Local is an offensive power
WESTWOOD It’s game time and the stands in Jackie Robinson Stadium are noisy as usual — children laugh as they chase after foul balls, regulars chat and catch up with one another, and those watching the game mutter under their breath, disagreeing with an umpire’s call.
Preparing on deck, Cody Decker engages in his pre at-bat ritual, consisting of wiggling the bat in front of his face and kicking each leg up six times.
“Normally, if I go to the plate, I don’t hear anything,” said Decker, a sophomore first baseman and occasional left fielder for UCLA. “I’m not thinking anything. I just react to what the pitcher does.”
But though he’s on automatic pilot, in the back of his mind, Decker knows he has the support of his family, watching from the stands after a quick drive from Santa Monica.
“It’s special to play close to home all the time with my family able to come and watch,” Decker said. “I grew up in Santa Monica so it’s fun to see Santa Monica Little League kids come to games and ask me for autographs because I did the same thing when I was in Santa Monica Little League.”
A product of the Santa Monica public schools system, Decker grew up in north Santa Monica, attending Franklin Elementary School, Lincoln Middle School and later Santa Monica High School, where he graduated in 2005.
Cody’s older brother by seven years, Jesse Decker taught his little brother the game of baseball when the Bruin slugger was only 2 years old. The elder Decker took his brother outside and handed him a wiffle bat, holding practices with the light yellow plastic bat for two years.
When Cody Decker turned four, his older brother Jesse handed him a baseball and made him pitch until he could strike his older brother out.
It took Cody Decker a while to whiff his brother, but once he did, it was his time to take the bat.
“He either wanted to teach me how to play baseball or he was bored and wanted to play baseball,”Decker joked about his older brother.
A year later at 5 years old, Decker joined Santa Monica Little League, starting out with t-ball and moving up the ranks.
It was during little league that Decker and his teammates took occasional trips to Jackie Robinson Stadium, becoming a UCLA baseball fan in the process, though his family were USC Trojans fans at the time.
“I love UCLA and so does my family,” Decker said. “Except for my uncle, he maintains he will never root for UCLA football, but will for UCLA baseball.”
He stayed on the little league team until high school where he spent one year on the freshman/sophomore team and three years on varsity.
College came knocking on the door and Decker entered talks with several schools. He quickly became disillusioned with the recruiting process, disappointed that he had been lied to repeatedly by some of the schools. One of the main reasons he chose UCLA, besides the proximity to his home, was because “they were the most honest of anybody,” he said.
MORE SUPERSTITIONS Athletes are known to be superstitious and Decker is no different.
Aside from his pre at-bat ritual, Decker will also listen to the same song every day before a game until the Bruins lose. Currently he is listening to several Guns N’ Roses songs, including “You could be mine,” and “Ain’t it fun.”
“I already know them by heart and I’m dying to get a new song to listen to,” he said.
FIELD OF PROFESSIONAL DREAMS The greatest part of the game for Decker, and probably most baseball players, is winning.
The worst? “Dealing with frustration because it’s a game where if you fail 70 percent of the time, you’re a good player and that’s frustrating,” he said.
Some of his best performances happened in Pacific 10 conference games.
Last year against USC, Decker went two for three in one game and hit two home runs in the entire series. This year at Stanford University, Decker hit three home runs during the weekend and swept the Bruins’ Northern California rivals.
“Cody has tremendous power, the guy we felt could come in and hit as a freshman,” said third year head coach John Savage. “When he uses the whole field, he’s a tough out and he’s an offensive hit.”
Playing in the major leagues is a dream of any young aspiring baseball player. For Decker, who grew up a fan of Eric Karros and Mike Piazza, his dream would be to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Boston Red Sox, two of his favorite teams.
The time will come when Decker will make a decision about joining the Major League Baseball draft along with thousands of college baseball players across the country, but for now, he’s focusing on college baseball and achieving a degree in film studies.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 16, 2007. Read the original PDF.