Chuck Lofgren gazed at the sports hall of fame plaques on display in the hallway at Junipero Serra High and read aloud some of the names. Tom Brady. Lynn Swann. Barry Bonds.
“Maybe I’ll be in there in a couple of years,” the former Padres baseball star said Friday. “I’d love it. We’ve got pretty good tradition here.”
The 2004 Serra grad almost certainly will join that group when he becomes eligible in another four years. Sunday, however, Lofgren will become the San Mateo school’s charter member in a different kind of exclusive club.
Lofgren, a top pitching prospect in the Cleveland Indians system, will play in the Futures Game, which kicks off All-Star week at AT&T Park.
As the only Northern California native selected to the annual prospect showcase, Lofgren, 21, has become the unofficial ambassador for this year’s event. He agreed to film a video diary for baseball’s minor league Web site, MILB.com, and the Burlingame native spent most of Friday leading a virtual homecoming tour.
Cameras followed Lofgren from his childhood home to Serra to his favorite sandwich shop for lunch. Then it was downtown San Francisco and a stop at Pier 39 and a cable car ride. After an appearance at Fan Fest, he finished with dinner downtown at Lefty O’Doul’s.
That capped an exhausting 24 hours for Lofgren. Thursday night, he pitched six innings for the Double-A Akron Aeros in Maryland. He was up at 4:30 a.m. to catch a flight out of Baltimore.
“It’s been a whirlwind, but I love every moment of it,” said Lofgren, who is scheduled to pitch no more than one inning Sunday. “But this is so much fun to be able to do this, and to do this in my hometown is amazing.”
Lofgren’s family couldn’t be happier for their son’s midseason homecoming. To this point, the 2004 draft pick’s professional homes have included locales in North Carolina, Ohio or New York. This is the first time his parents, Pam and Chuck, will be able to watch their son play on the West Coast since the summer of 2004.
“We were the bleacher parents. You get so used to going to watch him play that you kind of go through withdrawals,” Chuck’s mother, Pam, said. “This is definitely more special because it is at AT&T Park. Somewhere back in our minds, I think we always wished he could play for the Giants and be close to home.”
So do Lofgren’s friends. Since being named to the Futures Game last month, Lofgren received nearly 200 requests for tickets.
Lofgren is one of the most highly decorated players to emerge from the Bay Area in recent years. He was a three-year star for the powerhouse Serra program, both as a pitcher and a hitter. He was the best hitter on the 2003 U.S. junior national team. Scouts and general managers flocked to Serra to see Lofgren.
“He was probably the most exposed kid I’ve ever had, in terms of national exposure,” said Pete Jensen, Serra’s varsity coach since 1984.
The exposure and expectations haven’t hurt Lofgren, who last month made a fill-in start at Triple-A and is vying to become the 11th player in Serra history to play in the majors.
The 6-foot-4, 215-pound left-hander has emerged as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. Last season, he won 17 games, tied for the most in the minors.
But heading into the 2004 draft, Lofgren’s future was one of the most highly debated in recent memory. Lofgren was widely considered a first-round talent, but scouts were divided because to that point he was more polished as a hitter and something of a project as a pitcher.
Lofgren fell to the fourth round. Some teams were scared off because he said he would attend Santa Clara University if he wasn’t taken in the first two rounds. Others wavered because he wanted to play outfield and pitch.
Cleveland targeted Lofgren as a pitcher and signed him to first-round money (a nearly $1 million signing bonus). He was occasionally served as a designated hitter in rookie ball until he was involved in a home-plate collision.
Lofgren said he misses hitting, but he has blossomed since being a full-time pitcher. Lofgren set the Serra record with 322 strikeouts in 228 innings, but was inconsistent with his velocity and often was wild.
Lofgren also struggled with his control in his first season as a pro and posted a 6.04 ERA. The following spring, the Indians kept Lofgren in extended spring training to work on harnessing his 94 mph fastball and a new grip on his curveball.
The results since have been dominating. In 2005, he had a 2.81 ERA and vastly improved command. Last season, he had a 2.32 ERA and struck out 125 with 54 walks in 139 2/3 innings.
Coming into this season, he was rated the Indians’ No. 2 prospect by Baseball America. Although his 4.18 ERA is the highest in three seasons, Indians officials view him as a big part of the franchise’s future.
“It may not look on paper as good as it did last year, but he’s learning a lot,” Akron Manager Tim Bogar said. “He’s a young kid. He’s got lots to learn. We’ve got time, but I have a feeling he is going to be helping the Indians at some point.”
