In yesterday’s podcast, we had our biggest name guest to date. Although we have had legendary coaches and recognizable players, Keith Osik is a 10-year MLB veteran and has won 7 consecutive conference championships at Farmingdale State College, bringing them to a College World Series in 2009.
You can listen to the full interview on our iTunes page, but if you are more of a reader–here’s some of the highlights.
-He led Shoreham-Wading River to a New York State Championship in 1987, and called it ‘one of the best day of my life’. On the way back, he received a telegram that he was selected by the Texas Rangers in the MLB Draft. He called the entire bus ride back a ‘party.’
-He was courted by several elite baseball programs, notably Texas, Mississippi State and Auburn but chose to attend LSU after visiting campus. He never visited Mississippi State.
-The southern schools are ahead of the northern schools because of their ability to practice outside in January. He stated if a team like St. John’s came down in February to play, they ‘knew they had them’ because they had been seeing live pitching.
-The gap between the northern and southern schools has closed due to indoor facilities like Baseball Heaven and the ability for 9-year-olds to get lessons from former Major Leaguers.
-He was in a film class with Shaquille O’Neal, noting he had to face his desk sideways to fit his legs.
-He played all 9 positions in one game as part of a promotion to get fans to come down. He was tagged with the loss despite striking out five batter and walking only one. The winning run scored on a pickoff play on a ‘fake to third, throw to first’. He had never played right field before but was confident because he was a good enough athlete to make a play.
-He made his big league debut in 1996, was unsure until the final day of Spring Training if he would be going to Triple-A or the Major Leagues. He debuted at Shea Shadium in front of roughly 60-100 of his family and friends. His knees were shaking at the plate, the only time he ever had butterflies while playing. He has vivid memories of going to Shea Stadium with his grandfather as a child, eating ice cream in the stands.
-The first offseason as a big leaguer was a great feeling, being back home after grinding it out in the minor leagues. The minor leagues is much more difficult than people know, he stated.
-His favorite stadium to play in was Wrigley Field due to the unmatched tradition.
-His coolest moment was playing on ESPN, preventing the tying run to score in the 9th inning with Dan Plesac burying sliders in the dirt.
-Playing in the same division in 1998 as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa was challenging, trying to prevent them from hitting home runs.
-He was in his pool in 2005 when his agent called and asked him if he wanted to sign with the Washington Nationals–which he did.
-He was asked to coach Farmingdale State, because of his friendship with the assistant Athletic Director, which he replied ‘sure’.
-The transition was tough because of the lack of discipline of the players in regards to practice schedules. He remembers asking his assistant coach Steve Hassan ‘what did we get ourselves into?’
-He did not anticipate winning the Skyline Conference as quickly as they did (2008).
-He did not think they really could make the College World Series in 2009 and had to ask himself ‘are we really doing this?’ Veteran leaders like Rich Gilli and Brian Benvenuto were the key pieces in order to making the team gel. Other players like Tom Heeman, Frank Yera, Kevin Curtis and Zack Narcesian were main reasons they had such great success.
-He enjoys the parity in the Skyline Conference. Last year’s team was not ready to beat the two great pitchers (Anthony Papa, Joseph Murphy) from St. Joseph’s.
-This year’s team will be much-improved due to the several transfers they got.
-They were shocked Matt Seelinger was available to them. They assumed he was undervalued as a short RHP, but thought they could get him to 88-89 MPH. He was surprised by how quickly he improved.
