Cook calm in Harper’s wake

Tim Chambers makes a straight line with his finger. Just draws it in the air.

It is the symbol for a player mature enough to be the guy hitting behind The Guy. It represents balance, experience, levelheadedness.

It defines Trent Cook. A straight line.

On any other team, at any other community college, in any other season, Cook's numbers might open eyes and make headlines.

But when your name sits one spot beyond that of Bryce Harper, the nation's best amateur baseball player, you sort of get used to the whole anonymity thing. You sort of accept your fate as the stagehand supporting the star.

The College of Southern Nevada opens play in the Junior College World Series on Saturday in Grand Junction, Colo., and while Harper is the primary reason for the Coyotes being this close to their second national championship, even the much-hyped 17-year-old destined for riches couldn't have led CSN this far by himself.

Even if some would have you believe he could.

Harper had plenty of help, and one who has more than done his part is Cook, a sophomore first baseman from Centerville, Utah, who has thrived where others struggled.

Greatness is often impossible to match, but some hitting behind Harper's No. 3 spot earlier this season still tried to equal his production, hit for hit, blast for blast, YouTube clip for YouTube clip. They most often failed.

Cook has a different approach.

"He is the perfect guy for that spot," said Chambers, in his 11th season coaching CSN. "He gets it. He understands. He is just so even-keeled. He has that balance in his life. He is just right here."

The straight line.

Chambers is drawing it again.

Cook's is a perspective of being 22 on a team of mostly younger players, of having played a season of ball at Yavapai College in Arizona before departing for a two-year Mormon mission in Finland, of not slipping on a glove or picking up a bat or throwing a ball during his time abroad, of knowing who he is and what he is capable of and not pretending to be something more.

Of putting up these numbers: .375 batting average, 81 hits, 13 doubles, seven triples, eight home runs, 60 RBIs. Of fielding his position at a 1.000 clip.

"To be honest, I was shocked (the skills) came back so quickly after (the mission)," Cook said. "I was nervous arriving here in the fall, not sure about my agility in the field and having not seen a live pitch in more than two years. But (Chambers) believed in me, and that helped me believe in myself.

"I think we all know the guy hitting in front of me is basically a freak of nature who can do it all."

Cook hadn't heard of the phenom before deciding to attend CSN, hadn't seen the YouTube clips of those gargantuan home runs, hadn't read a thing about the high school kid from Las Vegas who had major league scouts setting up camp like it was some long summer retreat. Cook didn't know a thing about Harper.

"Then the Sports Illustrated article came out on him and I thought, 'I might be playing with a future major league Hall of Famer and the No. 1 overall pick,' " Cook said. "I think we all understood that having Bryce here would mean a lot of exposure for our team, and it worked out that way. A lot of us have been seen more because of him. It has been good for all of us."

Cook is a great example. He will play Division I baseball next year. Nebraska and Mississippi State are interested. So, too, would UNLV be if Chambers packs up his boxes and moves across town to assume control of the struggling Rebels program, as many assume he might.

First, though, there is a World Series title to chase.

One night seven years ago, in the same venue where CSN will play over the next week, a 15-year-old sat in the stands and watched the Coyotes capture the national championship. Trent Cook was in Grand Junction with a youth team from Utah.

"That's where my relationship in terms of knowing about (CSN) really began," he said. "It was the first time I had heard of the school."

The circle is nearly complete. The guy hitting behind The Guy will no doubt stay within himself and hope to continue producing, because that's what straight lines do when there is so much at stake.

They represent balance, experience, levelheadedness.

Trent Cook in a nutshell.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618.