BASEBALL 2004: American Idol

Zak Farkes is not content being the 2003 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

He wants to be Indiana Jones.

He also wants to be Dave Matthews, Brett Favre and Ernest Hemingway.

Add to that list Robin Hood, Michael Jordan, Tim McGraw, Alex Rodriguez and Emeril.

Farkes is a strapping 5’11, 195 lbs., but is there really room in uniform No. 3 for all those people?

According to his thefacebook.com profile, yes: his “Interests” section holds a veritable laundry list of personal idols.

He might blush when you bring up his half-in-jest internet posting, but the sophomore infielder has a ready answer for each and every one.

Alex Rodriguez? It should be obvious.

“Shortstop, baseball player, No. 3,” Farkes responds with a grin. “Best shortstop out there, and obviously if I can take anything from his game, it doesn’t hurt.”

Brett Favre? Not so surprising either.

“Toughest athlete I’ve ever seen,” he says earnestly. “Completely admire the way he plays, his dedication on and off the field, the way he carries himself on the field. I want to emulate that when I play.”

Even the non-athletes begin to seem obvious.

Indiana Jones? “Childhood hero.”

Robin Hood? “Same as Indiana Jones.”

Dave Matthews? The grin reappears. “Can’t be all jocks.”

MAKING AN IMPACT.

And like his role models, Farkes is not all jock. Not surprisingly, the English and American Literature concentrator lists reading and writing among his interests, which accounts for the presence of Hemingway, Thoreau and even W.P. Kinsella on that list.

But it’s the jock side—or, more accurately, the baseball side—that makes Zak Farkes so important to Harvard baseball. They don’t hand out Rookie of the Year awards to just any Boston-area kid who makes a splash in college, even if coming in that kid was a four-year starter who won a total of 108 games in his high school career.

But Farkes was able to translate his prep success at Cambridge’s BB&N into early collegiate brilliance, starting every game for the Crimson and batting .308 his rookie season. He led the team with eight home runs and 89 total bases, finished third in the league in runs scored with 42 and was also the team leader in base-on-balls with 25.

That last statistic is a testament to his ability to work an at-bat, battling away until he either comes across something he likes or the pitcher caves and walks him.

“He’s one of those guys who’s incredibly focused throughout the entire game,” says fellow sophomore Lance Salsgiver. “But at the same time he has the ability to smile and laugh and have a good time.”

Salsgiver would know.

In addition to playing with Farkes for the Crimson, the two shared a field last summer in the New England Collegiate Baseball League playing for the Torrington Twisters. The intense schedule and high caliber of play was a new but not unwelcome experience for Farkes.

“I think just facing the best pitching in the country day in, day out, with a wood bat, makes you a better player,” he says.

Harvard coach Joe Walsh noticed the improvement.

“I think that knowing how hard he’s worked over the offseason, the kid is so much stronger this year,” Walsh says. “Coming out of a small high school where he really hadn’t faced good pitching, you know he’s seen that [now]. He’s got the look and the desire right now that he can’t wait to get up to the plate.”

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

But adapting to play in the summer league was not the only adjustment Farkes had to make.

The offseason marked the first instance that he had been away from home for an extended period of time. Being close to his family has always been important to him, and was a major factor in his decision to go to Harvard, just a long fly ball’s distance from his own high school.

“The fact that Harvard’s such a good school, and they were recruiting me to come here, and it was so close to home, it was just a big bonus for me,” Farkes says.

“I can go home and do my laundry, get a home-cooked meal every once in a while, and have my brothers to fool around with if I have a bad day or something like that,” he adds.

His family, including his three baseball-playing younger brothers, lives just a block from Fenway Park, where Farkes grew up walking to Red Sox games.

Getting to be that close to home during college also means being close to maybe the most important name on that extensive list of personal heroes: his father.

“[He] taught me to play baseball, taught me pretty much everything,” Farkes says. “Number-one guy I look up to...He’s been probably the biggest influence on my life.”

WORK IT OUT

Needless to say, baseball and the drive to succeed in it have been a part of his life since day one.

But after such an impressive rookie season, where can Boston’s native son possibly go from here?

“Obviously my next goal is to win Player of the Year—I guess,” Farkes says matter-of-factly. “But the season’s just started, and I’m just trying to play well, win games, hit the ball hard, stuff like that. And hopefully it will take care of itself.”

He makes it sound so easy. But the truth of the matter is that Farkes works hard.

Very hard.

“One of the hardest workers, I’d say, on the team,” Salsgiver says.

Walsh calls Farkes a “24-hour-a-day baseball player.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a kid here at Harvard or elsewhere who is as dedicated to the game of baseball as Zak is,” he says. “I came in here yesterday morning at about eight o’clock and he’d already finished his workout.”

To Farkes, that level of work is the only option available if he’s going to improve on last year’s performance.

“I had some success last year but I really want to go out and do even better this year, and even better the next year, and the next year,” he says. “And if I ever get the chance to play in the pros…”

Ah, the pros. The ultimate dream of every starry-eyed kid who ever picked up a Louisville Slugger.

“That’s been my dream since I was four years old,” Farkes admits. “If I ever got that opportunity I’d jump at it. But I know how small the odds are, and that’s why Harvard was such an inviting place for me. You come in here, and if it didn’t work out you get a great education to fall back on.”

This attitude helps to explain a couple more of those mystery names on that eclectic list.

Billy Beane? A result of the book Moneyball.

“I just read that,” Farkes says. “If playing baseball doesn’t work out I’d definitely look to a career in baseball somewhere, and he’s kind of a guy that you’d emulate.”

Warren Miller? Well, once baseball is over…

“I love skiing, it’s probably the one thing I really miss the most as far as sacrifices I’ve made for baseball,” he says. “Someday when baseball’s over that will be the first thing I do...go skiing.”

And Jay Gatsby? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s character, out of one of Farkes’ favorite books, is his final possible role model.

“I wish I was as smooth as him,” he says, mock-wistfully. “Maybe someday.”

But then again, you could argue that Zak Farkes is pretty smooth already.

It’s not just anyone who can fit all those people into one uniform.

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.