A Lesson Well-Learned Too Many Defeats To Count Taught Gu’S Stokey To Appreciate Winning

Adam Stokey has losing down.

OK, maybe not as well as the Red Sox and Cubs. But after eight straight years of watching teammates boot balls and strike out against stuff that wouldn’t fool Mr. Magoo, Stokey could give seminars on head hanging and hard-luck losses.

Winning is where he needs some lessons. After all, when you spend most of your life stranded on third, it’s hard to figure out how to react when you finally start to cross home plate.

“It’s strange really,” said the Gonzaga sophomore. “Every team I ever played on was really mediocre and now this.”

Yep, this season the Bulldogs are about as far from mediocre as Bud “First Pitch Flop” Selig is from Roger Clemens. The Zags (20-15-1, 9-7) have won nine of 10, six of their last seven in the West Coast Conference, and are 1-1/2 games behind No. 9 Pepperdine for the lead in the Coast Division of the WCC. This is also the first time the Bulldogs have had 20 wins since 1996.

And Stokey is right there in the middle of it all. The first baseman is leading the team in slugging percentage (.752) and total bases (107). He is tied for the lead in home runs (13), second in batting average (.367) and second in RBIs (49).

You might think that would expand the cap size on someone who hasn’t won since Cascade Little League back when he was 11. But Stokey lost so many times, for so long, he has quickly learned to appreciate winning.

“He’ll call up here after a game and just say `Dad you can’t believe how great it is, guys here get the hits when they have to get them and make the plays they have to make,”’ said David Stokey.

This is coming from a kid who hauled a Steinway of responsibility throughout most of his career. He always had to get the hit or make the play.

He usually did. Well, there was that one time when he was 13, got some dirt in his eyes and struck out.

“He said he couldn’t see the seams,” said his father. “A kid that age looking for seams. That doesn’t happen very often.”

Breakdowns didn’t happen very often either. But there was that one, after a tournament when he was 15. He had to let people know the pressure placed on him by the team and himself was too much and this was his way.

“It was always tough on him,” said Dave Shoup, who coached Stokey in high school and Legion ball. “It’s always going to be hard when you are not winning a lot.

“But Adam always did a good job of putting it in perspective,” Shoup continued. “He always got his teammates to work hard and then he would work even harder than they would.”

Sure, that’s always the way with competitive athletes. But usually there is a payoff. That’s what Stokey was missing.

His team wasn’t winning, but even worse was the fact that he wasn’t even drawing a sniff from pro scouts or Division I programs.

“I was completely baffled and I know how the whole thing works,” said Shoup, an ex-Washington player. “They weren’t even looking at him when he was hitting a ton.”

By a ton, Shoup means that year Stokey carried a .700 or better average through much of the season at Mountain View High School in Vancouver.

“But then every time somebody would come see me play I would never do well,” said Stokey. “But I tried not to question it. I just figured my time would come.”

It looked more like his time was running out. Heading into a Fourth of July tournament in Spokane, Stokey had all but settled for walking on at Washington State. That meant the swing he’d been developing with a plastic bat since age 2 would primarily be used in midweek and developmental games.

But it just so happened that the tournament was being played at Gonzaga. And it just so happened that a Bulldogs coach was there watching.

A home run, a double and a few RBIs later there was a scholarship offer and a new future in baseball.

“I finally did well with a coach watching, looking back on it now, it is kind of like me coming to Gonzaga was meant to be,” Stokey said.

All this winning the Bulldogs are doing, that kind of seems a little kismet as well

“This is how it is supposed to be,” Stokey said.

Sounds reasonable. Besides, no one wants Cascade Little League to be considered the pinnacle of his career - especially Stokey.