Eye of the Tiger
Steve Virgen
He was the kid from nowhere, the kid no one wanted. What was John
Savage thinking when he recruited Glenn Swanson?
Who’s Glenn Swanson?
All the kid had was a strong left hand, a lanky-like frame and a
huge load of confidence. When Savage went to see Swanson, now UC
Irvine’s left-handed star pitcher, the skinny kid displayed heart and
a calmness that redefined the state of cool.
Swanson’s coolness will be important for the Anteaters, who open
their season tonight at 6 against Fresno State at Anteater Ballpark.
Swanson might see some action. He will start Friday to open a
three-game series at Santa Clara. Swanson, a Louisville Slugger
Freshman All-American, compiled an 8-5 record and a 4.44 ERA last
season.
Confidence has always been Swanson’s greatest asset. He garnered
the attribute when he was a sophomore at Morse High, a school in San
Diego that’s not known for baseball. Back then, Swanson was thrown
into the fire.
He became a starting varsity pitcher and the kid thrived in the
situation. After the season, baseball became serious, rather than the
hobby it had been throughout his life. Swanson looked to his father
for guidance.
Swanson’s father, Glenn Sr., played baseball throughout his life
and built a passion for the sport while growing up in Pittsburgh. But
Glenn Sr. said baseball fizzled in high school and he eventually
stopped playing. He didn’t want that to happen to his son.
“I would have felt guilty if I didn’t do my part,” Glenn Sr. said.
“He had the desire and the want-to. It would have been a shame to
waste it. I told him, ‘If it’s something you want, you have to grab
it.’ I blew my chance when I was a kid, and I think he took that to
heart. I expected him to do well.”
And, so the confidence came from father and went to the son, and
Glenn Jr. used his newfound belief in himself to achieve success in
the prep ranks.
“I figured that was my chance to prove myself,” Swanson said of
his opportunity as a sophomore at Morse. “The only way I was going to
do that was to have confidence. If you don’t have confidence to beat
somebody, it’s probably not going to happen. You have to see it
happen, or otherwise you’re just going to be let down.”
Swanson’s confidence increased as the years went by and in his
senior season, he reached the high point. A pro scout discovered him
at unknown Morse High. The scout referred Swanson to Savage, the USC
pitching coach who had help develop the careers of Barry Zito and
Mark Prior and was now going to coach a new program at UCI.
Savage went to see Swanson. And the kid impressed the coach with
that unique confidence.
“We recruited him knowing he was a special kid,” Savage said of
Swanson. “He didn’t get too much publicity in San Diego. Even in the
San Diego Union-Tribune, he wasn’t highly publicized. He was always
in there for statistics among the leaders in strikeouts and wins, but
that was it. He played for a high school that wasn’t much of a
winning program. He was a diamond in the rough. He turned out to be a
better person than he is a pitcher. And, that’s hard to say.”
Morse High had not won a league title in baseball in school
history, 37 years. That is until Swanson came along. Swanson led the
Tigers to their first-ever Eastern League championship. Swanson was
named the Eastern League Most Valuable Player.
He earned an important win over Torrey Pines at Morse, where one
of the biggest crowds ever came to see the baseball team. Savage was
there and Swanson’s performance further solidified the need to get
the kid to UCI.
Savage had an advantage. No other coaches from NCAA Division I
programs were at that game. No other Division I coaches had been in
the Swansons’ living room.
“If I didn’t sign with UCI, I would probably be at Grossmont
Community College,” Swanson said. “A couple of guys I played against
in high school went to San Diego State and I was never even a
consideration to them. I really wanted to pitch against (San Diego
State) last year. We lost to them twice last year and those two
losses were the worse for me. I really wanted to stick it to them
because they never even gave me a look. I definitely want to shove it
in their face and say, take that. That’s the attitude I’m going to
take when we play them this year (March 7 and March 9 at San Diego,
March 8 at UCI).”
That type of motivation helped Swanson through his freshman
season. UCI was mired in a five-game losing streak, when Swanson came
to the rescue last year.
He pitched UCI’s only complete game, a two-run, one-hit
performance that led the Anteaters to a victory at Pepperdine.
Swanson also recorded wins over UCLA and USC, and he earned Big West
Pitcher of the Week honors after shutting out UNLV and Pacific last
year.
“His demeanor, and presence and confidence were really ahead of
his ability,” Savage said of Swanson’s freshman season. “This year
the expectations are a little higher because he’s going to be more of
a rotation guy. We really think he has a tremendous upside. He’s
probably the most confident kid on our team.”
Toward the end of last season, Swanson tweaked his pitching arm.
He rested and performed mainly leg workouts while he trained with his
father during the early summer. He increased his strength and gained
20 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame.
When his arm regained strength, Swanson began working toward his
goals, with San Diego State in mind. Swanson also had the Anteaters
in mind. He helped Morse High achieve a championship, now he wants to
do the same for UCI. The Big West coaches’ picked the Anteaters to
finish third in the league. Powerhouses Cal State Fullerton and Long
Beach State are 1 and 2, and nationally recognized. But that just
excites Swanson even more.
“We definitely don’t want to have the door shut in our face
again,” Swanson said in reference to last year, when UCI was not
selected to an NCAA regional. “We had a good feeling about being
selected, but it didn’t happen. We were picked to finish seventh in
the Big West last year, and we finished three higher spots. We were
picked to finish third in the Big West this season and now we want to
jump another three spots and win the Big West title and that’s the
No. 1 priority.”
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