Wednesday, July 26, 1995 - The Michigan Daily -13
,Weaving a pattern of success
Former Wolverine Scott Weaver is a hit in the minor leagues
Isaac Campos
ily Sports Writer
amestown, N.Y. (pop. 40,000)
is the setting for former
Michigan baseball star Scott
ver as he tries to turn the game he
ves into a lasting career.
The results so far have been eye-
ning. Through the first month of the
season Weaver
has been the
Jamestown
Jammers' hottest
hitter, batting
better than .350
with eight home
>r :° runs and12 RBl.
"The first
night he played
he went 4-for-5;
that was pretty
eaver much a defining
moment," said
rice Fields, manager of the Detroit
[igers' Class A affiliate in Jamestown.
"I didn't know what to expect
ecause he'd missed the first four games
to injury. In the fifth game we put him
i and he gets four hits. All of a sudden I
was saying, 'Whoa, who is this guy?"'
On his own performance from the
late so far Weaver quipped: "I knew I
wouldn't bat .600 all year, but I figured
hat if I could stay up around .333, that
wiiad he c.,fcient "
Hitting has obviously never been a
question mark for Scott Weaver. In
1995 he batted .500 in Big Ten play,
which earned him not only the
conference batting title, but recognition
as co-Player of the Year.
His former coach Bill Freehan,
when asked to describe the left fielder,
said simply: "He can hit."
Detroit Tiger's director of scouting
Jeff Scott called Weaver "an offensive
outfielder who has a chance to hit and
hit with some power."
It seems the only person not prone
to mentioning Weaver's offense first is
Weaver himself.
"What I really need to work on is
the defensive part of the game," the 21-
year-old left fielder said.
"I'm going to hit, but it's my
defense that is going to help me get
there quicker."
"There" is the major leagues -- the
unquestioned goal of all minor leagers
and the object of Scott Weaver's true
thoughts.
The fact that his batting average
was hovering around .400 two weeks
ago did not seem nearly as important to
him as the fact that he was in the middle
of his first batting slump.
"Right now I'm starting to struggle
from the plate big time," he said.
It is here that one begins to
,naarctnnd mhat miner line. hncehan
is truly about.
Batting .333 in the major leagues
makes you a superstar but in
Jamestown you're still just one of 31
guys whose progress is being
scrutinized daily.
"Every guy out here was one of
the top two or three players on their
college team. Every pitcher was their
team's No. 1 star," Weaver said.
"You play every single day for a
whole summer so mentally it's a
grind. That's what separates the good
ball players who are going to make it
from the guys who will just be
playing for a couple of years.
"It's a lot more difficult than college."
In college, a player is forced to think
about academics for at least part of every
day. So although the minor league player
has the apparent advantage of having
every moment to concentrate on baseball,
he also has plenty of extra time to dwell
on slumps that can work to erode one's
confidence.
"Scott's just pressing a little bit,"
Fields said about Weaver's recent slump.
"He's trying to get four hits in one at bat.
"I think because of the success that
he had early he feels like he should be
doing that every day. But baseball is a
game of ups and downs.
"You just have to continue on and
keep an even keel. That is what I try to
stress to these guys."
In Jamestown that means constantly
avoiding temptation.
"Here there is a lot more free time to
get into trouble," Weaver said. "At
school you'd get up at 8 and go to class.
From there you went straight to the
field and then you'd go home and do
homework.
"Here, although you're at the field
from 2 until 10 every day, afterward
you can do whatever you want. So you
can go to the bar every night if you
want to, or you can stay home and get a
good night's sleep so you'll be ready to
play the next day.
"At school your schedule is pretty
much set every day."
Handling this change is especially
crucial because improvement in minor
league baseball is largely up to each
player individually.
Weaver is congratulated by teammate Rodney Goble after hitting a home run.
"These guys are responsible for
themselves in terms of pushing
themselves every day," Fields said.
"Because there are only three coaches
responsible for 31 players, we can't
single out every guy every day. We
do what we can to instruct them but if
these guys want to be better they have
to take it upon themselves during
practice to really work on the areas
that they need to improve."
That area for Weaver is in left field.
Defense has always been the knock
on Scott Weaver.
"I got a bad rap in college
concerning defense," he said.
Weaver in fact missed out on a lot
of defense in college due to injuries that
often forced him to play as a designated
hitter.
"He DH-ed a lot in school," Jeff
Scott said. "So he just needs to get used
to playing every day with a glove on his
hand.
I think that my defense in college
was pretty good," Weaver said. "But
because I got tagged early on with that
label, it's been hard to shake off."
Which brings him back to the
mental part. To make the move to the
majors a player has to learn to play
through the slumps and the criticism.
For Scott Weaver the training has
begun at Jamestown.
"When you play 70 games over the
summer, you're going to have your
good streaks and your slumps. You're
not going to hit every day so you have
to learn to play through it," Weaver
said.
"That's what separates the guys
who make it and those who don't."
I Former Wolverine Scott Weaver is swiping bases for the Jamestown Jammers.
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