Young one of county's all-time great sluggers
By Stephen Dorman sdorman@theacorn.com

Dmitri Young was born in Vicksburg, Miss., on Oct. 11, 1973.

Young's father was stationed at Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu, and he grew up in Oxnard, attending Rio Mesa High from 1988 to 1991.

At RMHS, where he played for current teacher and former coach Richard Duran, Young was a four-year varsity baseball player back when the Spartans were still competing in the Channel League. He was a teammate of current Rio Mesa head coach Dave Soliz.

In high school, Young developed a reputation as Ventura County's most feared hitter.

"He was a god," said Washington Nationals backup first baseman Robert Fick, a Newbury Park High graduate who was a year younger than Young in high school. "To this day I can't remember a more highly touted player coming out of the area."

Mike Lieberthal, a backup catcher for the Dodgers, said Young used to hit in the batting cage at his house when he was attending Westlake High in the early '90s.

"Dmitri was a strong kid," Lieberthal said. "Robert (Fick) and Dmitri were two of my best baseball buddies."

Following a senior season in which he batted .425 with 11 home runs, 31 RBI and was named to the USA Today High School All-American team, Young was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals as the fourth overall pick in the 1991 First-Year Player Draft.

Twelve years later, in 2003, Young's brother, Delmon, who starred at Camarillo High, was the No. 1 overall selection by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Today both are in the major leagues. Their parents still reside in Camarillo.

Although the brothers' names can still be found all over the California baseball record books, Dmitri Young admits Delmon had the better high school career.

"He definitely did," Dmitri Young said. "He won a CIF championship as a junior. That does it right there."