Majoring In The Minors

April snow showers, coating nearly every ballfield in New England, three times delayed the 115th Harvard baseball opener. When the Crimson nine finally took their places at Soldiers, held Wednesday afternoon, the sun was shining, the field was dry, but a strong wind blew across the open a tea Only the dedicated braved their way to the doubleheader: with Northeastern, and by the start of the second game, fewer than 20 fans--most of whom were other Harvard students--sat in the rather modest first baseline stands.

Behind the backstop, live or six graying men sat in lawn chairs or stood setting up before the twinbill and leaving only after the third out of the fourteenth inning. In between innings, they joked with each other, reeling off the entire line-up (including the plate umpired of a 1960 double a game, reminiscing about a certain' prospect with a great forkball who never made it past the Pioneer League But once play began, their attention returned to the present.

When junior shortstop Brad Bauer stepped up to the plate, two or three took out their stopwatches to time his run down to first. After rightfielder Donny Allard knocked a home run over the leftfield fence, one glanced at a numerical evaluation sheet, then muttered "I was waiting for him to do that."

Some kept score, some took notes, but mostly they observed. They observed for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds and the Major League Scouting Bureau.

There are scouts from some of 26 major league organizations at nearly every college game. And there are, of course, players well aware of the scouts' watchful eye. Sure, some guys have no intention of carrying their career beyond their senior year. Yet a surprising number--one player estimates that one-third to one ball of the current Harvard squad have professional aspirations Almost every starting player from catcher Vinnie Martelli and pitcher Jun Curtin to frosh third-baseman Scott Vierrasay they are seriously thinking about the pros.

One cannot help but question what seems at first like a rather odd combination. Most will reply that they came to Harvard to get the education, but for anyone serious about turning professional, history does not seem to justify their choice. Lou Gehrig, many like to point out, went to Columbia: some even take pride that Moe Berg went to Yale.

The Ivy Leagues however, have never been a breeding ground for the mayors. The "baseball factories" are in the South and especially the West where the weather is much more conducive to baseball, counting for the seasons that last longer. The Arizona State alumni book includes Reggie Jackson. Rick Monday, Craig Swan, and Bump Wills, Tom Seaver, Bill Lee, Steve Kemp and Fred Lynn each graced the USC campus. Harvard's contributions to the last decade of big league ball is Pete Varney, who played out a mediocre career with the White Sox and who now coaches at Brandeis.

"The Ivy League schools never really have outstanding programs." Bob Kalaf, assistant director of scouting for the Yankees says, explaining that the better athletes are not likely to come to schools like Harvard "The Ivy League colleges don't give out scholarships," he adds, noting that most top notch athletes aren't top notch students. "The general perception. Kalaf concludes, is that "they don't have the expertise of big programs."

Undergraduates here can still hope, and there currently are four Harvard athletes playing professional baseball whose experiences probably can serve both as encouragement and discouragement for future Crimson stars with major league dreams.

The night before the Harvard opener, the Wichita Aeros, the Expos AAA team, kicked off their season against the Oklahoma City Phillies. Integral to the Expos 8-2 win was the performance of starting leltifielder Mike Stenhouse, who singled once, walked twice, stole a base and scored two runs. Most baseball fans may recognize him as son of Dave Stenhouse, pitcher for the Senators, but Harvard fans remember him based on his own accomplishment as the curator of several Crimson batting records--most doubles in a season, most triples in a season and in a career: most RBI's in a season, and the highest season and career batting averages--amassed from 1977 to 1979. The younger Stenhouse has moved up a league every year since entering the minors and says he has a shot at making it to Montreal by September.

The only player in Harvard history rivalling Stenhouse's record-setting ability was classmate Mark Bingham who had more hits and RBI's than anyone to Jon a Crimson uniform. Bingham, however, did not have quite the same luck in continuing his career, as a back injury discouraged any learn from drafting him. Determined to make it, he gave up a high paying job at Union Carbide and went to a ton of trial campus," a friend says, before he finally got picked up last year by the Pioneer League Idaho Falls Angel affiliate. The first baseman batted. 333 and knocked in 48 runs in his first season and is now with the Midwest League Danville Suns. Bingham started in the opener against the Cointon Giants, going hitless in four at-bats and committing one error.

Another graduate going through difficult times right now is Larry Brown, who complemented his pitching in the spring by quarterbacking in the fall until he got his degree in 1979. He pitched for Astros farm clubs until two weeks ago, when the organization released him. "We just had too much depth," an Astros official explains. Brown's 1-5 won-loss and his 8.17 ERA last year probably did not help matters. The Class A Reno Padres now have possession of Brown, who is pitching short relief now, for the first time in his career.

One of Brown's more memorable games last season was a 5 to 1 defeat at the hands of the Nashville Yankees team. His mound rival that day was former college teammate Jamie Werly. Werly is constantly mentioned as the Harvard graduate with the best shot at sticking in the major leagues.

"He's the top right-hander in the organization," one Yankee official says of the man whose 2.59 ERA earned him top pitching honors in the AA Southern League. Werly next week joints the starting rotation of the Columbus AAA team, and is currently on the Yankees' 40-man roster. Only arm soreness kept him from making the jump earlier in the spring.

The four say they have no regrets about going to Harvard, and that they have discovered, if anything, that Ivy League competition was just as good as any other place. Brown acknowledged that, perhaps it takes those who play only spring and summer, as opposed to those with opportunity to play year round, a year to catch up, but he stressed that the quality of the athletes was rather even.

The major difference that the University has made in their careers has been to keep other options open, and consequently has allowed them to play more loosely. "You have to remember that other guys on the team will be playing ball all their life." Brown says. For Werly, the extra option was crucial, as two years ago, doctors told him a blood clot developing in his arm would prevent him from, ever pitching again.

Rob Alevizos understands this option better than any of his schoolmates. After graduating in 1980, he spent a year with the Cubs' A team, finishing with a 4-1 win-loss record, five saves, and an ERA of 2.48. It was, it seemed, the appropriate successful first step in a career for someone who had dreamed of playing in the major since the age of four. But now, he works for his father's business in Newton.

"I didn't want to risk wasting four years of my life," Alevizos explains, noting that "out of the thousands of people who play in the minor leagues every year. Only two or three make it. "The reality, he finally decided, is that "with a Harvard degree, you have a better chance of making more money and being more successful doing something else."

But on a spring afternoon, even with the wind blowing, no one is much concerned with doing anything else. Viera, like everyone else, says he came to Harvard to "get a good education." But when the freshman who went two for four in the nightcap is asked what he wants to do after school, he answers without hesitation. "I want to play professional baseball Definitely."