Players in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League aren’t supposed to hit .400. It’s never happened before, and in the three full years, no one’s even been close.
But Mike Celenza does a lot of things he isn’t supposed to do.
The College Park Bomber and 2006 Quince Orchard High grad is having an unbelievable second summer in the league, picking up right where he left off at the end of his first. In 2007, he led all Ripken Leaguers with a .357 batting average, the third-highest total in CRSCBL history. That’s served as merely a warm-up for what he’s done this summer — through last Sunday, his sweet left-handed swing had produced an unheard of .409 average through 28 games (30 points higher than the nearest competitor), not to mention a league-high .656 slugging percentage (over 100 points higher than anyone else) and a league-best 22 runs batted in. He was also leading the league in doubles (11) and was tied for third in home runs (4).
And to think, this is a guy who didn’t even get any Division I college offers.
‘‘The knock on him is that he doesn’t have a good body,” said Bombers head coach Gene Bovello. ‘‘You know what my answer is? Neither did Babe Ruth. First of all, he’s faster than you’d think — we play him at third base, and he moves around really well for his size. He’s just a natural hitter; he does it all. If this guy’s not a Major League talent, than I don’t know what the hell these scouts are looking at.”
Forget the fact that his hitting seems to only get better with a wooden bat, which of course, is used in professional baseball rather than the aluminum that’s used in college. This is a player who, as Bovello says, hits the ball at an elite level. In fact, the Ruth comparison runs deeper — though obviously on a less-significant level. At Quince Orchard, he was nicknamed ‘‘The Babe” for his powerful lefty stroke and his big frame, which he used to hit .533 during his senior year. He was the 2006 All-Gazette Player of the Year, leading the Cougars to the Class 4A state semifinals.
The only thing ‘‘holding him back” was his size. At 5-foot-11 and a stocky 215 pounds, he doesn’t look like the Alex Rodriguez’s or Barry Bonds’ of the world, trim and chiseled. Consequently, despite obviously having the talent to compete at a Division I college, or even in the professional minor leagues, Celenza is a rising junior at Salisbury University. The Sea Gulls have a storied baseball tradition in their own right — this season, they went 41-4, which included a 35-game winning streak — yet it is a non-scholarship D-III program.
That’s why his success in the Ripken League has been so validating, proving he can play with the country’s best, and then some. Surprisingly, he doesn’t even argue his supposed flaws, though everyone else that knows him seems to.
‘‘I don’t think it’s overrated — to look at how someone looks to judge them as a player,” he said. ‘‘I think yeah, sometimes talent can get overlooked. I always thought I was good enough to play D-I. I do think one knock on me that I agree with is I don’t look like a Major League player, and it’s one thing I’m trying to work on. I’ve always had quick feet, I try to jump a little rope every day, do cone drills, go out and lift, whatever.”
The obvious truth about Celenza is that he’s a natural hitter — even scouts would agree on that. Though more of a line-drive hitter than a pure power player, he raps line drives one after the other, and has a terrific eye to boot. Even more impressive than his hitting average is his unreal .521 on-base percentage, which also leads the league by a substantial margin, and the fact he’s only struck out 11 times in 117 plate appearances.
What’s not so apparent, but just as true, is that Celenza’s a better athlete than his frame might indicate. He has decent speed, and is plenty mobile enough in the field. Primarily a first baseman in college, he often plays at third base for the Bombers, and his .952 fielding percentage lends credence to his agility.
Basically, he can pretty much do it all — at least, he can do everything required to play at a high level. He’s a pure hitter, but just as importantly, a good athlete.
‘‘He moves extremely well — he’s much faster than he looks,” said Salisbury head coach Doug Fleetwood. ‘‘He’s by no means a liability in the field, not even close, and that’s what I think can surprise some scouts. When he got here, one of the things we worked on was his defense, and he’s gotten tremendously better.
‘‘Let me tell you, Mike Celenza is just a terrific player. Someone will pick him up.”
And that’s what he hopes for. That’s why he’s in the Ripken League again, arguably the best hitter the league has ever showcased, among all the D-I players and those that have gone on to the professional ranks.
‘‘The goal is to play at the next level,” Celenza said. ‘‘I’m not going to hit .400 in this league, the pitching’s too good. But if I can just keep playing, hopefully when the time comes, maybe I can get signed somewhere.”
Notes: Of the 50 players in the league with enough at-bats to qualify this year, only 12 were hitting better than .300, 23 were batting below .250.
