Positioned to Succeed

James Loney recalls the game as being “weird.”

The Dodgers blew a five-run lead but won, 19-11. Brad Penny was hurt. And Loney, who hadn’t started in 25 games, found himself the unlikely hero.

He drove in nine runs, tying Gil Hodges’ 56-year-old franchise record. He hit two home runs, including a grand slam.

That game last September in Colorado was probably something that happens once in a lifetime -- “The stars were all lined up, there was probably a full moon that night,” Manager Grady Little said -- but for Loney, it came at the right time.

“It felt great,” Loney said. “I wasn’t playing that much, you know.”

Doubts regarding his place on the team have since vanished. With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the 23-year-old Loney returns to Coors Field today as the team’s everyday first baseman and No. 3 hitter. He has been their biggest bat in their biggest games, hitting .475 with five home runs in the last 10 games.

“I’m feeling like I belong out there,” Loney said.

He was far less certain of that this spring. His .380 average at triple-A Las Vegas was the best in all of minor league baseball last season, and he had played well in his three call-ups to the majors.

But J.D. Drew’s departure had the Dodgers scrambling for power. They re-signed Nomar Garciaparra, who had hit 20 home runs last season, and made him their starting first baseman. Loney, who had hit only 12 home runs between the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and the majors, was sent to Las Vegas.

Loney acknowledges he was disappointed. But he didn’t sulk.

Sulking wasn’t an option for Loney. His father, Marion, was always around to make sure of that. Marion, a former college baseball player, coached him from the time he was in Little League to when he played summer ball in high school.

“I always used him as an example when I was coaching the kids,” Marion said. “I would punish him and he didn’t like that, so he learned how to listen.”

Listen. Shut up. Play hard.

By mid-June, Loney was back in the majors. Within a couple of weeks, he had forced his way into the everyday lineup, resulting in Garciaparra’s move to third.

Little said Loney came back a different player.

“He had that big game in Colorado, but he had some tough times last year too,” Little said. “He grew from tough times much more than he did from that game in which he had nine RBIs. He learned how to deal with the tough times. He’s had tough times this year too, but they didn’t last as long.”

Such as when he batted .244 in August, only to come back to hit .421 with five of his 11 home runs this month. In 83 games this season, Loney is batting .330 with 54 runs batted in.

“It looks to me that he’s elevating the ball better,” General Manager Ned Colletti said. “He’s elevating and driving the ball, not just driving.”

Part of that comes from the time Loney spends on MLB.com reviewing video of his at-bats.

“He’s always been a good listener,” his father said. “He likes to learn. He wants to learn.”

Loney was an honor roll student in high school and Maury Wills said that Loney’s mental acuity is obvious. Wills, the best baserunner in Dodgers history, is an instructor with the club and likes to quiz the young players on what they would do on the basepaths in certain situations.

“James Loney, he’s like that,” Wills said, snapping his fingers. “James Loney’s got answers immediately, which tells me that with 56,000 fans in the stands, he’ll have it. I impressed upon James that you could be the slowest runner on the team but be the best baserunner. James Loney can’t begin to run as fast as Matt Kemp, but, at this point, he’s a better baserunner.”

But everything Loney has done in pro ball came close to not happening at all. Back in high school, there were other kinds of questions about where he belonged.

Loney was a top-rated pitcher at Lawrence Elkins High in Texas, a left-hander who could throw in the low-90s. Loney had the potential to reach the majors as a pitcher, Dodgers assistant general manager Logan White said.

That changed on Feb. 9, 2002, the first time White saw Loney.

White was the Dodgers’ new scouting director at the time. He and Chris Smith, a Dodgers scout, went to see a scrimmage in the Houston area.

Scott Kazmir was there. So was Chris Everts, Kazmir’s teammate at Cypress Falls High who would be picked fifth overall in that year’s draft.

White saw Loney drive a down-and-away pitch from Everts out to left field.

“You see a kid with that kind of swing and power and you get excited,” White said.

White and Smith agreed: Loney was a position player.

White said his convictions deepened when advisor Gib Bodet phoned with a report on Loney. Bodet told him Loney could be a Gold Glove winner.

Loney’s father said that only a few other teams were interested in him as a pitcher. A projected second- or third-round pick, Loney was taken 19th by the Dodgers.

“To be honest, I was so naive,” White said. “I didn’t realize it would be scrutinized so much.

“Friends in the business were calling me. Not only did we draft him too high, they said, we took him at the wrong position.”

White is still waiting for another one of his predictions about Loney to be realized, this one regarding his power.

“The kid will hit 30 home runs in the big leagues,” White said. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think he’ll do that when he’s 25, 26, 27.”

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