Delgado does it all

Aaron Delgado is many things on the basketball court and the baseball diamond.

The senior shortstop is not, however, a captain for this year’s Ocean View High baseball team. With Delgado still helping the CIF Southern Section Division III-AA finalist hoops team earlier this spring, the Seahawks baseball team took votes for captain.

Three players made it. Delgado came close, despite the fact he wasn’t even there at the time, showing the respect he garners on the team.

“He was one vote away,” Coach Shane Borowski said. “It just goes to show you the respect the other players have for him.”

In Spanish, “delgado” means thin, and Aaron Delgado is indeed slight of build and not overly imposing at 6 feet tall. But his return to baseball came at a good time for Ocean View.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the Seahawks are undefeated through their first five Golden West League games. They had a seven-game winning streak going until falling Tuesday night in the semifinals of the OCNissan.com Select Invitational.

And Delgado, the three-year varsity starter, has been in the mix, even after getting his arm strength back up from basketball. He was playing mostly outfield earlier in the season, although he was back at shortstop on Tuesday.

In 10 games, Delgado has batted .458.

“The only down part is maybe just my arm, but everything else is OK,” Delgado said. “It’s been kind of tough. We had a [basketball] loss [in the CIF Regional semifinals on March 13]. And I had to come back to baseball right that Monday [March 15]. It was a little weird.”

Nothing weird about him on the diamond, though. Borowski called his shortstop “magical.”

He will be a key cog if the Seahawks are to take their sixth league title in seven years, a five-year streak interrupted last year by Orange.

“He does things you can’t coach,” Borowski said. “He does magical things that are reactionary and based on intuition. He knows where the ball’s going to be, where the baserunners are going to be. It’s like a psychic thing.”

Delgado, after all, has been playing baseball since he was 6 years old, for Garden Grove Pony. Around that same time, he picked up basketball, as well.

Delgado comes from an athletic family. His brother Diego (class of 2006) played hoops at Ocean View and is in the basketball Hall of Fame there. His other oldest brother, Juan, was a second baseman at Garden Grove High, and his older sister played volleyball there, as well.

Aaron Delgado is perhaps most known for his play on the basketball court, where he always hustled. Coach Jim Harris called his guard, a first-team All-Golden West League and second-team All-CIF selection, the glue that holds the team together. Delgado, who averaged just 4.7 points per game, would nevertheless routinely be seen doing the little things. If he wasn’t grabbing offensive rebounds over players a half-foot taller than him, he was stepping in passing lanes for steals that would lead to dunks for Avery Johnson or Anthony Brown. Delgado averaged 2.2 steals per game, second on the team to Johnson.

“I know because of my size that I have to outthink people, or out-hustle them,” he said. “I know I’m not faster, can’t jump as high.”

Yet, baseball is the sport where he might have a future beyond high school. He wants to play in college, although he’s not sure where yet. He hopes to go to Texas, where his uncle and aunt live; he’s talked to schools such as Texas State, TCU and the University of Texas at Arlington.

Plus, Delgado’s favorite pro team is the Texas Rangers, which can spur plenty of good-natured trash-talking on an Ocean View team that has plenty of Angels fans.

Delgado’s favorite professional player used to be Mark Teixeira — until he joined the Yankees. Now, he’ll root for Rangers third baseman Michael Young or rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus.

“He’s my upcoming guy,” Delgado said. “I picked him up [in fantasy baseball]. He’s going to be pretty good in a couple years.”

The Seahawks, though, have a shortstop who is plenty good right now. Borowski talked about how Delgado could be a leadoff guy with his quickness, a No. 3 guy in the batting order because he makes contact a lot, or a No. 4 guy because he has decent power.

“He’s really versatile and can really fill any role we need out of him,” Borowski said. “He’s fun to watch.”

And he may have finished one vote shy of being a captain, but he proves his worth every time out there.

“He probably should be a captain,” Borowski said. “Even though he’s not a captain, he’s still a leader. He’s a good model to have as a senior out there.”