Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506210017
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``I wasn't any good,'' he said.
That may not be entirely accurate, but Shelton did have, to put it as mildly as possible, certain baseball deficiencies. He was redshirted.
``I wondered if I'd ever play there,'' Shelton said.
Perhaps much to his surprise, he did play, platooning at catcher as a redshirt freshman and hitting better than .300. After that season, he was summoned by his coach, longtime West Virginia State boss Cal Bailey.
``He asked me what I wanted to accomplish while I was there,'' Shelton said. ``I told him I wanted to learn how to do more than be a catcher.''
Shelton took a list of his shortcomings, helpfully provided by the coaching staff, and worked on them all summer. He was particularly diligent in his weight training, work he never had performed with any sort of consistency.
He came back an improved player. The next season, third base was open. Shelton was assigned the job.
``After that, it was either classes, practice or the weight room,'' he said.
Shelton's college career took off. The evidence was some out-of-this-world numbers. This past season, his second as a full-time starter, he hit .493 with a team-leading 18 home runs and a school record 68 runs batted in.
Shelton sure wasn't hitting the ball that firmly when he was the catcher for his uncle Posey Oyler's Roanoke Post 3 South American Legion team.
``Everybody - my coaches, other players, everybody - says, `Four years ago, who would have thunk it?''' Shelton said.
That's not the end of the story, either. Shelton this spring was the player of the year in an NAIA region that also includes Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Soon after that, the Chicago White Sox drafted him. Although no great sum of bonus money or any guarantees whatsoever were offered, not much thought was spent on the decision to sign.
``Your chance may only come once,'' he said. ``Anything can happen next year. I've got guys back home who I played with at Patrick Henry like Chris Peery, Troy Bowman, Jason Whorley and Kevin Gabbert, guys who had talent but never even had the chance to play college ball, who would kill to be where I am now. They can live a little through me now and that makes me feel pretty good.''
Gabbert and Whorley were the best players on that PH team. Former Patriots coach Mark Hairston, a West Virginia State alumnus, had been pushing Gabbert toward his alma mater, but that didn't work out. Hairston was asked if he had anybody else worth recruiting. Shelton's name came up as a prospect who didn't mind work and loved to play.
Robin Greene, a West Virginia State assistant coach, made the trip from Institute, W.Va., to Fries for an American Legion doubleheader to take a look.
``I didn't do anything great, no home runs or anything,'' Shelton said. ``But I guess he saw something.''
Shelton hopes the White Sox see the same thing. He is attending extended spring training in Sarasota, Fla., and then either will be assigned to Bristol of the Appalachian League or stay in Sarasota to play in the Gulf Coast League the rest of the summer.
``The guys who make it in this game all do the same thing,'' Shelton said. ``They work hard and they surround themselves with the kinds of people who can help them get where they want to go. I realize only about three or four guys on any team at this [rookie] level are ever going to make it to the big leagues.
``The attitude I'm taking is, `Why can't it be me?'''
A MODEST PROPOSAL: Keith Barnes, the Salem Avalanche's left-handed ground-ball magnet, was having an awful time with the Kinston Indians the last time they were in town. The Indians were pecking him to death with bleeders in the hole, nubbers and other loathesome turf-hugging cheapies.
Two runs were in and five hits had been nudged through the infield. It was only the first inning.
Bill Champion, the Avalanche's pitching coach, was dispatched from the dugout to offer counsel.
``Got any ideas?'' Champion said.
``Yeah, I do,'' Barnes said. ``Why don't we take Mark Wells out of left field and put him between Steve Bernhardt at third and Keith Grunewald at short?''
Champion agreed there was merit to the strategy, but Wells stayed where he was.
``At least Barnes still had his sense of humor,'' Champion said.
ON HIS WAY: If the confidence of his elders means anything, VMI shortstop David Groseclose will find a way to insinuate himself into the Colorado Rockies` plans.
Gary Walthall, a former William Byrd High School coach and now a part-time scout, was recalling the days when Groseclose bore the colors of Alleghany High School.
``I think he's my all-time favorite opponent,'' Walthall said. ``He's a class act. He'll be the president of a company one day.''
Corporate America is going to have to wait, said Alleghany coach Gary Rice.
``I think he's going to be playing in the major leagues in a couple of years,'' Rice said.
COMING SOON: Ferrum coach Abe Naff is making plans for a little trip.
``I want to see Billy Wagner pitch against Eric Owens in Cincinnati,'' he said.
Naff and the rest of us will have to wait to see the two former Ferrum phenoms in the big leagues, but probably not for long.
Wagner, toiling for Jackson, Miss., of the Class AA Texas League, is considered the top left-handed prospect in the Houston Astros' chain. Owens has been up for a hot-brewed cup of coffee recently, but he was at the show for such a short stint (two games) they had to make it decaf.
Owens made a splash with some timely hits as a Red, but back to the bushes of Class AAA Indianapolis he went.
``They told him it was going to be two games and then they were sending him back,'' Naff said. ``He could have gone 10-for-10 and he still was going to go back down.''
by CNB