Ross Ohlendorf Can Do Anything—Maybe Even Make the Pirates Worth Watching This Season | by Mark Bechtel
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BASEBALL Photograph by DARREN CARROLL A Breed Apart He’s just another Princeton-educated rancher who throws in the mid-90s and fell one question short of acing the math SAT. Ross Ohlendorf can do anything—maybe even make the Pirates worth watching this season | BY MARK BECHTEL ig Chief has gone missing, and Ross Ohlendorf is worried. Earlier on this January day the young longhorn rancher had dis- covered a broken gate near where Big Chief and another bull, Win- ner’s Edge, had been eyeing each other menacingly the previous afternoon. Given the Bterritorial nature of the animals, there’s a pretty good chance that they eventually locked horns—literally—and that the busted gate was collateral damage from their fight. Winner’s Edge is accounted for. Big Chief isn’t. Which is why Ohlendorf—who also happens to be a start- ing pitcher for the Pirates and one of this season’s potential breakout stars—is standing in the middle of a vast, grassy field, yodeling at the top of his lungs. He’s trying to coax Big GEOR Chief out of hiding with a cattle call that’s a cross between a G E GOJKOVICH/GETTY E birdcall and the Arkansas Woo Pig Sooie cheer. “Most people honk their horns,” he says, but instead of driving a pickup he’s making his way around his central Texas ranch in a Kawa- saki mule, a four-seat utility vehicle that lacks a horn. So the BRAND MANAGER I With Ohlendorf atop the MA pattern continues: Bellow, scan the horizon, repeat. G rotation, there’s reason to be (LEFT) ES It’s all in a day’s work for Ohlendorf, 26, the rare major bullish on Pittsburgh’s chances league player who actually puts in a day’s work during the for respectability in 2010. 40 | SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | FEBRUARY 1, 2010 SportS IlluStrated 02/01/2010 ohlendorf.l/o left PAGe 40/1 of 2 SportS IlluStrated 02/01/2010 ohlendorf.l/o right PAGe 41/1 of 2 Version: 22 01/25/2010 10:25aM SI Copydesk1 Version: 20 01/24/2010 08:30pM Bob dunn a.d./ext: ED 3035 01/24/2010 07:36pM sskalocky1271 a.d./ext: ED 3035 01/24/2010 07:36pM sskalocky1271 revise comments: OOF p. 40 for new subhead, p. 42 for edit change in second column revise comments: ART fINAL ±local read± ±Conference± ±art approval± ±HOLD:updates/Checks ±HOLD:art ±local read± ±Conference± ±art approval± ±HOLD:updates/Checks ±HOLD:art ROSS OHLENDORF off-season. With his father, Curtis (a re- After complimenting Vilsack on his ing with the idea of having Ohlendorf go to cently retired IT manager at the University arm, Ohlendorf chatted up the Secretary, an overhead windup. The plan was to ease of Texas), and his younger brother, Chad who was over the moon that a Pirate not Ohlendorf into it gradually—he’d only use it (a junior pitcher at Princeton), Ohlendorf only knew who he was but also wanted to when he and Kerrigan played catch—and then has been raising longhorns for 15 years, talk to him. A day or two later Ohlendorf implement it off the mound in the spring of and the family’s Rocking O Ranch now e-mailed Vilsack, who set him up with the 2010. But after a mediocre July start against has 300 head of cattle on 2,000 acres of internship. Ohlendorf, an all-state forward the Diamondbacks, Kerrigan sped up the land 25 miles south of Austin. at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, timetable. Ohlendorf was pitching O.K.—he It’s easy to become attached to the ani- was pressed into duty as a ringer when the was 8–8 with a 4.51 ERA—but opponents mals, but Ohlendorf can take solace in the department hoops team played a pickup were hitting .276 against him and he seemed fact that most of the longhorns sold by the game on the court President Obama had in- stuck in a rut. He took to the mechanical family don’t end up as the delicious barbe- stalled on the South Lawn, and he was sent overhaul right away. “It frees him up, makes cue brisket served at Smitty’s Market just on a photo op at an elementary school with him looser, makes him more deceptive, gives up the road in Lockhart. “People buy them Michelle Obama, but his internship was no him a better downhill angle,” says Kerrigan. almost as pets,” says Ohlendorf, who led the public relations stunt. He spent much of “It was like his natural delivery, like he’d been Pirates’ rotation with a 3.92 ERA last year his time doing cost analysis of regulatory doing that for years.” In nine outings with and tied for the team lead with 11 wins. “It’ll programs that identify and trace diseased the overhead windup, Ohlendorf had seven be people who want small herds, and they animals and plants. quality starts, was 3–2 with a 2.75 ERA, and like longhorns because they’re prettier than An advanced topic, yes, but Ohlendorf opponents hit just .212 against him. most breeds. We aren’t always able to sell graduated from Princeton with a 3.75 GPA Next up on Kerrigan’s agenda is fine- enough that way, so we have to take some in something called operations research and tuning that changeup. But he sees even bigger to auction [where they will become meat]. financial engineering; his egghead bona things for Ohlendorf in the future. “Growing But we try to avoid that.” fides are in order. He missed only one math up I was a big fan of Bill Bradley,” says Ker- Ohlendorf’s duties (after his morning question on the SAT, and his senior thesis rigan. “Ross reminds me of the things I read about Bradley—very intelligent, very much an Still, you couldn’t blame the Pirates if scared of too much WASHINGTON old-school gentleman, well-mannered, great they’re a little nervous. Last year Ohlendorf intelligence. But Joe HEIGHTS? competitor, loves the spotlight. I could see “It’s ridiculous how smart he He’s a pitcher by emerged as an indispensable member of a Kerrigan is smart. trade and a rancher this guy down the line being a United States is,” says a teammate. “I tell him young staff that could be good enough to The combination of at heart, but one senator, I really can.” coach thinks a While conceding that anything is possible, allow Pittsburgh, which hasn’t had a win- him and Ross was D.C. internship when we’re talking he has to ning season since 1992, to actually flirt with perfect. Joe relishes was just the start Ohlendorf downplays such talk, saying he respectability in 2010. Ohlendorf’s path to when people ask of Ohlendorf’s went to Washington to learn about agricul- political career. dumb it down a little.” the bigs wasn’t without its bumps. Arizona him, Why?” ture and the governmental process, not to get traded him to the Yankees as part of a deal Well, usually. into partisan politics. But Vilsack—a former workout) range from branding to feeding at Princeton was so well-received that it been well worth the $280,000 he signed for Randy Johnson in 2007. But being a “I do have a tendency to overcomplicate governor of Iowa who briefly ran for presi- to measuring horns to naming the calves got him an invitation to join Sigma Xi: The for when the Diamondbacks drafted him young pitcher for the game’s richest fran- things, which can be a detriment,” says dent in 2008—thinks Kerrigan might be on to photographing animals for the ranch’s Scientific Research Society. in the fourth round in 2004. chise isn’t easy. Because they could go out Ohlendorf. “You want to think about things, to something. “Ross has got a very solid base website. It’s not always pretty, he says while The title of Ohlendorf’s thesis was Invest- and purchase free agent starters at a whim, but there’s also a benefit to keeping them from which to approach politics,” Vilsack says. searching for Big Chief: “My arms were ing in Prospects: A Look at the Financial ig Chief has turned up. the Yankees had the luxury of sending Ohlen- simple. So there were times when Joe would “[Raising longhorns] is a business that’s not covered in manure this morning.” Successes of Major League Baseball Rule IV Ross’s dad found him in a field dorf to the bullpen. As a reliever, Ohlendorf tell me I wasn’t allowed to ask questions. easy, so he’d be sympathetic and empathetic to The Pirates’ ace spent the first two Drafts from 1989 to 1993. It might sound like B hanging out with a couple of cows, felt it was his duty to throw as hard as he Like in spring training, every Thursday I small-business owners. The sky’s the limit.” months of his off-season in a very differ- interesting reading for Joe Baseball Fan, looking no worse for his dustup with Winner’s could—which, granted, is pretty hard. (His wasn’t allowed to ask any.” “But first,” Vilsack adds, “I hope he wins ent job, one that smelled a lot better and but unless Mr. Fan knows what a Boolean Edge. And now Ross is showing him off to heater maxed out around 97 mph.) But he In addition to keeping things simple, Ker- the Cy Young for the Pirates.” ± required him to wear a shirt and tie.