By Greg Lewis
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Lyndsey Klein has the heart of a champion, but hers is a little
different than her teammates.
Born with an extra valve between the upper two chambers of her
heart, Klein has suffered random bouts of tachycardia for as long
as she can remember. “I would just be sitting there, and all
of a sudden my heart would start racing like I just ran a
marathon,” Klein said.
The tachycardia, defined as excessive rapidity in the action of
the heart, usually refers to a heart rate of over 135 beats per
minute, well above the normal rate of about 70. The condition came
without warning and left Klein weak, winded and faint.
Although probably not life-threatening, it put Klein’s
softball career in doubt. A tough order for somebody who was a
member of the 60-woman National Team program, looking to start at
second base for national powerhouse UCLA.
“I had already gone through two surgeries, and it
wasn’t fun,” Klein said. “They told me it would
be fixed the second time.”
While playing at Sacramento City Junior College, Klein thought
she had the problem under control, but she was wrong.
“When they told me I would have to have another surgery, I
said I didn’t want to go through it again. But when the
doctors said that I couldn’t play unless I did, I gave
in,” she said.
So on May 10, 1999, Klein was again on the operating table.
On May 15, 1999, Klein was again on the softball field.
“I missed a couple practices, but I didn’t want to
miss a game,” said Klein, who went on to set UCLA’s
single season record for games played with 69.
Klein talks about the operation and her speedy return as if it
were no big deal, but it was to her teammates. Third baseman and
roommate Julie Adams said, “I couldn’t believe it, I
didn’t even want to think about what it would be like without
her. When she told us she needed heart surgery, I never thought she
would be back so soon.”
“It knocked the wind out of me,” UCLA head coach Sue
Enquist said upon hearing about the surgery. “She has always
been so reliable, I didn’t think something like that would
ever happen to her.”
If there is one word to describe Klein, like Enquist says,
it’s reliable.
Take her numbers at the plate. Batting .373 is good, but her
.833 average with two outs and a runner on third is unreal.
Leading the NCAA Regional last weekend with a .500 average,
going perfect on the season with the bases loaded and hitting a
250-foot home run for the only score of a 1-0 game against
top-ranked Washington in front of 2,500 Husky fans and a national
TV audience spells only one thing ““ clutch.
“If the game’s on the line with two outs in the
seventh inning, I want Lyndsey Klein up there,” Enquist said.
“The good players think they can get it done. The great ones
know they can. Lyndsey knows she can.”
There’s one little quirk in Klein’s game though.
“She’s a doubles machine,” Adams said of
Klein’s knack for hitting the gaps. Last year, Klein hit a
school record and Pac-10 leading 21 doubles.
“I don’t know why I hit so many, I guess I just like
to hit the ball where nobody’s at,” Klein said with a
laugh.
“I remember when I was on the operating table after they
gave me the anaesthetic, and I kept saying to the doctor,
“˜I’m leading the Pac-10 in doubles, I’m leading
the Pac-10 in doubles …’ I don’t think Coach Kelly
(Inouye-Perez) will ever let me live that one down.”
Despite her affinity for the two-bagger ““ fully
one-quarter of Klein’s hits at UCLA have been doubles ““
Klein can still hit for power. In only two years, she has 14 home
runs, good for eighth place on the UCLA career list, and 24 stolen
bases, good for third.
“There’s no doubt that if she was here for the full
four years, the record book would look a little different,”
Adams said. “There’s no telling what she could have
done.”
Historically UCLA does not recruit junior players in any sport
because of academic situations. But with Klein, the grades were
never a problem.
“I could have gone to Washington, and Arizona really
wanted me, but I wanted to go to UCLA,” Klein said. “I
wanted to come to the tradition, and I wanted to be near my
family.”
The move paid off for UCLA as Klein was integral part of last
year’s NCAA Championship team, starting every game at second
base and acting as a pillar of stability by playing every game of
the season.
This year, with Olympians Stacey Nuveman and Christi Ambrosi
gone, Klein has been asked to take a more vocal leadership role by
Enquist, and she has responded.
“I never was much of a vocal leader, but in order to be
more visible, you have to talk more, so I agreed to do it,”
she said.
Apparently, part of her leadership role includes initiating the
team’s four freshman, Natasha Watley, Tairia Mims, Toria
Auelua and Monique Mejia. At first it started off rather
innocently, toilet-papering the freshmen’s bikes at practice
and pouring water on the seats. Then it escalated into locking
their bikes to the fence, and finally into the grand bicycle
finale.
Working in cahoots with Adams and Julie Marshall, the
team’s three seniors devised a rope and pulley system to
hoist the four bikes up onto the Easton scoreboards. The freshmen
gave up biking to practice after that.
“Then there was the time they broke into our room,”
Mejia said. “Well, they didn’t really
“˜break’ in, but they scared us to death. One of us left
our room key at their apartment, and they took advantage. At two in
the morning they broke into our suite and woke us all up in the
middle of the night. I think they almost gave us a heart
attack.”
Mejia, who will inherit Klein’s second base position next
year, still sees Klein as an incredible player and leader. “I
hope I can play like her. She’s worked with me the whole
year, and I’ve watched her from the bench and behind her in
right field. She’s an awesome player.”
Adams, who has played across the infield at third for the past
two years with Klein, appreciates her defensive prowess.
“She’s fast, tall, rangy, quick, solid. Anything you
want in a second baseman, Lyndsey’s got. Playing in the
infield, it makes me a little more comfortable at third to know
Lyndsey is right over there at second,” Adams added.
With the College World Series beginning Thursday afternoon in
Oklahoma, Klein is just a few games away from her final at-bat as a
Bruin. “I’m not even thinking about that right
now,” she said. “The playoffs are here. It’s time
to do what we came here to do.”
Whatever happens in Oklahoma, Klein knows her stay in Westwood
was more than she ever hoped for. Not that the stay is over
yet.
Enquist was impressed enough with Klein’s skills and
leadership that she has asked for her to come back next year as an
undergraduate coach. So while Klein is finishing up her history
degree at UCLA, she will continue to work with the softball
team.
Not ready to leave the game yet, Klein will continue playing
this summer with the Tampa Bay FireStix of the Women’s
Professional Softball League. She hasn’t thought about life
after the WPSL, but life without softball would be hard to
imagine.
Lyndsey Klein’s heart just won’t let her leave the
game.