THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180428
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 81 lines
Want to know why Norfolk Tides second baseman Jason Hardtke is tearing up the International League at a .343 clip? The answer can be traced to a neighborhood yard in San Jose, Calif.
When Hardtke was 8 years old, his father, Terry, built a batting cage from old piping from nearby Lockheed International, which was tearing down one of its buildings.
Hardtke vaguely remembers taking the sprinkler heads off the pipes before his dad sunk them into cement. Dad remembers a sparkplug of a kid who took his father too seriously when he suggested one day that to be a major league ball player he ``should hit 500 balls a day.''
``I think Jason was about 12 years old when I took him to a Stanford game one afternoon,'' says Terry Hardtke, a college baseball coach and a hitting instructor in the Houston Astros' minor league chain.
``We're sitting there, and he says, `Dad, I want to play for Stanford, then I want to play in the major leagues when I grow up.' I was kidding when I told him that if that's what he really wanted then he should hit 500 balls a day.
``He was dumb enough to go ahead and do it.''
The hitting stroke Hardtke developed in his back yard is paying off. He is batting .352 from the left side and .324 from the right, with nine doubles, since being called up from Double-A Binghamton in mid-May.
Coming out of spring training, the 24-year-old Hardtke had seemingly made the Tides' squad at third base until the Mets assigned former major leaguer Jerry Browne to Norfolk. By the time Browne refused the assignment, Hardtke was in a Binghamton uniform.
But when Tides opening-day second baseman Kevin Morgan hit .134 in the first six weeks of the season, Hardtke had his chance. Hardtke and Morgan switched teams, and Hardtke has been on a tear ever since.
``I wasn't sure he was going to hit .330 here,'' Tides manager Bobby Valentine says. ``But I knew Jason was going to hit. He didn't hit well for us in spring training. But a guy's stats are usually his fingerprint. As long as he's progressing well, they don't change a whole lot from level to level.''
Hardtke hit .286 for Binghamton last season, but the statistic that jumps off his 1995 stat sheet was his 43 doubles, which tied for first among all minor leaguers.
It's no surprise to Hardtke's dad, who discovered the kid had a pure stroke from the time he could pick up a bat.
Before Hardtke's family moved to San Jose, they lived in Wisconsin and Terry Hardtke used to take 3-year-old Jason into the basement and pitch him wiffle balls.
``He peppered me with line drives so many times that I started throwing curve balls to protect myself,'' Terry Hardtke says.
Until he reached high school, Hardtke would bat righthanded twice and lefthanded twice in his Little League games, regardless of whether the pitcher was righthanded or lefthanded.
``When you're growing up, it seems all you see are righthanded pitchers,'' Hardtke says. ``I started batting situationally once I reached high school.''
He was so good coming out of Leland High that the Cleveland Indians picked him in the third round of the 1990 draft. Hardtke passed on a scholarship from Arizona State to sign professionally. And, yes, Stanford had been one of more than 40 other colleges to offer him a full scholarship.
Hardtke was traded to the San Diego Padres organization, then was picked up by the Mets in 1994.
``The first time I was traded, it upset me because I was just getting used to my surroundings,'' Hardtke says. ``I wasn't as upset the second time because getting picked up ... indicated to me that somebody out there really wanted me.''
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Hardtke hopes he'll be wanted next season. As a sixth-year minor leaguer, he will be a free agent.
``I'd love nothing more than to stay with the Mets,'' Hardtke says. ``I believe anybody who has a good season in Triple-A should get a shot at making the major league club.
``But I can only control so much.''
Terry Hardtke says that a lot of batting cages began to spring up in back yards in their neighborhood once Jason began to excel.
``The cage wasn't as important as Jason's individual drive,'' he says. ``That drive made the difference.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
Norfolk Tides switch-hitter Jason Hardtke is batting .347 from the
left side and .324 from the right, with nine doubles, since being
called up from Double-A Binghampton in mid-May. by CNB