3 On, 2 Out

Invitations went to only the nation’s best amateur baseball players, but that alone did not get them through the door into the great global dance that will be the Olympic Games.

Admission onto the USA team that will compete in Atlanta required something more. Yet pinpointing what caused some to be turned away was impossible even for those who gained entry.

“I don’t know how they made the cuts because nobody, or should I say everybody, stood out,” said Jim Parque of UCLA and Crescenta Valley High, who was among five area players who tried out the past two weeks in muggy Millington, Tenn., and among three who made the team.

“Everybody here was on a mission. It meant so much just to try out.”

It meant two weeks of grueling training and evaluation, bunking three to a room in ramshackle former Army barracks and receiving questionable medical care.

It meant intense scrutiny from coaches during six games against the Nicaraguan national team, with every at-bat, every pitch, tipping the scale in the direction of being cut or kept.

It meant saying awkward goodbyes to players who were told to turn in their red-white-and-blue jerseys and networking with those who might be teammates in a major league All-Star game sometime beyond the year 2000.

“This has been a difficult test, but it’s fun seeing people right and left who will be millionaires,” said Randy Wolf of Pepperdine and El Camino Real High. “Being around all these great players is the best part of being here.”

Wolf remains. He and Parque, both left-handed pitchers, made the cut along with right-handed pitcher Jeff Weaver of Fresno State and Simi Valley High.

Cal State Northridge catcher Robert Fick and infielder Adam Kennedy did not, getting walking papers Friday when the roster was pared to 30.

Nervous time continues for the survivors, however: The final roster is 20, with five players named as alternates by the July 19 opening ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Team USA roars on, playing--and winning--games nearly every day against international competition in preparation for the Olympics. Team USA is 10-0 this summer and has a 31-game winning streak dating to last summer.

Each area player had a strong tryout. A look at their experiences:

Adam Kennedy

The moment Warren Morris hit a ninth-inning home run to give Louisiana State the College World Series championship, Kennedy’s chances of making the team took a dramatic plunge.

Morris plays second base, same as Kennedy, who rightly figured that shortstop was sewn up by Augie Ojeda of Tennessee.

The same was true of second base. Team USA is guided by LSU Coach Skip Bertman, who wears a ring thanks to Morris’ swing. Morris did a solid job last summer with Team USA and the home run all but cemented his place in the Olympic lineup.

Kennedy, an All-American shortstop for Northridge, had a .462 batting average, the highest of any player cut.

“I don’t have a problem getting beat out by Morris or Ojeda,” Kennedy said. “They are great players.”

The last middle infield position went to Jason Williams, another LSU player. That grates on Kennedy, but he prefers to speak in glowing terms about the experience.

“The longer I stayed there, the more I wanted to make the team,” he said. “Robert and I were barely good enough to get a tryout and we were two of the last players cut.”

Kennedy played the last two days with a broken right hand, an injury he concealed from the coaches.

“If I sat out one day, I was gone, so I just played through the pain,” he said.

The injury will take four to six weeks to heal, ending his plans of playing in the Cape Cod League. Kennedy is recuperating at his parents’ home in Riverside.

Robert Fick

Given a choice, Fick might have preferred a broken hand to the staph infection that kept him bedridden for two days last week and put the brakes on a spirited effort to make the team.

Fick hit a grand slam against Nicaragua the day he became sick and circled the bases dizzily. It wasn’t until his brother, Chris, a minor leaguer playing in nearby Arkansas, came to see him that Robert was taken to a hospital.

Despite the illness and the fact that the remaining catchers--A.J. Hinch of Stanford, Brian Loyd of Cal State Fullerton and Matt LeCroy of Clemson--finished behind him in All-American balloting, Fick harbors no ill feelings.

“They flat-out told me that Hinch and Loyd were more experienced and were on the team last summer,” Fick said. “They deserve it. The team was 36-6 last year and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. They are quality catchers.”

His chances of sticking as a left-handed bat off the bench were reduced because of the small roster and because five of the nine projected starters bat left-handed.

“The coaches treated me pretty good,” said Fick, who batted .400 in games against Nicaragua and intrasquad games. “I really, really enjoyed myself. It was cool.”

Jim Parque

Three years ago Parque was a 5-foot-5, 120-pound overachiever at Crescenta Valley and an unlikely Olympic prospect.

Parque has grown to 5-10, 160 pounds and still is an overachiever. And an Olympian.

“The moment I realized I’d made it, I can’t tell you exactly how I felt because it was so personal,” he said. “All the times I practiced in driving wind and rainy weather when no one else was near the field, how much pain I went through for so many years, it paid off.”

Parque, a left-hander, earned his invitation by posting a 9-3 record as UCLA’s No. 1 starter as a sophomore this spring. His single-minded approach is tempered, however, by a strong dose of humor and a love of fishing.

“Me and my roommates had so much fun in that room, nonstop laughter,” he said. “Like guys in a war. We gave it all we had on the field, then we’d unwind with jokes.”

And with hook, line and sinker. Parque and others drove golf carts to a large pond on the training compound at every opportunity. During the day they’d catch catfish, and at night they scouted for water moccasins.

“I caught a seven-pound catfish, but the fishing is easy,” he said. “Those fish are starving. You spit in the water, they eat it up.

“The snakes, I never did see one. That made us laugh. We’re trying out for the Olympic team and we’re hunting for poisonous snakes.”

On the field, Parque has had mixed success with an earned-run average of 5.40 in eight innings, but he is one of three left-handers remaining along with Wolf and Eric DuBose of Mississippi State.

“I’ve always been passed up for things like this, but now I’ve proven I can play with the best,” he said.

Jeff Weaver

Even more of a longshot than Parque is Weaver, who made a remarkable rise from unheralded walk-on freshman at Fresno State to an All-American ace. In 10 innings at the tryouts, he has a 2.70 ERA and 14 strikeouts.

Among those flabbergasted at Weaver’s success is Wolf, who has a videotape of Weaver pitching against Wolf’s all-star team when they were 12 years old.

“He was tiny and he struggled,” Wolf said. “Now he’s this 6-5 guy throwing in the 90s, carving people up. I think he’s one of the best pitchers here.”

Weaver is taking it all in a long, relaxed stride like the ones he makes toward home plate. In his last outing before the final cut, he struck out six and allowed two hits in three shutout innings against Nicaragua.

“Luckily, my best came out,” Weaver said. “The coaches saw what I could do.”

Weaver roomed with Kennedy, his rival in the Western Athletic Conference, and the pair developed a strong bond.

“I can’t really believe he was cut because he played extremely well,” Weaver said. “He was the enemy during the season but when you get to know someone it’s a whole different story.”

Because he is among a strong group of right-handed pitchers, Weaver realizes he might end up an alternate. He is a likely candidate because the alternates probably will be freshman and sophomores. Juniors and seniors drafted this month might elect to sign if they aren’t on the 20-man roster.

“There is no way I’ll be disappointed,” he said.

Randy Wolf

Wolf played for Team USA last summer, making this tryout less stressful than it was for the others. He picked up where he left off, performing well as a setup man with the exception of one appearance against Australia.

Although he gave up nine hits and four runs in 3 1/3 innings in Team USA’s 11-10 victory, Wolf wasn’t worried.

“Every day is a proving ground but one outing does not mean a lot in the long haul,” he said. “It does help being here last year. They aren’t going to cut me on a single performance.”

Wolf entered tryouts more refreshed than the other four, who all came straight from NCAA regionals. Pepperdine didn’t qualify for the postseason, giving Wolf nearly two weeks to prepare.

Now his attention has gone from making the team to helping the remaining players become a team. And go for the gold.

“This team is going according to plan,” Wolf said. “Same coaches as last year, same core of players. Even with all these first-round draft picks there are no egos. It’s going to be awesome.”