Ruairi O’Connor had two excellent options on the table midway through his senior year at OPRF High School in 2004. In his back pocket was a return to a loaded Huskies baseball team that featured six players who would either be drafted by big league teams or play at Division I colleges. Then there was the unusual chance to graduate early and play at national power Florida State.
O’Connor went to college and the Huskies made it to the Elite Eight in 2005. The rest is history.
“The cons are the what-ifs,” O’Connor said last week. “We [made it to the Elite Eight that year], and things would have been different if I had come back. Having another Division I player on the team can only help, but baseball is a funny game. This year, five out of the top eight teams in college baseball didn’t make it out of their regional. Maybe if I had come back the chemistry wouldn’t have been the same.
“But I like to think that if I’d have come back we’d have won the state championship.”
The key seniors from that 2004-05 OPRF team are scattered across the country now. Of its top three pitchers, Tim Dennehy is in the minor leagues with the Yankees while two others are with college teams that earned No. 1 seeds in the playoffs this year-Joe Froelich at Coastal Carolina and Ian Berger at Missouri. Matt McFolling is an outfielder at Villanova. The key junior, outfielder Andrew Hagins, was drafted in 2006 and is playing in community college.
O’Connor is in Tallahassee, Fla., with the Seminoles.
Sizing up the competition
All five of Florida State’s draft-eligible starting position players were selected in June’s amateur draft. That includes two outfielders. So it’s obvious that the same major league scouts tracking O’Connor as a high school junior will be watching still. Right now, O’Connor’s job is to play enough to be seen.
Although he has a career average of .268, the former Huskie has yet to earn a starting role with the Seminoles. After a freshman season in which he hit .227 with two homers and 16 RBIs, he was “penciled in as the starting left fielder” in ’06, O’Connor said. But a broken bone in his hand before the season led to being red-shirted.
When he came back this year as a red-shirt sophomore, the situation had changed. Along had come two freshman, Ohmed Danesh and D’Vontrey Richardson, an all-around athlete from Georgia who is viewed as the future starting quarterback of the Seminoles’ football team.
Florida State coach Mike Martin went with a three-man platoon in left, with Danesh facing righties and Richardson and O’Connor taking turns against lefties. The trio also filled the DH slot.
Richardson got the most playing time, playing in 51 of FSU’s 62 games and earning 131 at-bats. O’Connor and Danesh each played 44 times, O’Connor with 98 at bats and the freshman with 84. Richardson hit .351 and Danesh hit .321, while O’Connor batted .296 with a homer and 22 RBIs.
“When you sign with FSU, you know they’re going to bring in studs,” O’Connor said. As O’Connor currently sizes up the situation for ’08, four men will compete for the three outfield spots. Florida State’s starting centerfielder from last year was drafted and already signed with the Washington Nationals. Right fielder Jack Rye was picked in the 46th round but could return for a senior season.
“If Jack signs, I believe 100 percent it would be Danesh in left field, D’Vontrey in center and me in right,” O’Connor said.
If that happens, O’Connor vows that fans will see a different player than they did his first two seasons.
Power play
On a team that had stars at second base (Tony Thomas, Cubs, third round) and shortstop (Mark Hallberg, Diamondbacks, ninth), O’Connor was not asked to hit for power.
“They changed the type of player I was,” he said. “They asked me to play solid defense, hit .300 and not hit home runs. There were a lot of situations where I’d try to hit it hard to the right side and give myself up for the team.”
And in 2008?
“After the season I talked to our coach and I told him I want to be that guy who everyone looks to to drive in runs and hit for power,” he said. “I asked for him to give me a chance to do what I think I can do-increase my power, which is something I thought I always had-and he seemed optimistic.
“I’ve been here for three years and I’ve earned his respect. Hopefully he’ll give me a bit of a longer leash.”
If he does get that starting role, O’Connor will certainly have a chance to prove himself. Four ACC pitchers were among the first 41 players drafted in June and the conference is among the nation’s best.
Although O’Connor is home training in River Forest now, an FSU assistant coach is also lobbying to get him into the premiere college summer circuit, the Cape Cod League in Massachusetts. Former Huskie Vasili Spanos, now in the Oakland organization, played there before getting drafted in ’03.
While it may seem a bit premature to speculate about a kid being drafted after only 164 college at-bats, O’Connor indicated he is so close with his teammates at FSU that he might come back for a senior season even if he is drafted in next year.
One of the benefits of leaving high school early, he said, “was that I did have great relationships with the seniors and the juniors that were drafted that I’d never have met if I stayed in Oak Park. Most of all, that’s what I gained was those relationships. Stats and wins fade away but relationships last.”
Other relationships that are lasting, he said, are those with the OPRF teammates he said goodbye to in ’04.
“I am still really close friends with Joe Froelich,” O’Connor said. “I played summer ball last year with Ian Berger. They understood it was a tough decision [to leave early].”
O’Connor said he also stays in touch with head coach Chris Ledbetter and the rest of the program’s coaches.
“I try to get out and help the summer league team as much as possible,” O’Connor said. “Coach Ledbetter was probably one of my biggest supporters. It didn’t help his job for me to leave, but I talked to him about it and he supported me. He was great.”
Another person who supported O’Connor’s decision to leave high school early was Martin, the FSU skipper.
“I think it was great to give Ruairi a chance to get his feet wet,” Martin said in an interview in May when FSU visited ACC rival Maryland. “I’m sure glad he’s a Seminole.”