Bordow: Wallace one of ASU's best ever

The best hitter in college baseball should have thrown his cap into the garbage a long time ago.

It is covered in sweat stains, on the rim, in the back, along the sides. On a sticky day, it arrives long before Brett Wallace does.

"I stay as far away from it as I can," Arizona State baseball coach Pat Murphy said. "I only talk to him when his hat is off."

Wallace knows how nasty his lid looks. But he's worn it for three months, through 53 games, and look at his numbers: a .409 batting average, 19 homers and 77 RBIs.

What's that Crash Davis said in "Bull Durham?" Oh, yeah: "A player on a streak has to respect the streak."

"I don't like changing things too much," Wallace said. "I don't want to take any unnecessary risks."

Risks? He should talk to the pitchers who throw him a ball he can hit.

Wallace is on the verge of becoming the first Pac-10 player to win back-to-back Triple Crowns. He also ranks first in the conference in on-base percentage, runs scored, hits and total bases.

When Wallace turns pro after this season - the third baseman is a likely first-round pick in the June amateur draft - he'll be regarded as one of the greatest pure hitters in Sun Devil history, alongside names such as Bob Horner, Mike Kelly and Oddibe McDowell.

"What he's done, it's amazing," Murphy said. "He's special."

Murphy loves to tell the story of Wallace's recruiting trip to ASU. The two men sat in Murphy's office, and Murphy looked Wallace straight in the eye.

"Can you hit?" Murphy asked.

"Yes, I can," Wallace replied.

"Can you hit as a freshman?" Murphy said.

"Yes, I can," Wallace responded.

"And it was authentic," Murphy says now. "I believed him."

It's not easy to improve upon a Triple Crown season, but Wallace has done just that. He's raised his batting average five points, from .404 to .409, and he has 41 walks after walking just 28 times all of last year.

"I think I've matured a lot as a player," Wallace said.

The reason for that maturity? Failure.

Wallace went 0-for-12 in the College World Series last summer and in ASU's elimination game against UC Irvine, he grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and one out in the 10th inning.

The 0-fer didn't torment Wallace as much as it taught him. He realized that he was trying too hard to be the hero, to hit a three-run homer every time he had a bat in his hands.

He came back for his junior year a more disciplined hitter, one who has put up those monster numbers despite seeing so few fastballs on first pitches he can "count them on one hand."

"A lot of that maturity level is because of what happened in the College World Series," Wallace said. "People then were starting to pitch me with the game plan of, 'We're not going to let him beat us, so he's going to have to chase bad pitches.'

"Pitchers are really trying to make me work, so I think this year I've definitely done it with more of a bull's-eye on my chest."

Said Murphy: "He chose to learn instead of letting it beat him. That's why this kid is a champion."

A few weeks ago, Wallace started a blog on mlb.com entitled "2008 Draft Prospect Blog." He talks about the team and its travels and how hard it's been not to be distracted by the upcoming draft, what with everybody wanting to know which team he'd like to play for and what he's going to do with all that money.

(He's not sure, other than he plans on taking a trip with teammate and good friend Ike Davis).

Wallace hasn't written about his cap yet. He probably won't. Because of, you know, the risk.

"But I'm not superstitious," Wallace said.

Right.

-

Listen to Scott Bordow every Monday at 2:25 p.m. on The Fan AM 1060 with Bob Kemp.