not have a choice.
"He walks or singles and he's going to turn it into a double or triple," Shawsville coach Billy Wells said.
Blankenship has above-average base-running skills. In truth, he's fast as frontier justice. A year ago, he made good on 17 steals in 18 attempts. That makes him 27-for-29 last season and this.
"I'm on my own when I run," he said."I rely on my speed."
Well, what else can this guy do? So far, it's been established that he can hit for average, hit for power, and run. That's three-fifths of what professional scouts look for in the so-called complete player. Check out the other two tools (in scouting lingo) that Blankenship carries in his box.
Fielding? Blankenship hasn't made an error in center field since he was a sophomore. Throwing? Blankenship came back from a shoulder injury he sustained last summer at the Olympic Sports Festival (he was invited out of a national pool of candidates) and is now throwing better than ever.
"My arm is stronger," he said."I'll take a chance now. Before, I'd get it to the cutoff man and let him do the work. Now, I want to take part and get the out myself."
Blankenship has been dedicated to weight work, the offshoot of his love for football. The weights worked. During the fall, he rushed for a Timesland-leading average of 164.1 yards per game and gained 1,641 and scored 22 touchdowns for the campaign.
Over the winter, he maxed out at 295 pounds on the bench press, pretty stout for a fellow who's 5-foot-11 and weighs 165 pounds.
Naturally, the additional strength has helped with the bat speed.
"One day when he's gone, I guess we'll know what we had," Narrows coach Rick Franklin said."But we absolutely take him for granted. He goes 3-for-3 and nobody says a thing. That's just Whitey."
Blankenship has been doing it on a high level since he was a freshman.
"I knew he was good when I saw him as a sophomore," said Shawsville's Wells, recalling the kid's performance against a couple of former fireballing Shawnees pitchers, Scott Phillips and Danny Lovern."They couldn't throw it by him. He'd always foul something off, get a piece.
"One day down in Calfee Park in Pulaski, he hit two triples off Lovern. That was a day when Danny struck out 14."
What might become of such a talent? For openers, Blankenship wants to take the Green Wave as far as possible. In the wide-open Mountain Empire District, gaining the postseason isn't at all out of the question. With guys such as Brett Mosley, Jeff White, and Corey McGlothlin, Narrows is no one-man team, either.
"I'd just like to make it to the region and see how far Whitey can take us," Franklin said.
After that, we can presume that Blankenship has not played his last baseball. Recruiting letters have come from colleges as far away as California. Pro scouts have turned up at Narrows games and several know him already from tryout camps he's attended.
Could the June free agent draft be a possibility? Who knows? Any scout worth his JUGS gun is as mute as Calvin Coolidge on the subject of potential players.
Safe to say, somebody somewhere ought to be able to clear a place on a roster for him. Assuming the worst, Blankenship said he'd be inclined to enroll in college and walk on a team if that were his only option.
These days, his primary options are sifting through the assortment of junk that pitchers are throwing him.
"I haven't had a decent pitch to hit all year."
by CNB