JANELLE STRAWSBURG
Staff Writer
It’s the day every athlete dreams of. The hour every baseball player anticipates. It’s the most nerve-wracking minute for one pitcher, shortstop, centerfielder. The one sentence that could catapult him into the one dream he has been chasing his whole life.
“In the second round of the 2007 first year player draft the Arizona Diamondbacks select…” His breath stops, that split pause seemingly lasts an hour…. “Barry Enright, a right handed pitcher from Pepperdine University, Malibu, California.”
Taken 73th in the 2007 draft, Barry Enright can now breathe a sigh of relief as the celebration begins.
“Draft day was about the most nerve-wracking day I’ve ever had,” Enright said. “ I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I expected to go a bit higher in the draft and when it kept going I was getting pretty nervous.
“And then it was a sigh of relief when we heard our name, and my mom rushed to the mall to buy all the D-backs stuff she could find. You know how moms are.”
There were plenty of excited Pepperdine moms this year as nine players from the Pepperdine baseball team were taken in the 2007 major league draft — a school record. Junior right hander Enright led the team, the Friday starter enjoyed a successful career with a 35-8 record and a 3.44 ERA in his three years at Pepperdine. Nipping at the heels of Enright was shortstop Danny Worth who was drafted 91st overall by the Detroit Tigers.
“Freshman year I never would have thought I could have ended up here,” Worth said. “It wasn’t until my junior year that it became a reality. Then it hit me and people started talking and I thought that I could do this, I could be one of those guys.”
As members of the highly touted recruiting class of 2004, the seventh best in the nation, it is no shock that this year had the greatest number of Pepperdine players taken in the draft.
Joining Enright and Worth were centerfielder Adrian Ortiz, taken in the 5th round by Kansas City; pitcher Adam Olbrychowski, taken in the 5th round by the Yankees, pitcher Jason Dominguez taken in the 31st round by the Houston Astros, pitcher Dylan Gonzalez taken in the 31st round by the St. Louis Cardinals and right fielder Donald Brown, taken by the Seattle Mariners in the 37th round.
Also drafted were: senior Robert Della Grotta by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 37th round and sophomore transfer Eric Thames by the New York Yankees in the 40th round; senior left fielder Luke Salas joined the Texas Rangers mid-summer.
With the dominance of the Pepperdine program the past several years in the WCC, it should come to no surprise that these Pepperdine stars are already making waves in the minor league system.
After starting in short season A ball in Yakima Wash., Enright flew to South Bend, Ind. for a few games until Aug. 21. He then was moved up to high A with the Visalia Oaks. Currently taking it easy to rest his arm after a grueling year, Enright is expected to pitch more than 200 innings this year.
After signing with the Tigers Worth immediately moved to High A ball to play for the Lakeland Flying Tigers in Florida, where he batted .260 and hit a single off of three time Cy Young Award Winner Pedro Martinez. On Aug. 30, Worth received the call up to Double A to play for the Pennsylvania Erie Seawolves as they enter into playoffs.
This summer Dominguez spent time in Troy, N.Y. for short season A ball. Playing for the Tri-City Valley Cats he was named Pitcher of the Month in July for pitching 11.2 scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts and recording four saves. Dominguez is back in the classroom at Pepperdine this fall during off season to work toward finishing his degree while still competing as a professional athlete.
“I’m trying and getting lucky,” Dominguez said. “Being a pitcher it is better for me because of the wood bats hitters have to use. It is tougher for these guys having to adjust to something new. I’m finding pitching to be easier now, maybe I’m just weird, but I’m not complaining.”
After learning he was drafted by the Royals, Ortiz hopped on a plane from his native Puerto Rico to head to Idaho Falls to play for the Chukars. Similar to his time playing for the Waves, Ortiz is playing centerfield and batting lead off in the line up, and adjusting well to his new team as evidenced by his .302 batting average.
“Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to play in the big leagues,” Ortiz said. “You just want to get to the bigs, at the time you have no idea of the process on how to get there but then you realize what we are doing here is the process to get there.”
Ortiz’s ultimate goal is still the same, but something has already changed dramatically.
“Now when I watch SportsCenter it is different,” Ortiz said. “I’m trying to get there now, now it’s my job. I’m getting paid for it. It is the perfect job. To get paid for what I love, it’s something I would do for free.”
However while the dream of the majors is on the forefront of every minor leaguer, these Waves know the journey to the majors is a difficult one.
“A lot of the time it is like groundhog day,” said Luke Salas, outfielder for the Spokane Indians. “You wake up and you do the same routine over and over. If you didn’t love it, it would be hard.”
Dominguez agrees with Salas.
“It’s weird because it has always been about going to the next step,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking about pro at all and then Danny and Barry started talking about it, and next thing we all got drafted which was awesome, but there is still a long way to go to the ultimate goal.”
Head Coach Steve Rodriguez knows the challenges his former players will face. After helping the Waves win the 1992 College World Series as the second baseman, Rodriguez spent seven years in professional ball.
“I constantly tell them that it is now a career and they need to approach it as that or they will be fired, or released as it is called in baseball,” Rodriguez said. “You have to give it your all because there are no second chances. It is a grind, and it takes a special mindset and willingness to put your life on hold for this career because it can consume you. It is a ladder of successes and failures.”
And with four of their starting nine this past season moving on to the minor league system, the Pepperdine Waves are looking to fill the ranks with the 18 new players they welcomed this fall.
“We lost some very talented athletes in this draft,” Rodriguez said. “They did great things for our program, but this new group is very talented and we are excited to work with them. We have some of the best talent in the country and that makes our job fun.”
While these athletes may have moved on to different teams, the lessons they learned and the friendships they made while playing for the Waves remain as they chase down their childhood dream.
“Adam Olbrychowski and Bob Della Grotta are in the same league as I,” Dominguez said. “And it was weird because they were on the other team but I was cheering for each of them. It is a completely different atmosphere but still playing against those same guys, it is nuts to me.”
Enright feels the same way.
“It is fun seeing the different level of competition and seeing players you played against in college. But it is different now because now it is your job, you get paid to play well so you better play well,” he said. “Baseball in college wasn’t as much of a job, it was more about the team and your teammates. It is two different worlds, but I enjoy both of them.”
Whether it is Eddy D. Field in Malibu or McDermott Field in Idaho Falls, whether it is with old friends or new teammates, each of these athletes continue to dream of grabbing their glove and running out onto a major league field and playing the game that has captured their hearts since childhood.
“There is a positive and negative side to pursuing your dream,” Worth said. “The positive side is when you go 2 for 4 and make a good play in the field and you think I can really do this, then the next day you go 0 for 4 with an error and you think how am I ever going to make it with so many good players? But you have to realize that is just the game of baseball.”
And as these boys of summer continue to swing for the fences in pursuit of their dreams, their presence will no doubt be missed in Malibu.
09-06-2007