By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Kamehameha catcher Dane Sardinha got the call from
the Kansas City Royals this morning.

Sardinha
picked by Royals

The Kamehameha catcher goes
in the second round of the
major league draft

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

---

Dane Sardinha, the 6-foot, 200-pound Kamehameha Schools catcher, was selected 59th overall this morning by the Kansas City Royals in the second round of baseball's annual amateur draft.

He was the second catcher taken and became only the second Hawaii-born player since 1979 to go that high. Mark Johnson, who pitched for the University of Hawaii but hails from the Midwest, was a first-round pick last year.

Sardinha had just finished showering and brushing his teeth in his Peawini Place home in Kahuku when he took the phone from his mother, Darneen, shortly after 8 a.m.

"Congratulations on being a Royal," said the voice on the other end, Gary Johnson, a West Coast scout.

It was about a half hour after Sardinha had opened his eyes long enough to turn down what most people can only dream of being offered -- a 7-figure signing deal with the Cleveland Indians, who'd picked him 41st overall in the ''sandwich'' round, between the first and second rounds. "I hope we don't regret that," said Darneen, who woke her son to let him make the decision.

But Dane Sardinha had been projected widely -- even in the East Coast media -- as a first-round pick and he had one of baseball's toughest agents, Scott Boras, on his side.

Boras has called Sardinha the best catch-and-throw prep prospect since Charles Johnson of the Florida Marlins.

Plus, Sardinha has a strong bargaining chip -- a full scholarship with Pepperdine.

He said he will wait to see if Boras can work at least a degree of the magic he has worked in negotiating top signing bonuses for players like Matt White (Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 1996, $10.2 million) and a long list of other free agents. But he said he would be perfectly happy fulfilling his letter of intent with Pepperdine and taking the chance that he'll go higher in the 2000 draft.

Sardinha didn't wake up until 7:45 a.m. today, about five minutes after the first round of the draft ended.

The Marlins called during the first round, just as they said they would, but not to draft him.

Scout Dave Finley called to apologize for not taking Sardinha in the round (they went for a junior college pitcher instead) and asked him if he'd be interested in hanging around for the second round.

But the Marlins' pick was 64th, and not as attractive as Kansas City's.

Sardinha, who was graduated on April 25 from Kamehameha with a 3.1 cumulative grade point average, said he wondered if the fact that his batting average in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu had slipped from .500 in 1996 to .443 this year and his home run output was down from eight to six (not to mention that the Warriors did not make the state tournament) had something to do with his not being taken in the first round after so many projections from scouts, agents and media people that he would.

Sardinha said he also wondered if earlier threats by clubs who said they would pass him by if he hired Boras had been carried out. But Kansas City was one of those clubs, so Boras could not have been the whole reason why Sardinha dropped to the second round.