COLLEGES / ALAN DROOZ : Umpire Gets Chance to Call Balls and Strikes in Majors

After giving up life as a minor league umpire and getting a job at TRW, Jim Garman got a taste of what he might have missed.

Garman, who retired from the professional ranks in 1981, was among a handful of umpires called to fill in at the major league level while baseball management and the umpires’ union worked out a new labor agreement.

Garman, 35, worked the two Freeway Series games between the Dodgers and Angels that were held at Anaheim Stadium April 6-7 and he was scheduled to work the San Diego Padres’ opener before management and the umpires’ union reached an agreement.

“It whetted my appetite for major league ball,” said Garman, a San Pedro resident who umpires college games on nights and weekends. “It was a great thrill. I was flying--I didn’t come down till the seventh or eighth inning. I videotaped the games on TV so I have it for posterity. I’ll tell you, my first college game after that was kind of a comedown, not quite the same as walking into a big league stadium with 50,000 people.”

Garman worked the plate at the April 6 game, and said the players were generally complimentary.

“(Angel pitcher) Mark Langston even hunted me down in the locker room to tell me it was one of the best jobs he’d seen--and he lost the game, so I must have been all right,” Garman said. “(Dodger catcher Gary) Carter told me the next day I did a good job.

“It’s a kind of validation--you always wonder if you could hang in the big leagues.”

Garman also liked the look he got at pitches from major league catchers. “It’s a real treat working behind guys like (the Dodgers’ Mike) Scioscia and (the Angels’ Lance) Parrish,” he said. “It’s a little different than the guys you’re behind in college games.”

Garman continues to work college games--he will umpire a Pepperdine doubleheader Saturday--and expects to be selected to work the NCAA Regionals and, possibly, the College World Series, which he worked three years ago.

He’ll realize another dream when he works the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

“That’s a real honor, to be selected to do the Olympics out of thousands (of applicants),” he said. “So I’m going to Barcelona next summer. I wish it was this summer. I can hardly wait.”

While trying to stay within range of first-place Pepperdine in the West Coast Conference, the Loyola Marymount baseball team also has to watch its back when it plays a three-game series starting today at Santa Clara.

The second-place Lions actually have one more victory than Pepperdine, but trail by five games in the loss column. Santa Clara swept a three-game series from Nevada last weekend to pull into third place, 1 1/2 games behind the Lions.

The Lions are coming off a 14-inning, 6-5 loss at USC that lasted 5 hours, 33 minutes Tuesday night. Against the Trojans, Lion first baseman Joe Ciccarella hit a grand slam and a double and pitched two innings, striking out the side in the 11th.

Ciccarella has raised his average to .435, second in the WCC behind Pepperdine’s Steve Rodriguez at .446. Ciccarella is tied with teammate Gerardo Perez for the WCC lead with 11 home runs and also leads the league with 15 doubles and 40 walks. Perez is the runs batted in leader with 50. Led by those two, the Lions lead the WCC in hitting (.318), doubles (93), home runs (53) and RBIs (312).

Right-hander David Tuttle will open the series for Santa Clara. He is tied for the WCC lead with 10 victories and leads in innings (112) and strikeouts (100). He is 7-2 in conference games.

Loyola relief ace Joe Caruso earned one of the more unusual victories of the season on Friday without throwing a pitch.

Caruso was pitcher of record in a February game against the University of San Diego that was suspended with the score tied, 9-9, after nine innings. Two months later, the game was resumed in the 10th inning. Caruso batted--thus remaining the pitcher of record--and drew a walk. He was replaced by a pinch-runner who scored what proved to be the winning run in a 9-7 victory. Caruso earned the decision and Chad Dembisky, who actually pitched the 10th, got the save.

On the Dotted Line--Cal State Dominguez Hills basketball Coach Dave Yanai has signed two players to national letters of intent, guard Rick Robison of El Camino College and forward Jason Bowman of Inglewood High.

The 6-foot-3 Robison, who will be a sophomore, led the South Bay in scoring as a senior at Torrance High, averaging 34.5 points. Last season as a reserve at El Camino, he averaged 7.3. He may give the Toros some of the outside offense they lacked last season. Bowman, also 6-3, is more of an inside player. He averaged 13 points and 11 rebounds this season, winning Bay League co-most valuable player honors with a teammate.

Dominguez Hills women’s Coach Van Girard signed three high school players: Tara Walker, a 6-1 center who averaged 18 points and 123 rebounds for Marshall High, 5-8 guard Colleen Pratt, who averaged 23 points, six rebounds and five assists a game for Canoga Park and 5-7 guard Katina Duncan, who averaged 16 points, six rebounds and six assists per game and was the West Valley League’s most valuable player as a junior.

Loyola Marymount women’s basketball Coach Todd Corman went outside the Los Angeles area to sign two players--6-foot forwards Desiree Warren from Georgetown High in Jarrell, Tex., and Natanya White of Morena Valley High in Sunnymead, Calif. Warren averaged 17 points and nine rebounds and played in two Texas state all-star games. White, an All-Inland Empire selection, averaged 23 points and 14 rebounds.

Stat of the Week--In the latest NCAA Division II baseball statistics, Dominguez Hills first baseman Darrell Conner is the only hitter among the top 25 batters (at .415) playing for a Top 10 team. However, 16 of the top-rated 25 pitchers are on nationally ranked teams, including Toro right-hander Mark Tranberg, tied for the national lead with 10 victories. The ninth-ranked Toros are 10th in team pitching.

Notes

The Loyola Marymount volleyball team was beaten Wednesday in the opening round of the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. playoffs, falling to fifth-ranked San Diego State, 13-15, 15-8, 15-7, 15-6. The Lions, who made their first appearance in the WIVA playoffs, completed their best season ever at 9-14. . . . The Dominguez Hills baseball team plays UC Riverside three times in the next two days, with a 3 p.m. game today at Dominguez Hills and a noon doubleheader Saturday in Riverside. . . . John Glavan, a 6-foot-10 sophomore center from Mary Star of the Sea, was named the most inspirational player at the University of San Francisco basketball team’s awards banquet.