Crimson Pitchers Help Nomar at Fenway

BOSTON—Once they’ve finished their final exams, many Harvard seniors find themselves in uncharted territory.

School is over. Commencement has yet to begin. Events with names like “Champagne Brunch” and “Booze Cruise” creep up. And after four years of succeeding on grit and grind, Harvard’s stately elders learn, for once, how to do nothing useful at all.

Not so for Harvard seniors Mike Morgalis and Trey Hendricks. Morgalis, the senior hurler from Cincinnati, and Hendricks, the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, spent the week toiling towards a much nobler goal—working injured Boston Red Sox superstar Nomar Garciaparra’s batting eye back to full strength.

Beginning last Saturday and continuing through today, Morgalis and Hendricks faced off against the all-star shortstop at Fenway Park with several short, simulated pitching stints.

Morgalis threw live batting practice to Garciaparra on Saturday and Tuesday, and will pitch again tomorrow. Hendricks threw on Sunday, Wednesday, and throws again today.

Both soon-to-be-graduates agreed there was nowhere they would rather be.

“It’s definitely fun,” Hendricks said after a half hour of work on Wednesday. “I’m not doing much this week anyway.”

“It’s unbelievable,” Morgalis agreed.

Hendricks heard about the job from Red Sox scout Ray Fagnant, who needed a college pitcher—with no ties to the organization—to “throw Nomar some strikes,” according to Hendricks. It is standard procedure for Major Leaguers rehabbing injuries to face live pitching on the road to recovery.

Garciaparra has been out since the first week of Spring Training with tendonitis in his right Achilles. He projects to begin a rehab stint in AAA Pawtucket next week.

“[Hendricks] has been a lot of help,” Garciaparra said. “Both of those guys, Trey and Mike, have been unbelievable. I can’t thank them enough.”

Several times Wednesday, it appeared that Garciaparra was not yet back to full strength. The shortstop did not drive the ball off Hendricks with regularity, though it was his first work with random pitch recognition during the week. During the first three rounds—on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday—Morgalis and Hendricks told Garciaparra which pitch was going where.

“Today,” Morgalis said of Hendricks’ work, “it was more like Trey was pitching at-bats.”

Morgalis admitted he was impressed with the shortstop’s performance. “[Nomar] looks ready to me,” he said. “He hadn’t done this in so long, in about three months. And I don’t think in four days he swung through one ball.”

It wasn’t all work for Morgalis and Hendricks during the week. Both players, especially Morgalis, had a chance to jaw with the easy-going Garciaparra during pitching stints.

“[Nomar] was teasing us yesterday that he has two batting titles,” Morgalis said, “and I was giving him crap. Just getting an opportunity to do that was a lot of fun.”

Garciaparra, too, said he enjoyed the experience with the Harvard hurlers. “We’ve been having a lot of fun out there,” he said.

LIKE NEW SOX

On Wednesday, shortly before the Red Sox played the Oakland Athletics, Morgalis, Harvard assistant coach Matt Hyde, and Hendricks—his arm wrapped in ice—milled around the Sox clubhouse, chatting with players and watching NASCAR on the clubhouse TV. Stars like Curt Schilling and Manny Ramirez zoomed right and left, preparing for batting practice and warm-ups.

Hendricks remained unfazed.

“He’s not letting coming up to the big leagues mess with him or intimidate him at all,” said Ellis Burks, the veteran Red Sox DH whose knee injury has relegated him to the 15-day disabled list. “He had a lot of poise up there.”

Like Garciaparra, Burks also took batting practice from Hendricks on Wednesday to work on his timing and mechanics. Burks, now in his 22nd year in pro baseball, said he was impressed with the Harvard senior’s accurate arm and pitch movement.

“I figured he was going to be a pitcher in [the upcoming June amateur draft],” Burks said. “And he said, no, he’s going to be a hitter. I asked what he hit and he said he hit [.427]. That’s pretty damn good.”

“He’s a very talented young man,” Burks added.

PAY IT FORWARD

The week was a series of trade-offs—Hendricks’ and Morgalis’ pitching services for a solid dose of the Major League experience. For Hendricks, whose aspirations reach no lower than the Bigs, that experience was invaluable.

Kevin Youkilis, the Red Sox rookie third baseman who attended the same high school as Morgalis in Cincinnati—and whose on-base exploits are well-recorded in the Michael Lewis bestseller, Moneyball—gave Hendricks the heads-up on the minor league life. Garciaparra gave him hitting tips. David Ortiz, the larger-than-life Red Sox first baseman, gave the two Harvard seniors plenty to laugh about.

“It helps both sides,” Burks said of having Hendricks and Morgalis around for live batting practice. “It’s going to help us, you know, to get our timing back—when we get ready to get back on the field after injuries like we’ve had.”

“And of course it’s going to help [Hendricks],” Burks added. “It’s going to build his confidence. It’s going to help him out on the field. He’s being around Big Leaguers, seeing how it’s done on the next level.”

Meanwhile, there was plenty of trading in material goods during the week as well. Garciaparra gave Hendricks two personal bats—“to use,” said Hendricks—to prepare for a new career without aluminum. “I hope they have hits in them,” laughed Garciaparra. “I’m sorry if they don’t.”

Johnny Damon, the fleet-footed Sox centerfielder, gave Hendricks a pair of cleats. “You know us Big Leaguers,” Damon said. “We have tons of shoes.”

Damon, whose popularity among Boston fans is rivaled by few, recently shaved his caveman-esque beard at a public event, donating all proceeds to charity.

“Pay it forward,” he explained.

In return, Hendricks gave players like Nomar, Damon and Sox ace Pedro Martinez an assortment of Harvard memorabilia, including t-shirts.

“At least I can look smart now when I walk around town,” Damon said.

It is hard to say who got the better end of the deal. In the end, Hendricks and Morgalis were only too happy to help out—for, in the end, it wasn’t about them to begin with.

“This is all for Nomar,” Morgalis said.

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre contributing to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.