He's Quite a Catch

By Eric Stephens

June 17, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

OMAHA — It didn’t matter that Ryan Garko has hit the ball since he walked onto the Stanford campus, or that he has made the College World Series his home away from home.

All that mattered in the eyes of major league scouts was whether the former Anaheim Servite High catcher could really play his position. Garko learned that during last year’s amateur draft when round after round passed without his receiving the call.

“I was fielding 50 phone calls after the draft and everybody was saying, ‘What happened? What happened?’ ” he said. “I didn’t have an answer for them.”

To his dismay, Garko wasn’t drafted. To the Cardinal, that was a blessing.

Garko’s decision to return for his senior year was an easy one, and it has paid off in another trip to Rosenblatt Stadium, where the Pacific 10 Conference co-player of the year leads the Cardinal into an elimination game today against South Carolina.

Garko has made the most of a situation he hoped he wouldn’t be in. He thought his collegiate career was over after a junior season during which he hit .314 with 14 home runs and 55 runs batted in.

The bigger the game, the better the right-handed-hitting catcher was. He hit .455 in postseason play, including a five-for-14 performance in four CWS games.

“Obviously, I was disappointed over not leaving after my junior year,” Garko said. “I felt I would have the opportunity to go out on a high note. There was motivation for me in the off-season to come back and have a better year.”

That Garko wasn’t drafted is a bit deceiving. He believed he could go between the sixth and 10th rounds. The word among scouts, though, was that he would return to school if he weren’t drafted higher than that, so their thinking was, “Why waste a draft pick on a player who won’t sign?”

Garko said, “It’s a scout’s job to sign players and that’s too big of a risk for them. Let’s be honest, if I was picked in the ninth or 10th round, I probably would have gone back to school.”

Stanford Coach Mark Marquess said Garko had work to do before becoming a high draft pick.

“The scouts told him there were things he needed to work on and, frankly, I told him there were things he needed to work on,” Marquess said. “The scouts didn’t feel he was ready to be a major league catcher.”

So Garko devoted himself to getting in better physical shape with agility drills and shed some pounds. Most of all, he focused on his position.

“I made catching as important to me as hitting,” he said. “In the past, I’d spend 75% of my time hitting and 25% working on catching. I knew this year, if I was going to be catching, I was going to put 100% of my time into it.”

It has paid off in one of the best individual seasons by a Stanford player. Garko is hitting .411 with 18 home runs and 91 RBIs. He has struck out only 16 times.

He is the school’s career leader in eight offensive categories, and his RBIs this season are one short of the school record set by Rick Lundblade in 1985. His average ranks third on the all-time list.

Omaha has been his biggest stage. Two years ago, he hit home runs in two victories over Cal State Fullerton. This year, in the Cardinal’s 8-0 opening-game win over South Carolina, he went two for three and drove in three runs.

His performance at the plate and the improvement behind it resulted in a third-round selection earlier this month by the Cleveland Indians.

“The good ones just emerge at the big times of the year,” South Carolina Coach Ray Tanner said. “He does it whether there’s 250 people in the stands or 25,000.”

Fullerton Coach George Horton has grown to appreciate Garko, even though he initially didn’t see him as a fit in the Titan program.

“Ryan has been a thorn in our side for a long time,” Horton said. “Quite honestly, I didn’t see him as a Division I catcher, and I have to commend the Stanford coaching staff for developing him.

“We always knew Ryan could hit. I tell you, he’d look good in a Titan uniform.”

Catching On

Stanford’s Ryan Garko is one of three finalists for the Johnny Bench award given annually to the nation’s top college catcher. A look at his season’s statistics through Sunday’s loss to Cal State Fullerton:

AT STANFORD

Average ... .411*

Games ... 63*

At-bats ...236

Runs...59

Hits ...97*

Doubles ...20

Home runs ...18*

RBIs ...91*

Slugging %....725*

Walks ...27

Strikeouts ...16