Rothford bent on winning (TW)

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By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

5/25/2006

The Golden Eagle's left arm was broken during his birth, but the injury hasn't affected his baseball play.

Chad Rothford's baseball career took a weird turn on the day he came out of the womb.

Rothford, Oral Roberts University's massive first baseman -- a 6-foot-5, 275-pound, switch-hitting slugger -- suffered a broken left arm during delivery that, to this day, is bent at a near 45-degree angle.

Believe it or not, Rothford says he thinks his angled arm helps stabilize his swing as a left-handed hitter. It definitely depletes his power as a right-hander.

"I've had my brother sit on it, but it won't straighten at all," Rothford said. "They wanted to rebreak it when I was 18, but I just have come so far with my baseball career, I just kept it."

Rothford and the Golden Eagles open Mid-Continent Conference Tournament play at J.L. Johnson Stadium on Thursday at 7 p.m. against Centenary. ORU (35-14) is the regular-season champ and No. 1 seed; the Gents (23-28, 11-11) are seeded fourth.

In Mid-Con Tournament play, the Golden Eagles are 27-1 and have won 18 in a row. ORU has won eight Mid-Con crowns and probably needs another to get an automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

"If we drop a couple here in the tournament," said ORU coach Rob Walton, "(the NCAA selection committee) might just say, 'To heck with those guys,' and leave us out."

Rothford on Wednesday was named the Mid-Con's player of the year and co-newcomer of the year with teammate Andy Bouchie. Although Rothford is in a bit of a slump, he ranks among the league leaders in virtually every major offensive category, including a .339 batting average (11th), 11 home runs (tied for third) and 51 runs batted in (first).

ORU has won 25 of its last 28 games after a slow start, and Rothford, a junior from Fresno, Calif., was at the heart of the team's turnaround. When ORU lost to San Francisco on March 26 to fall to 10-11, Rothford's batting average hit a season-low .206. Since then, however, he's batting .417 and has hit eight of his 10 home runs.

Rothford's size is imposing. He has the physique of a defensive tackle and the swing of a Bunyanesque lumberjack. Rothford's stature has scared away scouts, too.

"It's always been a problem for me, cutting the weight," he said. "I've tried a lot of things to do it. It's the hardest thing ever. That's actually the reason why I haven't gotten drafted high in the past, because of that problem.

"When I was in junior college, a lot of colleges would come in and look at me and they'd say I was too big. Coach Walton looked past that and saw the athleticism I have for a big guy."

Said Walton, "I thought he was the best guy at that position in the state of California at the junior college level. He's a big guy who's a very, very good athlete. I don't look necessarily at the weight. I look at the athlete, the skills and can he play."

Baseball runs in the family. Rothford's older brother Ryan was a catcher at Missouri. His dad played pro ball, and so did a handful of uncles. One played for the Detroit Tigers. His mother coached him in little league, and his father coached him after that, including two years in juco.

If Rothford isn't drafted this June, he said he won't play summer ball this year, instead working on dropping his weight to around 250. He'll also rehab a sore knee.

The knee has slowed him down more than his broken arm ever did.

Turns out his mother's doctor was on vacation and another doctor was called in for Chad's delivery. It was a traumatic event for the family, his father said.

"They didn't cast it when he was younger, they actually left it," Jim Rothford said. "The doctor said the problem was he was too large and it was actually nerve damage, not so much a broken arm. It was very upsetting."

But Rothford adapted. He sometimes feels self-conscious about it, turning his left side away from the camera if possible, or putting his left hand in his pocket.

"At first I just thought he was walking around like that, like he's one of those tough guys with his arms out," said ORU second baseman and roommate Jake Kahaulelio. "We tested it out. We laid down on it, we pushed it down. I guess you can play through anything, y'know?"

Apparently so.

"He hit 23 home runs when he was 10," Jim Rothford said. "I think he hit something like 66 in four years from the time he was 9 to the time he was 12."

Most of those came as a left-hander. Seems the bent left elbow keeps his swing in its power position. This season he's hit nine of his 10 homers as a lefty.

Thanks, doc.

"I just wish he'd have helped me out right-handed," Rothford said.

"He doesn't get as much extension from the right side, swinging through the pitch," said Walton. "But from the left side, I don't think it alters his swing at all."

Rothford said his teammates don't miss an opportunity for good-natured jabs.

"If I barely miss a fly ball or if I barely miss a pickoff or something, guys say, 'Well, if that arm was all the way straight you probably would have got him,' " he said. "They're like, 'Straighten your arm out.' It is straight. It's not bent to me. It just looks bent. It is bent to everybody else, but that's just the way my arm is."