Hurting
DON'T look for Paul Mourning's name in the major league box scores. You won't find it in the minor league box scores, either. That's because the curtain closed on Mourning's organized baseball career on the afternoon of May 15. It ended when Northeastern University defeated the Dartmouth College baseball team, 2-1, in the season final at Red Rolfe Field. Professional baseball scouts didn't flock to Hanover to watch Mourning, a .239 singles hitter who batted seventh on a team with a 4-23-1 record. That doesn't mean that the senior centerfielder's efforts went unnoticed, however. "Paul's an in- dividual who made himself into a baseball player, the kind of young man you want on your team, the type of individual who leads by example," coach Fred Kelley said recently. At the team's post-season breakup cookout, Mourning received the James Henry Cooke Trophy, given in memory of the former baseball team manager, a member of the class of 1940, who died in a Japanese prison in 1943. The trophy goes to the member of the senior class who has done the most for baseball at Dartmouth.
Mourning played his first organized baseball as a Little Leaguer in Philadelphia and as a seventh grader moved to Holland where his father was employed by Gulf Oil. He lived in Holland through his senior year in high school. "I got most of my baseball experience there strange as it may seem," explained Mourning. "I went to an American school and we played different American schools in a European northern league. We played in Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt places like that, all within six hours on the weekends and at the Dutch schools during the week. It was a lot of fun. There was no better way to go to high school." Mourning noted his ending up at Dartmouth was a "random choice." "I had talked to some people about the College and had visited Hanover during the summer of my junior year. I wasn't sure how I was going to fit in, having gone to high school in Europe, but I've never regretted the decision."
As a freshman, Mourning played junior varsity baseball under Kelley, who would become head coach the next season after the departure of long-time head coach Tony Lupien. "Fred became the varsity coach and he took me along with him," quiped the 22-year-old history major who now makes his home in Cincinnati. The 5- foot 10-inch, 160-pounder was shifted from shortstop to the outfield during his sophomore year and appeared in 18 of Dartmouth's 36 games, primarily as a defensive replacement. He appeared in 25 of the Big Green's 40 games in 1979 and had a batting average somewhere around the .200 mark. "I never was a super hitter, but I've always been a pretty good fielder," conceded Mourning. "I'm definitely more of a fielder than a hitter. In fact, I never got an extra base hit during my entire career. In my last time at bat in the final game I thought I had put a line drive past the third baseman which would have been a double but apparently he made a good play on it and caught it. I never looked." Mourning played in all of Dart- mouth's 28 games during the 1980 season and was co-leader on the team with 15 runs scored. He had 22 hits in the spring and batted .243 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League. Mourning's contribution to the team can't be measured by statistics. "Paul's the type of individual who's always in the ballgame and who will do anything to help out the club," observed Kelley. "I used to kid him by saying that his right arm must be three inches longer than his left arm. He'd be willing to pitch batting prac- tice all day long and then turn around and catch batting practice. He'd do anything to make the team better."
During Mourning's four years at Dart- mouth there hasn't been much of a winning tradition on the baseball team. In 1977, the team was 11-25. In 1978, the Green won eight of 36, and in 1979 the team won only seven of 40. The 1980 mark of 4-23-1 was the worst since the 4-22 1951 team. "Frustrated" is the word Kelley uses to describe the season. "We were working with freshmen and sophomores in six or seven positions," explained the coach. "So we realized that we were going to make mistakes. But it still was frustrating." From the start against Old Dominion and North Carolina State during the southern trip to the final loss to Northeastern, Dart- mouth was unable to put together the proper blend of hitting, pitching and defense. The Green nine was able to score only 25 runs in the first 11 games. When the hitting improved, the pitching slumped. And defense was a problem much of the spring as the team committed 79 errors for a .921 fielding percentage. Opponents com- mitted only 41 errors during the 28-game season.
"Despite the losses the attitude was sur- prisingly pretty good," Mourning observed. "There were a lot of young kids, a lot of freshmen and sophomores on the team, who knew they'd be getting another shot, and I'm sure they'll have a couple of good years. At the beginning we were really hurting for pitching but that came along and we were hitting the ball better as the season progressed. Against Army we were down 12-5 going into the bottom of the ninth but scored seven runs to tie it up. Unfortunately we lost it in the tenth, 13- 12." Mourning feels the high spot of the season came against North Carolina State, a 3-1 victory during the southern trip. The low point came at Harvard when Dart- mouth twice relinquished 4-0 leads to drop a doubleheader to the eventual E.1.8.L. champion. "We just couldn't hold it," said Kelley.
Mourning, who's headed for Duke Law School, doesn't allow the defeats to tarnish his enjoyment of playing on the Green team, however. "I wouldn't trade it for anything," he reflected. "We spent a lot 0f time out there together. We were a close group." (In fact, 18 of Mourning's Kapp3 Sigma fraternity brothers played on either the jayvee or varsity squads.) "Everyone hung amazingly close. Of course, the adversity makes it that much closer."
Mourning was the only senior who played in the field for every one of the team's 28 games. Senior captain Joel Chansky was the team's designated hitter and collected a team high of 30 hits while batting .404 in the E.1.8.L. and .306 overall in 26 games. No other senior appeared in more than 14 games. Brent Cole, a second baseman from Fairbanks, Alaska, was the only junior to see action. He batted .318 in 20 games and ripped the ball at .353 in league competition. Short- stop-third baseman Barry Pizor and Rob Carroll were the top sophomores. Pizor batted .275 overall and hit .308 in the league while leading the team in doubles with six. Carroll hit .282 overall, .265 in the E.1.8.L., and hit two homers. Freshman Peter La very was .the team's leading hitter although he got a late start because he was a member of the hockey team. A third baseman-outfielder, he hit .419 in 12 games and .526 in the league. Lavery, who also played football last fall, had seven hits in 14 trips to the plate and knocked in five runs in the next-to-the-last week of the season. "He's an outstanding athlete with a lot of potential," said Kelley.
Freshman outfielder Roberto Balaguer of the Bronx, New York, hit only .268 in the 28 games but led the club with 21 runs batted in and five triples and was the co- leader with 15 runs scored, two homers, and three stolen bases. Balaguer had a .310 E.1.8.L. batting average. Tim Whall, a freshman, got into only 11 games but he batted .417 and hit two home runs. Whall hit .364 in the league. Brian Wicks, a senior, was the only pitcher to have two victories. He had six losses and an earned- run average of 5.61. Matt Cairone, a senior, and Steve D'Antonio, a sophomore, had the other two pitching victories. D'An- tonio was the only hurler to have two com- plete games and his 4.71 ERA was lowest on the team. Dartmouth gave up 6.22 runs per game while being limited to 3.82 runs per game by the opposition.
"I'm optimistic," Kelley said looking forward to next year's team. "The kidswi" be playing a lot of summer ball for ex- perience and they'll be taking a lot of ground balls because, defensively, there s still a lot of work to do. But I hope the three departments you need hitting- pitching, and defense will come together next year."
or Coach Fred Kelley not much - not even home-plate "chats" with the umpires went right during this year's 4-23-1 season.
Senior John Steel, playing no. 1, won 10of his last 13 singles matches and advancedto the N.C.A.A. regional championships.
The Records(through end of spring season) LACROSSE Men (4-7) Women (5-6) CREW Men's Heavyweight (2-4) Men's Lightweight (1-4) Women (1-9) BASEBALL Men (4-23-1) TENNIS Men (13-8) Women (3-3) GOLF Men (8-2-1) TRACK Men (4-4) Women (1-3) RUGBY Men's A Team (9-3) Women's A Team (2-4-2)
