Forget Spelling, Millar’s Numbers Add Up

Until this season, Kevin Millar was a name ballplayer only because his name was spelled funny.

Never a prospect. Never recruited. Never in the plans, not even 10 years ago at Hart High.

The only people who believed in Millar had the same funny name: his parents.

Now his name is spelled properly in banner headlines. Millar, 25, is the hottest hitter in the double-A Eastern League, batting .352 with 28 home runs and 114 runs batted in for the Portland (Maine) Sea Dogs, a farm club of the Florida Marlins.

He’s come a long way from the independent St. Paul Saints (the only pro team that would sign him), a long way from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, (the only college team that wanted him), a long way from Hart (he left after his freshman year because he felt he wasn’t getting a fair shot).

Finally, it’s Millar time.

“I’ve had to go through the back door my whole little career,” Millar said. “I was always told I didn’t have the tools, but you can’t judge what’s in a person’s heart. I knew deep down inside I’d put up the numbers if given the chance.”

Millar, a 6-foot, 195-pound first baseman, dares to liken himself to another unsung player with the same build who happens to be the Marlins’ first baseman.

“I could be one of those sneaky guys who no one’s heard of, then, bam, makes an impact, like Jeff Conine,” Millar said. “I’m a similar player.”

Before this season, the highlight of Millar’s baseball career was playing for a Hart 14-year-old youth team in the PONY World Series. He felt ignored at Hart High, however, and moved from his father’s Valencia home to live with his mother in Encino.

He played three years at University High and two at L.A. City College before being ignored again.

“I wanted to play at UCLA or Arizona but it was like I was never good enough to play there,” Millar said.

He settled for Lamar, and after his senior season was ignored in the major league draft.

“I hit my .330 and thought I’d at least be drafted in the 50th round or something,” he said. “Thank God for the St. Paul Saints and the Northern League, which I hadn’t even heard of.”

His first break came after one season with the Saints. The Marlins bought the contracts of Millar and two others just to fill spots in their fledgling minor league system.

To everyone’s surprise except his own, Millar produced. He batted .302 with 19 homers in the Midwest League in 1994, batted .288 with 13 homers in the Florida State League in ‘95, and batted .318 with 18 homers and 86 RBIs at Portland last season.

He wasn’t promoted to triple-A but his production this year proves he has progressed beyond the double-A level. He’s gone from being a fill-in to filling the cleanup spot in the batting order.

“I don’t know if I am in the Marlins’ future,” he said. “But I hope expansion plays a part in me getting a chance. I’ve developed more and more mental strength every year.”

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The last time Adam West played in Peoria, he crashed his car and was a wreck on the field, failing to win in four starts.

Two years later, the Acura Integra is intact and West’s pitches aren’t getting hit much either.

The left-hander from Thousand Oaks High and Pierce College was converted into a reliever this spring and has become a solid set-up man for the Class-A Chiefs, the Midwest League affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I’d rather be starting,” West said. “I like knowing if I am going to pitch, but this is working out well.”

Because West primarily faces left-handed batters, he has gone from throwing overhand fastballs to sidearm curves and sliders.

Whatever works. He has 69 strikeouts in 55 innings, and is 3-4 with a 3.58 earned-run average.

“I throw about 75% sidearm,” he said. “I start down, then if I fall behind I might throw overhand to even the count. But it’s getting easier to throw with control from the side. And I get more movement.”

West really bore down facing one particular left-handed hitter in the West Michigan lineup. Robert Fick, the former Cal State Northridge All-American, played on American Legion and Little League teams with West. In fact, the pair were key to the Newbury Oaks American Legion national championship in 1992.

Fick won their first battle, extending a long hitting streak with a ninth-inning double off West. But West has retired him three times since, including once with runners on second and third while protecting a one-run lead.

“I threw a sidearm slider on the outside corner for strike three but the umpire didn’t call it,” West said. “So I threw another one and he popped it up.”

Dropping down has lifted West’s spirits. A year ago in the New York-Penn League, he was despondent and considered quitting. Now his thoughts have turned to progressing up the ladder.

“I’m hearing from people in the organization that they have me in a good role now,” he said. “I’m not as nervous as I used to be. I don’t feel any pressure.”

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Send Andrew Lorraine to the third-time-is-a-charm file, just don’t send him back to triple A.

Lorraine, a left-hander from Stanford and Hart High, got his first major-league victory Wednesday by outpitching Mike Mussina in the Oakland Athletics’ 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Lorraine allowed one run in five innings to become the first Athletics’ starter to win since July 23.

Two previous stints in the major leagues hadn’t worked out as well. Lorraine was 0-2 with a 10.41 ERA in 18 2/3 innings for the Angels in 1994 and was sent to the Chicago White Sox during the ’95 season in the deal for Jim Abbott.

After pitching well for Chicago’s triple-A team in Nashville, Tenn., Lorraine was promoted and made five relief appearances.

He was traded to the Athletics before the 1996 season and struggled at Edmonton of the Pacific Coast League, going 8-10 with a 5.60 ERA. His numbers were better this year (8-6, 4.74), and it appears he has a shot at sticking in the Oakland rotation.