Collegiate Baseball The Voice Of Amateur Baseball Started In 1958 At The Request Of Our Nation’s Baseball Coaches Vol. 63, No. 5 Friday, March 6, 2020 $4.00 Baseball’s Greatest Story Simply Amazing Given no chance called 11 World Series. was for all the men and women who O’Leary spent five months in showed up every single day for a of living after 100% of the hospital, underwent dozens of cause bigger than themselves. John O’Leary’s body surgeries, lost all of his fingers to “My dad sets the champagne in was burned, Cardinals’ amputation and relearned to walk, the corner and then walks over to me, write and feed himself. puts his hand on my leg and looks at announcer Jack Buck “Thirty-three years ago, I was by me squarely in the eyes, “John, little springs into action. myself in a burn center room in a man. You did it.’ I looked up at my wheelchair,” said O’Leary. dad and said, ‘Yes I did!’ By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR. “It was a room I knew well because “I look back at that experience Editor/Collegiate Baseball I had been in it for the previous five 33 years ago realizing how little I months. After spending five months really did. ASHVILLE, Tenn. — The anywhere, you are ready to go home. “Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck greatest baseball story My dad was down the hall speaking in the rut and be beaten down by life. Never told took place at the to a nurse. The question my father When you struggle as a coach, father, 2020 American Baseball Coaches asked her was, ‘Is he ready?’ wife or son, and when you choose Association Convention. “What dad wanted to know was to remain a victim to it, what is the The remarkable John O’Leary whether his nine year old boy was victim’s favorite question to ask? talked about when he was a 9-year- ready to go home after being burned “I will give you three questions to old boy in 1987 and was playing with on 100 percent of his body. stop asking. The first is, ‘Why me?’ fire and gasoline at his parents’ home “I wasn’t sure what that nurse Rather than being grateful for all we which caused a massive explosion was going to say. I was just a young have, we look down, cross our arms that burned 100 percent of his body. kid in a wheelchair on morphine. and look a little bit indifferent and He was given no chance of Morphine is like truth serum. I yell ask the second question which is, living. out the doorway, ‘Yes, he’s ready. ‘Who cares?’ This is when St. Louis Cardinals’ Come get him.’ “This ultimately leads to the third Hall of Fame announcer Jack Buck “My father’s footsteps came closer question which is the final nail in the entered his life. and closer. He opens the door and coffin, ‘What more can I do?’ Other He gave this young boy the walks in. In front of my dad was a red teams have more resources, more strength to live and recover. wheelbarrow. It was full of lifesavers talent and much more to offer.” Buck was the Cardinals’ announcer and champagne. They weren’t for Photo By Seth Farmer for more than three decades as he me. It was for the hospital staff. It See PLAYING WITH, Page 2 JOHN O’LEARY Earns NCAA Div. II National Player Of Year in 2019 Cut At Houston, Josh Elvir Does The Impossible Angelo St. rightfielder hits earlier. and I believed in myself. I knew I could play So far in 2020, Elvir has been incredible the game of baseball at a high level if given .458 in 55 games with 20 once again. a second chance. homers, 17 doubles, 81 RBI After 10 games, he is hitting .531 with 5 “Several of the coaches at Houston made and steals 11 of 12 bases. homers, 5 doubles, 14 RBI, 11 walks, 7-for-7 calls on my behalf to try and get me in another in stolen bases and has an on-base percentage program. Angelo State was one of the first of .667. programs they gave a call to. By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR. Editor/Collegiate Baseball “I walked on at the University of Houston “I visited Angelo State and loved in the fall of 2018 after playing for Angelina everything about the program. I haven’t AN ANGELO, Tex. — Josh Elvir is College in 2017,” said Elvir. regretted it since.” one of those amazing stories you never He hit .404 with 11 homers, 11 doubles and Since it was too late to enroll at Angelo forget. 39 RBI in 49 games for Angelina. State for the 2018 baseball season, he S “I went through the entire fall at Houston, continued going to classes at the University The rightfielder for Angelo State University was cut at the University of Houston as the and everything was smooth sailing as I made of Houston during the spring of 2018. When Cougars were about to begin the 2018 the team. When I got back to school to start he was finished with that semester, he season. the spring semester, one of our players quit transferred to Angelo State. Given a second chance at Angelo State in the team, and he was on scholarship. During the summer of 2018, Elvir the fall of 2018, he started off slowly at his “Then the coaching staff brought back a played for the Mankato MoonDogs of the new school and struggled as he put pressure couple of redshirts who replaced him. The Northwoods League and got a bunch of at- on himself to perform. NCAA rule is that teams can only have 35 bats so he wouldn’t be rusty once he arrived Just before the 2019 season was ready to players once the season starts. I was the only at Angelo State. begin, he was given a simple hitting tip that walk-on who made the team at the time. Just “My first few months at Angelo State, I turned him into a beast of a hitter. before the first game of the 2018 season, didn’t hit well,” said Elvir. When the season ended, he was the NCAA they let me go so they could be within that “I might have been the worst player on the Div. II National Player of The Year as he 35-player limit. team during the fall of 2018. When I arrived hit .458 in 55 games with 20 homers, 17 “That was probably the lowest moment of that fall, I had very high hands when I took doubles, 81 RBI and stole 11 of 12 bases as my life,” said Elvir. my stance in the batter’s box. My hands were he was walked 50 times and had an on-base “I thought my baseball career was over, just above my back ear. percentage of .584. and I was devastated. After a few days passed, I realized that I could play somewhere else, JOSH ELVIR Not bad for a guy who was cut one year See SMALL MECHANICAL, Page 6 Inside Collegiate Baseball Web Site: www.baseballnews.com Will Game Times Go Down? How Japanese Train Players Best College Coaches Ever With new 20 second action rule Brutally tough practices pay off Former USC legendary skipper in place with men on base, 20 big when looking at pitching Rod Dedeaux had a number of minutes could be cut/Page 7 command during games/Page 4 great tactics he utilized/Page 14 Page 2 Collegiate Baseball Friday, March 6, 2020 Playing With Gasoline And Fire Nearly Kills O’Leary Continued From Page 1 “Ultimately I went into my “The explosion launched a 9- Cardinals. parents’ garage and grabbed a can year-old little shortstop 20 feet to “The way we watched baseball O’Leary said when he grew up of gasoline. Then I attempted to the other side of the garage. My life in the 1980s was not necessarily by in St. Louis, he saw boys playing pour a little bit before the liquid changed in an instant. One moment, going to games at Busch Stadium. with fire and gasoline in his came out. What happens is that I was a happy, healthy young boy. It was not on television or on the neighborhood. fumes come out before actual The next, I was a nine year old on internet because it hadn’t been “What these boys would do is gasoline. my back in a burn center with burns invented yet. The best way to watch sprinkle gasoline on the sidewalk “In baseball, coaching, on 100 percent of my body, dying. baseball during those years was on and strike a match. Then they leadership, love, health, finance “I was blessed to be served by the radio. would stand back two feet, throw and life, its seldom what we see a great staff at the hospital and “Many days of my existence as a the match on the sidewalk, and the coming that burns. It’s not the my parents in addition to one 9-year-old, I listened to a larger than liquid would dance to life. When liquid that burns you. It’s the fumes. remarkable leader who played life personality (Jack Buck) call St. you are nine years old and are a Harnessing the fumes is what is baseball, taught baseball and who Louis Cardinals’ games which gave male, this is awesome.