Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406050005
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Kendall, the Salem Buccaneers' 19-year-old catcher, has made a habit of tormenting his father, Fred.
The heinous deeds Kendall has perpetrated on his poor pop during professional baseball games include throwing out three of the old man's runners in one game, stroking four hits in a game and tackling one of his players in the middle of the infield.
Because of his profession, Fred Kendall, the manager of the Hickory (N.C.) Crawdads of the South Atlantic League, hadn't even seen his youngest son and middle child play ball since Jason's junior year in high school. Then, Fred Kendall had to manage against the boy in an Instructional League game in the fall of 1992, the year Jason signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The surly youngster then proceeded to throw out a trio of the old man's runners.
Based on that evidence, the elder Kendall concluded the boy had improved some since he last saw him play.
How much, he found out a year later when he the Crawdads played the Augusta (Ga.) Pirates (now the GreenJackets), from whom Jason was then drawing a paycheck. With each succeeding game, Jason played better, which was great for a proud papa but awful for the manager of the Hickory Crawdads.
During one game between the Pirates and the Crawdads, Marc Pisciotta was pitching for Augusta and bonked one big old batter right on the head. The guy didn't take kindly to that and subsequently staged a full frontal assault on the mound. With all 6 feet 5 and 240 pounds of Pisciotta glowering down at him from the hill, the aggrieved batter was bulldogged from behind by Kendall, the catcher.
A take-no-prisoners benches-clearing brawl ensued. When the combatants were retired and the dust settled, the umpire meted out justice, dismissing Pisciotta, the batter and two other Crawdads.
This, Fred Kendall found unjust.
"Wait a minute," he said to the man in blue. "Why do we get three guys thrown out and they only get one?"
"Because I saw your guys throwing punches," the ump said.
"What about their catcher?" Kendall said. "He just tackled one of my guys!"
The umpire didn't buy this line of reasoning.
The manager felt he had made a sound albeit unsuccessful baseball move in an attempt to neutralize an enemy player.
"He was killing us," he said.
Jason Kendall recalls later approaching his father:
"I said, `Geez, Pops. You want him to throw me out of the game? That's a $100 fine! Who's going to pay it, you?' "
Fred Kendall was unmoved.
"Jason's got more money than I do," he said.
Perhaps he has a point there, Jason being a first-round draft pick. Players chosen in that round command signing bonuses these days approaching or exceeding six figures. Now that Kendall's in Salem, he uses a portion of the dough on daily phone calls to his mother, Patty, and his little sister back in Torrance, Cal.
"Just checking in," Jason said. "We're a very close family."
In spirit, not in geography.
"How's Jason doing?" Fred Kendall wanted to know. "He doesn't tell me much."
Just fine. Kendall went into the weekend batting .307 with 54 hits, 13 extra-base hits including five home runs, and 40 runs batted in. The RBI total ranked third in the Carolina League, although the No. 2 guy, Micah Franklin, has long since departed the circuit for Class AA.
Kendall has struck out only 10 times in 176 at bats.
"I've had him his whole career," said Trent Jewett, Salem's manager. "I can tell you that he's a special kid. He's a case of a No. 1 draft pick who you get what you pay for."
Some of that ability has to be traced to the bloodlines. Fred Kendall played 12 years in the major leagues, mostly at catcher, hitting as high as .282 with 10 homers and 59 RBI for the San Diego Padres in 1973.
Fred Kendall was never one of those guys who tried to relive his own youth through his children.
"He was one of those dads who said, `If you ever need any help with baseball, let me know,' " Jason said.
Jason and his older brother, Mike, craved baseball anyway.
"They were kids who'd say, `Here's the ball, here's the glove, where's the game?' " Fred Kendall said.
Mike went on to pitch for San Diego State.
Jason might have punched his own ticket from Torrance High School to college in two sports. He also could play a little football.
"I could hold my own," he said.
He also could hold a defensive backfield by the throat. His senior year, as quarterback of a run-and-shoot team, he threw for close to 4,000 yards and 25 touchdowns.
"I'd throw 35 passes a game, having five guys go out on every play," he said. "It was outstanding. I've had [Jason Kendall] his whole career. I can tell you that he's a special kid. He's a case of a No. 1 draft pick who you get what you pay for. Trent Jewett Salem manager I loved it."
The college recruiters went nuts, of course, but Kendall dismissed them.
"Coaches would be calling me on the phone from all over, but I told them I was going to be strictly baseball."
And strictly baseball he has been, as at least one expert witness can testify.
"I'm very proud of him - I'm proud of all my kids," Fred Kendall said. "He comes to play and he comes to play hard every night."
\ AMATEUR HOUR: How about those amateurs this spring?
Brian Buchanan from Virginia becomes the first Cavalier drafted in the first round (the New York Yankees took him), and his father videotapes the whole thing as his mother jumps up and down in glee; Virginia Tech goes to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 17 years; Carroll County High School coach Bill Worrell, a gentleman and a gentle man, takes his team to the Group AA tournament for the first time after 355 victories and 25 years; four Timesland teams - Carroll, William Byrd, Glenvar and Franklin County - go to the state tournament, Franklin County with a rookie coach, F.L. Slough; Giles barely misses going to the state tournament, losing 2-1 to undefeated Castlewood despite a dynamite pitching performance from No. 3 starter Jason Dunn and two successful hidden-ball tricks; and the adult amateur league cranks up in Roanoke.
Is this a great game or what?
by CNB