AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL NOTEBOOK : Familiar Surroundings Prompt Favorable Comparison for Landaker

Twenty-two years ago, a player who one day would coach the Westlake-Royal American Legion baseball team ventured into the UC Santa Barbara baseball stadium along with his Cal State Northridge teammates.

Mike McClure vividly remembers looking across the infield at his opposite number, Santa Barbara shortstop Chris Speier, who went on to enjoy a lengthy major league career.

“You can’t help but look at the guy who plays the same position you do,� said McClure, whose Northridge team won the NCAA Division II title the following year in 1970.

McClure and Westlake-Royal (21-6) visited UC Santa Barbara last week and McClure again looked across the diamond at the shortstop. This time, the player under scrutiny was one of McClure’s own.

“This kid looks stronger to me than Speier did (in 1969),� McClure said. “He’s really done it all for us.�

McClure’s do-it-all shortstop is Dave Landaker. In Westlake-Royal’s 11-2 win over Santa Barbara, Landaker had four hits, scored four runs and drove in two. The performance was not an anomaly. Entering the week, Landaker (6-foot, 175 pounds) led Westlake-Royal in batting average (.483) doubles (eight), triples (three), home runs (two) and stolen bases (18). He is second in runs batted in with 21.

Whether Landaker, who will be a senior in the fall at Royal High, will play professionally will be determined over the long haul. One fact is indisputable, though. Landaker stood taller than Speier, at least on this particular day.

“Speier made four errors in that game,� McClure said. “He threw a couple of them at least three feet over the first baseman’s head.�

Name the big leaguer: This active major leaguer’s career has run the gamut. In fact, if you include his amateur career, he was once a Cowboy and an Indian.

This former District 20 star was known for his Olympian blasts, though his statistics haven’t torched the competition lately. He is hoping a recent change of venue will make a difference.

If this player duplicates his earlier power, look for him to blow the roof off the place. (Answer below).

So flip a coin: Encino-Crespi and Sepulveda finished in a tie in the District 20 Southern Division at 18-5, forcing the teams into a tiebreaker to decide which team would advance to the playoffs as divisional champion and which would be a wild-card entry.

The first tiebreaking method was head-to-head play, but the teams split two games. The second tiebreaker was total runs in head-to-head play, but each team defeated the other by one run.

The third tiebreaker was overall record in divisional play, but each team had two losses. Finally, Encino-Crespi edged Sepulveda on the fourth tiebreaker: record against playoff-bound teams.

Add Sepulveda: Sepulveda Coach P.C. Shaw’s younger brother Andy, a first baseman from Montclair Prep who plays for Sepulveda, has been replaced on the L.A. Olympic Festival baseball roster because of an injury. Yet the actual replacement process might have hurt more than Andy Shaw’s foot injury.

Shaw was one of two area players to make the West roster, but recently suffered an injury to his right heel. On Saturday, after it was determined that Shaw’s problem was a stress fracture, Festival officials replaced him on the roster.

According to P.C., Andy was informed that he no longer could stay with the West team at its headquarters at USC and that he would not receive any Festival paraphernalia.

“He gets zero,� P.C. said. “He can’t stay down there with the rest of the guys or anything. It wasn’t handled very well at all.

“He would have been the bat boy if they’d let him, just so he could stay there with the rest of the players.�

Championships, revisited: When Chatsworth unseated Woodland Hills West as the District 20 Western Division champion, it marked the first time a team other than West has won the title in seven years. Under former Coach Lee Hersch, West won divisional titles in 1985-87. West also won the divisional title under Gary Gibson in 1988 and ’89. West won the division championship for the sixth consecutive summer in 1990 under current Coach Don Hornback.

West still has a chance to redeem itself by taking the district playoffs, which started Tuesday. West won district titles in 1985 and ‘86, and again in 1989 and ’90.

In 1989, West won the World Series title in Millington, Tenn., and won the state title last summer in Yountville, Calif.

Quiz answer: Cory Snyder played for the Canyon High Cowboys, the Newhall-Saugus Legion team and at Brigham Young before he was selected in the first round of the 1984 amateur draft by the Cleveland Indians.

After several superlative seasons with the Indians--he averaged 27.6 homers from 1986-88--Snyder cooled off. The Chicago White Sox last week traded Snyder to the Toronto Blue Jays, who hope he will again find the home run groove at the cozy Sky Dome. He was batting .188 with three homers and 11 runs batted in when he was traded by Chicago.

Star power: An all-star game featuring many of the best Legion players in Southern California will be held July 30 at Upland’s Memorial Park at 7 p.m. The game pits players representing Area 6 against a team composed of players from Area 4 and Area 5.

Area 6 is composed of districts 16, 20 and 24, which geographically represent Ventura County, the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, and the L.A. Basin. Areas 4 and 5 are located in Orange County and San Diego.

Exodus: Two more ballplayers reportedly have left Chaminade High for other area schools.

Right-handed pitcher Keith Evans, who will be a junior in the fall, will enroll at Crespi. Evans played on the Chaminade varsity as a freshman and sophomore and was selected to pitch in the recent District 20 all-star game.

Left-hander Ricky Staves reportedly is transferring to Chatsworth, where he again would be teammates with another Chaminade transfer, right-hander Brandon Nickens.