JJ SAYS: Torkelson better than Bonds?

Casa Grande graduate Spencer Torkelson never made it to the Little League World Series, but a College World Series may be in his future.|

The 2012 Petaluma National Little League went all the way to Williamsport and the Little League World Series, exciting an entire community. It was, without doubt, the greatest Little League team ever to come out of Petaluma and perhaps all of Northern California. It was loaded with talented 12- and 13-year-old players who have gone on to leave their mark on Petaluma high school baseball.

What most have forgotten is that the National League team almost never made it out of Petaluma. It was beaten in the District 35 tournament by the Petaluma Valley League All-Stars.

Fortunately for the Nationals and history, the district tournament is a double-elimination affair; the Nationals rallied to beat the Valley twice and advance.

The rest is history, but the season - and Petaluma baseball lore - came very close to being very different. Who knows what would have happened if an almost equally talented Valley team had been the one to move out of Petaluma. There were also many excellent players on that team. The best of the bunch - indeed the best player in the tournament, with all due respect to the great National League stars - was Spencer Torkelson.

I was once asked who was the best high school athlete I ever saw in Petaluma. I demurred. After all, I didn’t arrive in Petaluma until the late ’70s, and there was a gap of almost 30 years when I stepped out of sports to cover city councils, cops and political squabbles in Oregon and Marin County. However, I did see my share of outstanding athletes in all sports. I’m not going to start dropping names, because I would surely leave many out, hurt many feelings and embarrass myself.

As an aside, I will go out on a limb and say the best high school football player I ever saw was Petaluma High’s John Ramatici. I have never seen a high school player who combined such pure athleticism, physicality and love for the game in the same package as Ramatici.

Torkelson has a lot of those attributes, although his chosen sport is baseball. He did play football at Casa Grande. In fact, his willingness to play on an injured foot in a Casa playoff game is reminiscent of something Ramatici would have done. However, Torkelson’s first love and best sport has always been baseball.

He is now a freshman at Arizona State. To say he is off to a good start in his collegiate career would be akin to saying the Grand Canyon is a sink hole.

Through 20 games, Torkelson has 10 home runs. The Sun Devils as a team have 15. He is tied for the team lead with 20 RBIs and is batting .299.

Torkelson is now only one home run away from tying the team record for home runs for a freshman and still has 36 games to play. The freshman home run record of 11 is held by a fairly decent hitter named Barry Bonds.

Torkelson was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 27 through March 5. In five games against Oklahoma State and Long Beach State, he had a .500 batting average (8-of-16) and a 1.250 slugging percentage. Six of his eight hits were for extra bases, including three home runs.

Torkelson and the Sun Devils will be at Stanford for a weekend series on April 13-15.

Torkelson may not have been on the right team to go to the Little League World Series, but there may well be a College World Series in his future.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)

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