West Covina Dukes
LaPuente, California
(Age: 13-14)

Manager: Douglas DeFrates, a mechanical-drafting teacher and varsity assistant baseball coach at Bishop Amat High School, has coached youth baseball for 20 years. During the summer he coaches the West Covina Dukes team, which was founded in 1989 and competes in the Los Angeles County league. His assistants are Andy Angelo, Bob Lamb, and Mike Viera.

Organization: The Dukes' purpose is to "better prepare already gifted young men for high school baseball."

Although Dukes players end up playing on a dozen area high school teams, DeFrates thinks of the Dukes as a Triple-A farm team for Bishop Amat.

About a third of the summer team's players return to play for the Dukes each year.

Philosophy: "We stress five basic baseball rules," says DeFrates. "And they're simple."

1) Players must move their feet, get in front of the ball, and catch it on every defensive play.
2) If a player makes an error, he must stay under control and make the very next play properly.
3) Players must hit the cut-off man by throwing through him.
4) Pitchers must throw strikes.
5) To move runners, hitters must bunt the ball on the ground, make contact on a hit-and-run, hit behind a runner, and make two-strike adjustments at the plate (i.e., choking up on the bat half an inch; squeezing the top hand more than normal; and getting the head of the bat through the hitting zone and hitting the ball up the middle, rather than trying to pull the ball to put it in play).

"Our first four rules are defensive," says DeFrates. "Unlike any other sport, in baseball the defense has control of the ball, and controlling the ball wins games. You can't defend against a walk, which is a lost opportunity to get an out. The perfect inning would be three pitches and three ground balls."

"Unlike football and basketball, which require playing with lots of emotion," DeFrates says, "baseball demands poise and control. Most of the game is mental, anticipating the next play, and acting on instincts, plus hustle."

Finances: The program operates on a $15,000 annual budget. Players pay $110 each, and the coaching staff and parents raise about $5,000. Fund-raising and hosting tournaments account for about $4,000, and concession income accounts for the balance.

Measures of success: The Dukes have claimed two county championships, six southern California championships, several AABC regional titles, and they came in third in the AABC's 1991 Sandy Koufax World Series and second this year.

Some 30 percent of his former ball players play in college, DeFrates says, and about 45 percent of them have a 3.0 or better GPA.