YARD-STICK OF SUCCESS
Love it or hate it, Rancho coach tells his Little Leaguers how it is
Mike Trout connects in first inning for the first of his two homers, and the first of four by the Angels in a 5-1 win over Baltimore at Camden Yards.
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — C.J. Ankrum is as hard and direct as a fastball under the chin.
“I would not describe C.J. as warm and fuzzy,” his wife, Mindy, says. “He’s not.”
So if you’re satisfied with good instead of great and don’t mind getting a participation ribbon instead of a gold medal, he’s probably not the guy you want coaching your child’s Little League team. That’s OK, Ankrum probably doesn’t want your kid anyway.
“I’m not there to win medals and all kinds of trophies and stuff like that,” he says. “I’m there to push them to the next level, [to] play against the best competition. A lot of the people that might have an issue or a problem, it’s because they’re jealous because they don’t play for me.”
The level of competition Ankrum’s team is facing this week is the best a 12-year-old can aspire to, with his Rancho Santa Margarita AllStars meeting Greenville, N.C., on Sunday in a secondround game at the Little League World Series (11 a.m. PDT, ESPN).
Rancho, 17-0 this summer after beating Walla Walla, Wash., in its World Series opener Friday, figures to get a big test from North Carolina, which had three pitchers combine on a perfect game in its opening victory over Sioux Falls, S.D. Sunday’s winner advances to the U.S. semifinals.
Although Ankrum, 41, sounds arrogant, he’s not. Nor is he overly apologetic.
But he is honest, something he reminds you of by peppering his conversation with the phrase “to be perfectly candid.”
And if you can’t handle the truth, well that’s on you.
“Everybody thinks their son is going to be a professional and they think they’re the next Lou Gehrig. They absolutely aren’t. The percentages are not in your favor and they need to enjoy it while they can,” Ankrum says, speaking from experience since his once-promising professional career ended after one season.
“I’m very intense and I get into it. And people have their own opinions of how I am as a coach.”
Ask the parents of the Rancho players — and Ankrum is one of them since his middle child, Tyler, plays second base and bats leadoff — and many are supportive.
“He was born to be a coach,” says Holly Novek, whose son Jonas is an outfielder on the team.
Privately, however, some take issue with Ankrum’s intensity. Ankrum was suspended from the West Regional championship game earlier this month after an ESPN field microphone caught him swearing. In another game, he pulled a player in the middle of an inning after an error.
Ankrum apologized for the first incident and said the second one was misunderstood. He benched the player for not hustling after the ball the boy booted, not for the error itself.
“My boys and my daughter have been on teams where even if there’s huge errors made, the coaches are still ‘Oh, you’re the best.’ C.J. is not like that,” Mindy says. “He has a lot of expectations. That’s why the boys have come this far.”
Unfortunately, the criticism overshadows other aspects of Ankrum’s coaching style. He insists his players, from stars to subs, polish their cleats before practice and rake the field after it. In Williamsport, the team has thanked each cafeteria worker after every meal.
And after Bobby Gray and Bryan Ramirez hit batters in Rancho’s World Series opener, both pitchers walked to first to apologize to the boys they plunked.
Those lessons in humility and discipline, more than even the winning, is why seven of the 13 players on the Rancho Little League team also play on Ankrum’s travel team. Some have been with him more than four years.
Ankrum’s no-nonsense style isn’t one he invented, but one he copied from Cal State Fullerton’s Rick Vanderhook, who was an assistant when Ankrum helped the Titans win the 1995 College World Series.
“I’m the spitting image of Vanderhook,” he says.
Ankrum’s parents divorced when he was young, so he grew up in Saratoga, Calif., playing for other kids’ fathers. When he got to Fullerton, Vanderhook pushed him relentlessly — and Ankrum quickly learned to embrace the challenge.
“I love the fact that he doesn’t coddle people and he doesn’t make you feel comfortable,” said Ankrum, who was a freshman All-American at Fullerton. “When somebody rides you hard and they’re pushing you, that’s because they care and they see you have potential.”
More than two decades later, the two remain close. And Vanderhook is as proud of Ankrum’s success as a father, coach and businessman — he owns a residential real estate firm in Orange County, which allows him the time off to coach — as he is of the dozens of former Fullerton players who have gone on to the big leagues.
“C.J. coming back and passing on what he learned is extremely satisfying,” Vanderhook said. “That’s a big deal. Baseball’s a small part of it.”
But it’s a part Ankrum isn’t ready to give up. Although he plans to quit Little League baseball when his youngest son, 10-year-old Blake, turns 13, he’s not ready to quit coaching.
“I don’t want to be a billionaire,” he says. “My dream would be to be a college coach. The college level is where … they get the intensity. The parents are no longer a factor.”