Dirtbag
invited to represent Team USA
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
It
is not everyday a player receives a phone
call from his coach to give him good news.
So you can bet Cesar Ramos, a pitcher with
the Long Beach State men’s baseball
team, was surprised when he heard a message
from LBSU assistant coach Troy Buckley.
“I
heard the message so I called him [Buckley],”
said Ramos. “I had no idea what he
wanted to talk to me about. I thought it
was something to do with pitching practice.
Then he said, ‘congratulations, you
have been invited to tryout for Team USA.’”
“It
was kind of a shock. It came out of nowhere.
I was happy. I called my parents and they
were just as excited as I was. It was just
a great day for me. It made everything seem
easier. I didn’t want the day to end.”
Ramos,
a sophomore on the LBSU baseball team, was
one of the first 19 players around the country
to be called up for tryouts to represent
Team USA this summer at the Baseball World
Championship in Taiwan. Ramos, a Pico Rivera
native who began playing baseball at the
age of seven, was the only Mexican-American
to be on the list of invitees of the very
best players from all across the nation.
The tryouts will be held from June 20 to
26 in Durham, N.C. The U.S. National Team
will invite an additional 17 players for
tryouts. Of the 36 total players invited
to the camp only 20 will get the honor to
represent Team USA in the summer.
Ramos
is the fifth straight Dirtbag, and ninth
overall, to be extended an invitation to
try out for the U.S. National Team. Former
Dirtbags that have played for Team USA include
Bobby Crosby in 2000, Jeremy Reed in 2001,
Abe Alvarez in 2002 and Jered Weaver in
2003.
Weaver
played for the U.S. National Team last summer
setting a Team USA record with a 0.38 ERA
and 45.2 scoreless innings of pitching on
his way to a silver medal at the 2003 Pan-American
Games. Alvarez played on the U.S. National
Team in 2002 at the World Championship in
Italy.
Ramos,
a 6 foot 2 inch left-hander who counts a
fastball, curve ball, slider and change
up in his pitching repertoire, is second
on a pitching rotation that includes college
baseball’s current best player and
former Team USA member Weaver. Weaver is
by far the best pitcher in the nation and
has a record of 13-0 with a 1.29 ERA this
season. Weaver is the 49ers’ all-time
strikeout leader punching out 381, surpassing
Ricky Biddle’s mark of 361 set in
1997.
What
does “The Dream” say about teammate
Ramos having the opportunity he had last
year when he took the U.S. National Team
to a silver medal at the 2003 Pan-American
games?
“He’s
awesome,” said Weaver. “He’s
been pretty unstoppable for us this year.
He has a really good shot [at making Team
USA] if he just keeps doing what he’s
doing.”
What
Ramos has been doing is having a great year
for the No. 8-ranked Dirtbags.
The
former El Rancho High School standout is
9-3 with a 2.01 ERA and has struck out 71
batters this season. Ramos currently has
15 wins in his career with the Dirtbags,
a career he didn’t think would be
possible when he was younger.
“I
always dreamed about playing college baseball,
but I didn’t know it would ever happen,”
said Ramos. “I thought it was just
one of those dreams that you have as a kid
growing up.”
Even
Ramos father can’t believe the accomplishment
of his only son.
“I
never imagined this would happen,”
Ramon Ramos said. “I’m extremely
happy my son has the willingness to play
baseball and to come out ahead in life.”
Cesar
has been playing baseball ever since he
started walking. His dad, who played baseball
for many years in his native country of
Mexico, taught his son how to play the game.
“Baseball
really caught his attention as a young child,”
said Ramon. “He would always watch
and tell me if I could take him to go play
and I did.”
But
the young Cesar had some trouble with the
game early on. His father Ramon recalls
that the young Cesar would cry during games
and didn’t seem like he wanted to
be out there. Cesar wound up leaving the
sport that year and his dad wouldn’t
let him come back unless he promised to
be serious about it.
“I
quit playing when I first started and my
dad wouldn’t let me play again,”
said Ramos. “I had to promise him
I wouldn’t quit and after I promised
him he let me play again.”
Ramon
said he just wanted to make sure his son
wouldn’t drop out again.
“I
just wanted to scare him so that when he
decided to return to playing baseball he
would not leave the sport,” Ramon
said.
As
it turns out Cesar hasn’t stopped
playing baseball since. He’s developed
into one of the top pitchers on one of the
best college baseball teams in the nation.
“Cesar
definitely has a feel for the game,”
said Buckley. “He pitches off his
fastball well and has a good feel to locate
the ball and pitch downhill. He doesn’t
make a tremendous amount of mistakes. He
is a guy who can go through the line up.
He has an assortment of weapons that get
him through the innings.”
The
Dirtbags were ranked No. 5 last season and
were one series away from making it to its
fifth College World Series appearance before
they fell to Stanford in the NCAA Super
Regional at Palo Alto.
This
season the Dirtbags are ranked No. 6 in
the nation and are looking forward to the
College World Series.
“It’s
exciting to be here and be on a winning
team and have a chance to go to Omaha [Nebraska]
every year,” said Ramos. “We
have a bunch of great players here.”
Not
only does Ramos have a chance at the College
World Series in Omaha, but he has a shot
at representing the United States at the
Baseball World Championship in Taiwan.
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