Thursday, May 14, 2009 Updated: August 6, 4:16 PM ET
Mendonca continues his upward trend
By Ryan McGee ESPN The Magazine
One year ago, if you'd heard of Tom Mendonca you were likely either:
A) From Modesto, California. B) A Fresno State baseball season-ticket holder. C) Someone who really, really likes guys who strike out a lot.
One year later, it's hard to find someone who hasn't heard of Fresno State's third baseman. Just ask Mendonca.
Tom Mendonca has become well-known since last year's College World Series.
"Yeah, it's kind of crazy," the 2008 College World Series Most Outstanding Player said in a tone that was polite yet so laid back you almost expected him to nod off in the middle of the sentence. "After Omaha, I went to Europe with Team USA, and on July 4th we went down the red light district in Amsterdam just to see if it was worth the hype. We're trying to lay low, you know, and this guy says, 'Go Fresno! You're Tommy Mendonca, right?'"
Now coeds come to Beiden Field with homemade posters bearing marriage proposals. Kids line up for his autograph. And scouts line up down the third-base line to see if his throw to first is as strong as everyone claims.
Funny what two weeks impersonating Brooks Robinson will do for a guy's profile.
As the now-legendary '08 Fresno State Bulldogs made their stupefying march to the CWS title, Mendonca quickly became the embodiment of what that team was all about. He was a crusty, unshaven son of a blue-collar San Joaquin Valley family who played top-shelf baseball with a right hand full of dislocated fingers, an injury suffered at the start of the NCAA tournament. He spent the regular season setting the NCAA single season strikeout record (97) and then spent the postseason burning down the most storied programs in college baseball. Everything he did was so beautifully ugly. Even his CWS MOP trophy was delivered as a smashed pile of rubble (the NCAA sent him a new one).
"They certainly had other players who had a great tournament," North Carolina coach Mike Fox said when asked about the team that eliminated the Tar Heels in the CWS semifinals. "But the guy none of us will ever forget was the third baseman. About the fourth time he robbed of us a hit, I know he was forever burned in my mind. He was the hero, no doubt."
What he was not, however, was a flash in the pan.
[Fresno State] certainly had other players who had a great tournament. But the guy none of us will ever forget was the third baseman.
--UNC coach Mike Fox, on Tom Mendonca in the CWS
During a season when Cinderella seems to have lost her slippers -- Fresno has lost 13 of its past 21 games -- Mendonca and his healed right hand has taken the momentum of last June and managed to ride it all the way into this spring, earning a spot on Baseball America's midseason All-America team. The junior is hitting .335 with 22 home runs, 67 RBIs and 137 total bases. Thanks to what he describes as "going back to elementary school" on his swing, he's cut his strikeout total nearly in half with 51. And he set another record in April, one that's been a little easier to enjoy -- becoming Fresno's all-time home run king when he hit his 44th home run.
"He's never rattled," proud pop and former dairy farmer Ray Mendonca said last summer from his truck, en route from his water service delivery job to a league softball game. "When they finally lost a game in the College World Series last year [to UNC in the first semifinal], his mother and I went running out to meet him at the bus, ready to do all this emotional damage control. He just looked at us and went, 'What Dad? We're fine.' That's Tommy."
"Tom is always loose and always in control," said Fresno State coach Mike Batesole, with whom Mendonca has had a sometimes contentious relationship. "We look for a certain type of personality to fit in with our program. He embodies what we're looking for."
That explains the ease with which the 21-year-old took over the team leadership role from last year's senior-heavy core that included All-American outfielder Steve Susdorf.
Mendonca's 51 career home runs at Fresno State are the best in program history.
"I think people learn more from pictures than words," Mendonca said when asked to illustrate his leadership style. "I might pull a young guy aside and talk to him, but I'm not going to give a big talk. I'm a teammate first. If I was in this just for me, then I'd go be a golfer or something."
Mendonca's easygoing influence has been especially crucial in molding sophomore shortstop Danny Muno, who gained fame in 2008 as a freshman phenom who wore a too-big ball cap. Muno and Mendonca roomed together on the road during the first half of last season, a period of time that Muno freely admits had a huge impact on his ability to handle the pressure of being thrust into the starting lineup as an 18-year-old.
This year, Muno leads the Bulldogs in both hitting (.368) and errors (26) and is the assumptive on-deck team leader.
Heading into 2009, it wasn't a stretch to figure that Mendonca would be keeping that job for one more year. But his CWS showcase -- now backed up by a hot 2009 -- has had the family phone ringing off the hook with big league reps seeking to gauge Mendonca's interest in entering the June 9 MLB draft.
But for now, the King of Fresno doesn't want to talk about the pros.
First, he has some leading to do. And perhaps even a season to save.
"The price we are paying for what we did last year is that now we're the biggest series on everyone's schedule," Mendonca said on Wednesday from the team bus. "But this year's team is so much younger than last year's; it had taken a toll on us."
This weekend Mendonca will have to guide that young team through its biggest test of the year, a test that will determine whether the season keeps going or ends with a thud. Fresno must win three out of four on the road at Sacramento State just to earn a chance to defend its WAC tournament championship. Anything less means an all-too abrupt end to the Bulldogs' title defense.
One year ago, the team caught fire in May, sweeping through the conference tourney and building the momentum that took an unranked team and left it in a dogpile on the Rosenblatt Stadium infield. This year, the Bulldogs will need to summon more of that magic to even make the postseason.
In typical Mendonca fashion, he doesn't seem too worried about it.
"We've been here before. Not everybody on this bus, but a lot of us. We still have a title to defend and we just have to win ballgames now. We have to close out ballgames, which we haven't been doing. If we do that, we get to play more next week. And if we do it next week, we'll get to play more after that."
Ryan McGee is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. His new book, "THE ROAD TO OMAHA: Hits, Hopes and History at the College World Series," which chronicles the excitement and passion of the CWS, is now available.
