Age Before Average? Spokane Indians Star Tries To Move Ahead Of Younger Prospects

Anyone would be impressed by James Vida’s numbers:

A Northwest League-leading 83 hits.

The league’s second-best batting average, despite a recent 2-for-31 slump, at .332.

Twenty-seven multiple-hit games during the Spokane Indians’ soon-to-be completed short-A baseball season.

Hitting streaks of 17 and 12 games during his first 64 games.

As much as those figures scream for attention, however, the numbers often used to identify Vida are 9-13-70.

Come the 13th day of the ninth month - less than three weeks from today - Vida will celebrate his 25th birthday.

For the typical 25-year-old, the view from the NWL to the majors requires a telescope. Spokane’s parent club, the Kansas City Royals, has two Class A teams, one Class AA team and a Triple-A team in Omaha, Neb. Many or all would be normal stops on the way to the bigs. That may explain why the Royals were able to wait 22 rounds before snaring the smooth-swinging left-hander during June’s amateur draft.

“That was always the big question mark: How long do I have?” Vida said. “I guess I scared some (major league teams) away.”

How Vida came to be a 24-year-old college senior is another story.

Although he hit .430 during his high school senior year in St. Petersburg, Fla., Vida intrigued zero colleges because he was a 5-foot-10, 165-pound first baseman.

Instead of trying to prove the colleges wrong, Vida moped. The self-imposed exile from higher learning lasted three years, until Vida realized he needed college, even if it didn’t need him.

Vida swallowed his pride and tried out for the St. Petersburg junior college team. After two solid seasons, he transferred to Florida Southern, which this year won the NCAA Division II title.

Vida, two inches taller and 30 pounds heavier, finally attracted the scouts. The Royals took a chance, although Vida was available to 28 teams for 21 rounds.

“(Other teams) might have been looking at the fact that he was a college senior and wasn’t drafted his junior year,” said Spokane batting coach Cliff Pastornicky. “If you (draft) into the 20th round and get lucky, you get lucky.”

Vida’s first two appearances of the NWL season were three-hit games against Yakima. The hitting hadn’t let up until a recent tailspin. The high point, in July, included the 17-game streak and a notation as the league’s player of the month.

Vida said it was no coincidence that his torrid streak began with the arrival from Florida of fiancee Holly Fairchild.

“You have coaches teaching you to hit,” he said, “but when there’s a love of your life with you in some place you’ve never been, it helps you to go on.”

The two plan to marry in November of ‘96, after Vida has completed his second season in professional ball.

Where the New Jersey native will play next season is another matter. Vida, sensing time’s chariot drawing near, would like to jump to AA. Unfortunately for him - and fortunately for K.C. - the Royals farm system is loaded with star first basemen, including last year’s first-round draft selection, Matt Smith of Grants Pass, Ore.

“Now (Vida) just has to do it at a higher level,” Pastornicky said. “But (the top prospects) all have to play each day.”

“If they want me to progress in their organization, they’re going to have to start pushing me through,” Vida said.

The NWL days are dwindling. As the Indians prepare for their final 10 games, Vida has a chance to catch Boise’s Danny Buxbaum and regain the batting lead the Indians’ clutch hitter relinquished this week.

“He has a pretty good approach, and the ability to put the ball in play,” Pastornicky said of his pupil.

“If figure if I can start well here, it’ll look good in other people’s eyes,” Vida said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo