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.