Returning a Favor : Johnson Faces Mentor, Friends at Northridge

Eric Johnson knows the sentiment he would like to express but he is not sure how he will convey it--or even whether he will.

What he would like is to thank Bill Kernen, Cal State Northridge’s baseball coach. “I’d like to say, ‘You took me to that next level I needed to go in every facet of my life,’ ” Johnson said.

Johnson would prefer to express his appreciation after showing his former mentor just how well he has developed as a player since leaving Northridge to enroll at Cal Lutheran after the 1991 season.

When Cal Lutheran (1-1) travels to Northridge (7-0) today for a 2 p.m. nonconference game, Johnson will get his chance, weather permitting.

For the teams, the game marks a renewal of a rivalry. But for the Kingsmen’s switch-hitting left fielder and first baseman, it means something more. It is a homecoming of sorts.

Several of the players Johnson broke in with at Northridge still play for the Matadors: Mike Sims is in his fourth season as catcher, Andy Hodgins has made the transition from outfielder to shortstop and John Bushart has evolved from a mop-up reliever to a starting pitcher.

And Johnson? He’s doing fine too. A .263 hitter at Northridge, Johnson batted .335 with eight home runs, 19 doubles and 40 runs batted in as a junior last season for Cal Lutheran.

Johnson says he does not regret his decision to transfer. He said he needed to “get away to a little smaller school and a different atmosphere.”

“There’s no bitterness,” he said. “I’m excited about going back and I hope I have a good game. That’s all. I still talk to the guys there, they’re friends, and I hope they do well.”

As a freshman at Northridge, Johnson played in 60 of the team’s 61 games and batted .284 with four home runs, 15 doubles and 29 RBIs while reaching base safely almost 40% of the time. But the following season he appeared in only 35 games, batting .216 in 97 at-bats.

The last time Johnson spoke with Kernen was almost two years ago, when he told the coach of his plans to transfer. Johnson said Kernen was unemotional during the conversation and wished him well.

“I have no hard feelings at all,” Johnson said. “I hope he doesn’t, either. I praise the guy a lot. The stuff I know from him is pretty valuable information.”

Johnson said he left Northridge with a strong work ethic and mental toughness already ingrained. He finds it difficult to relate when one of his Cal Lutheran teammates complains about an inconvenience or minor injury.

“With Kernen, you had no excuses. You had to be at your best every day,” Johnson said. “You have to grin and bear it sometimes. Physical, mental, whatever your slump is, you have to overcome it and take your level of performance one notch higher.”

In January, during a weeklong stretch when Cal Lutheran practiced three times a day, players were required to sleep in a classroom. Some players complained about their accommodations. Johnson, who survived far more taxing conditions at Northridge, said the Kingsmen’s living conditions were, by comparison, “luxury.”

“We were in the biggest classroom on campus,” he said. “It’s carpeted, cushioned carpet. It’s well-heated. We had a huge, 15-by-15-foot wide TV screen with a VCR . . . it was very comfortable.”

In a similar weeklong practice session with the Northridge team, Johnson had to be content with a sleeping bag on the concrete floor of the team’s cramped and dank locker room.

“It was cold in there, and damp and crowded,” Johnson said. “The classroom (at Cal Lutheran) was about four times the size of that room at Northridge.”

Of his time at Northridge, Johnson mostly remembers the hard work. He recalled a practice game against Valley College in the fall of 1990, before his sophomore season.

“We just worked them, something like 28-4,” Johnson said. “Then, after the game, we had to run five miles in 45 minutes. But not everyone made it. So then we lifted weights for about an hour and went back and ran it again.

“By the time we were done, at about 11 (p.m.), I just knew there was no one on earth--other than maybe the Navy Seals--doing something like that. I mean, we’d just won--by about 20 runs!”

Johnson said the fall of his freshman year was “the toughest time of my life.” And he has a checklist to support that claim:

“Waking up early for six o’clock weightlifting. The noon-to-7 practices. The 8 (p.m.)-to-10 (p.m.) study halls. Those were some bad days, some sleepless nights. I’d wake up in a cold sweat, get something to drink and wake up again having to do it all over again. He’d check on us to make sure we were in class. It was a tough life back then.

“It didn’t get easier until the spring. He was right when he said that 2-2 1/2-hour games would be a cakewalk. Thank God for game days.”

The hard work, Johnson said, developed “a toughness” on the team. “I’ve done some things in my life, physically and mentally, that I know other people haven’t done because they weren’t there,” Johnson said. “You develop an edge. The harder you work the more convinced you become you’re the only ones doing it.”

The sacrifices resulted in a 83-40-1 record in Johnson’s two seasons at Northridge. He has some fond memories from the end of his freshman season.

Johnson’s impersonation of Kernen was the highlight of a team party in the Matador clubhouse after Northridge had defeated Cal State Los Angeles to clinch a Division II playoff berth.

“Everyone was like, ‘Do it!’ ” Johnson recalled. “I was like, ‘No way. I’ll never get in the lineup again.’ But I did, and he was back there chuckling. He thought it was pretty funny.

“That’s the reason I’m looking forward to going back. I have a lot more good memories than bad memories.”