A Stirring Comeback by Favata Continues Full Circle : Scrapper Sam Returns to a Spot Where It Began

The inspiration that used to come in the mail after an appearance on “That’s Incredible” is now delivered by the pitching of Eric Schumaker, the hitting of Steve Prudolme, the fielding of Terry Woods and the various talents of about a dozen other high school baseball players. It still comes in bundles, though, and twice a day if there is a doubleheader.

The Sam Favata success story has come back to Edgewood High School in West Covina, back to where his career first took off, back closer to family and friends. If he couldn’t be in the major leagues, there probably isn’t a much better place for him.

In 1974, when he was 14, Favata played on the West Covina team that won the Pony League World Series at Springfield, Ill. In 1976 and ‘77, he was the starting second baseman on the Edgewood team that won two straight Southern Section 3-A titles.

He went to Cal State Fullerton, was named a college All-American as a sophomore outfielder, then hit .417, stole 66 bases and was an All-American second baseman on the ’79 team that won the College World Series. He turned pro after being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers.

On July 5, 1981, playing for the class-A Stockton Ports, he got four hits against Modesto, raising his average to .255. He also led the California League in stolen bases with 52 in 58 attempts. The nickname of Scrapper that he had picked up at Fullerton fit him better than ever.

He would soon need every bit of that grit for his biggest success of all--the comeback.

The next night, in the twilight at Modesto, he led off and quickly got behind on the count, 0 and 2. He expected a curve but instead got an 87-m.p.h. fastball. The pitch hit the helmet over his left temple. The ball bounced back to the pitcher. Favata fell in a heap.

He tried to get up, but couldn’t. He tried to speak, but his words came out so slurred that those crowded around him couldn’t help but laugh.

Thirty minutes later, he was on his way to the hospital with a fractured skull and a blood clot in the brain. Doctors hoped that the clot would dissolve, but it didn’t, so the next day he underwent a 2 1/2-hour operation. That saved his life, but no one knew at the time whether he would be able to walk and talk.

More than a year later, on July 17, 1982, he did walk--back to the plate to resume his career.

With “That’s Incredible” on hand in preparation for a feature, he came up in the bottom of the second as the designated hitter and was greeted by a standing ovation from the crowd of 6,000 and a wink from the mound by Fresno pitcher Bill Bordley.

Bordley fired a fastball over the outside part of the plate, and Favata, about 65% recovered from the injury, responded with a line single to right.

“Everyone was shocked,” Favata recalls. “I know that because it shocked me.”

He was never the same player again, though, and his career was soon over. Still, he wasn’t ready to give up baseball. There were jobs with the Brewers as a scout, as an instructor at the Grand Slam USA academy in Anaheim Hills and later as the junior-varsity coach at Garden Grove High.

Finally, last month, on March 1, he put the Edgewood uniform back on, with the same No. 2 he had been wearing practically all his career, and began his first season as a varsity baseball coach.

The Trojans had only two starters back from last year’s team, which had made it to the 3-A semifinals, which was picked to finish third or fourth in the Valle Vista League and which lost another key player 15 games into the season with a groin injury.

But today, with Covina Northview coming to Edgewood for a game at 3 p.m., Sam Favata and the Trojans are leading the way again. They are in first place in the league with a 9-1 record and have a 14-5 overall mark. The team also bears the mark of Favata. The Trojans are scrappers who have stolen 78 bases in 88 attempts, breaking the school record set in 1977, Favata’s senior season.

Favata is still not fully recovered. Numbness and two-minute seizures in the right hand remind him that he may never be 100%. But being around youngsters and baseball has been good for his spirit, and seeing him on the field can’t help but evoke a question: Has recovering from brain surgery ever been more fun?

I think you are very helpful. I showed my uncle Henry the autograph and he was craze about it. My sister is craze about you. I think that you and Rod Crew are the best baseball players. I know you won’t believe me it is true. I think that that was unbelieveable what they did to you on your operation on your head. How many kids do you have? I think you are rad. your friend, Sylvia

Sam Favata may forever be 13 and playing on a warm Saturday afternoon at West Covina’s Mustang Field. Fielding grounders or getting on base for the team slugger, Tom Brunansky, it was great just to be out there.

It’s sometimes hard to distinguish exactly where he is now. Favata is 26, drives a BMW and commutes from his day job at Grand Slam USA to the San Gabriel Valley almost every day to work with teen-agers. But he is still known to make prank phone calls to his father every now and then, and he certainly did not take the job at Edgewood out of need or some petty loyalty to the alma mater.

As much as anything, he took it for himself.

“It makes me live,” he said. “It makes me tick. This is my No. 1 priority, except my family and being a good person. . . . This is what it’s all about. These are my ups, my downs, my mediums, my everything. Everything right now is based around my players and the feeling of winning and losing and seeing how successful our players do.

“To see the same look on the face of a 17-year-old that I did before is great.”

Which is why he is feeling pretty good these days. Two starters, shortstop Prudolme and third baseman Archie Hernandez, are both hitting over .400, and two other players are over .350. Schumaker is 6-1 as a pitcher, and sophomore Javier Guerrero, who had two at-bats before David Crosby went out with a groin injury, had 9 hits in his first 12 appearances after becoming a starter.

So much for this being a rebuilding year at Edgewood.

But before the season even started, Favata heard the whispers that he would never be successful as a high school coach, that his own abilities as a player meant that his expectations would be too high.

But if anything, his father, Joe, said during a recent game, “Sammy has been too easy on the kids.”

Somewhere between the two points, things have worked out OK.

“You go to the games and talk to the old-timers and the people who have been watching the games in the area for a long time,” said the Edgewood principal, Dr. Don Banderas. “They remember Sam as a player and they say this club is just like Sam was when he played, scrapping all the time. I think that would be the highest compliment anyone could give the group.”

Said Cal State Fullerton’s coach, Augie Garrido: “I think it may have taken him some time to gain his balance and direction. But his love for the game and his love for the kids make it a natural for him to be fulfilling his baseball dreams this way. It all makes sense now.”

Dear Mr. Sam Favata,

I thought really deeply about what happened to you and I thought you were really terrified about what happened. Well my brother has a brain tomer. We where all afraid that he would die. Are docter said he would die in 6 months but a miracle happened (and) he got better. . . . he still has a little problem its that his left side of his face is paralized, but if it doesn’t go away in two or three years they are going to operait. Then he’ll be alright. But were still afraid and I love him alot. Sincerely, Jenny P “It seems that God has a plan,” Favata says. “I’m no Billy Graham, don’t get me wrong. But I believe in God. He’s the one who got me out of this whole thing.

“Maybe I don’t agree with Him all the time. I wish we could have talked for a couple of minutes before that (getting beaned) happened. But I accept it, and now I can do something and touch some people and that’s what it’s all about. How many people can do that?”

When he was still bald from the pre-surgery head shave and just starting the rehabilitation, he walked--it was really more of a stagger--to the park and scared some kids. One called him E.T. Because of the horseshoe-like scar on the side of his head, someone else called him a Baltimore Colt.

He has a full head of black hair now and no problem walking, but there is still a bit of the colt in him. Sam Favata is starting to run.

“When he told me that only one or two starters were coming back from last year, I told him he picked the wrong year to take the job,” Joe Favata said. “But he told me, ‘That’s what I like about it, Dad. It’s a challenge.’ ”

Dear Mr. Favata,

Thank you for coming to life skills. your film was great. Thank you also teaching about sportsmanship and to never give up. Sincerly Heather D