Highlights

Campus News

Wildcat Weekly Minute for Nov. 17, 2011

A look at what's happening on campus this week.

Faith

Cleansed through the Cross

Dr. Quarles speaks on the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice at weekly chapel

Sports

LC hoops teams wrap up homestand with pair of wins

Off to Ozarks, UT-Dallas next

Organizations

LC media student give to Toys for Tots

More than 100 toys will help local charity

Campus Life

February is Heart Health Awareness Month

Stay healthy and 'God Red'

Culture

All the Shakespeare you could laugh at… and more!

tlc's adaptation of 'Shakespeare Abridged' pulls out all the stops

Special Coverage

LC brings another successful ‘Follow the Star’

'Christmas on the Hill' and 'Gala' add to festive weekend

Former Major League pitcher DeJean shares life (and baseball) lessons with banquet crowd (VIDEO)

by Al Quartemont

Featured speaker at 6th Annual Dugout Club Banquet

Call it LC’s version of the “Hot Stove League.”

Another good crowd was on hand Monday night for the LC Dugout Club’s 6th annual baseball banquet at Pineville High School. The featured speaker this year was former Major League relief pitcher Mike DeJean.

DeJean spoke specifically to the student athletes in attendance about the path he took to his 10-year career, one which saw him start out as a shortstop in college.

“I didn’t realize how good you had to be to be a pro ballplayer,” the native of Walker, La. told the audience. “I remember when the light came on – when I thought, ‘hey, I can play with these guys.’”

In fact, it was somewhat of a fluke how DeJean even wound up on a pitcher’s mound. In 1992, his senior year at West Alabama (Livingston College), DeJean got into a heated argument with his head coach, Mark Hogan, after the coach refused to pull a struggling pitcher during a mid-week nonconference game. Hogan wound up benching DeJean for the next three games, and then in the fourth game, DeJean was sitting again – that is, until the game went extra innings. Having exhausted his entire staff, Hogan told DeJean to go warm up – and a pitching career was born.

DeJean went on to throw 7.1 innings over the rest of the season, picked up a couple of saves and wound up pitching for his team in the Division II World Series. It was there several scouts saw his strong arm, and perhaps more importantly, his sinking fastball. Later that summer, he got a call from the New York Yankees on Day 2 of the Amateur Draft. The Yankees had made DeJean their 24th round draft pick.

“All you need is a chance,” DeJean said. “And you never know when that can happen.”

With his $1,000 signing bonus, DeJean headed to the Yankees minor league camp. His bonus was quite a bit less than the Yankee’s top pick that year, a young high school prospect named Derek Jeter.

But before he could enjoy the success of the mid and late-90’s Yankees, DeJean was traded to the Colorado Rockies. He made his debut in 1997. Four years later, he was traded to Milwaukee where enjoyed success as a closer, nailing down 27 saves in 2002 and 18 more in 2003 before being traded again. The rest of his career, DeJean served mostly in the setup role – pitching with St. Louis, Baltimore and the New York Mets. His career officially ended in 2008 after DeJean failed to make the roster of the Houston Astros out of spring training.

Today, DeJean lives in West Monroe with his wife and two children. He has opened up a training center for aspiring baseball and softball players where he can give back some of the baseball lessons and life-lessons he learned along the way.

DeJean exhorted the LC players to, “enjoy the process… trust your teammates… and be humble.”

“Clint Hurdle (former Rockies manager and hitting coach) used to say, ‘there are two types of players – those that are humble and those that are fixing to be.’ It’s a hard sport and it’s full of a lot of failure.”

A lesson passed on by a guy who ultimately couldn’t cut it as a college shortstop, but one who is certainly not about to complain about it.

NOTES: Also from the Dugout Club Banquet, LC Coach Mike Byrnes again worked the crowd for some sizable contributions to the program through the charity auction. Among the items sold – hunting and fishing packages, plenty of LC Baseball gear, and a Russ Springer game-worn “throwback” style uniform he wore as a member of the Oakland A’s during a game last summer.

Springer, who is still mulling a return to baseball for another season was in attendance for the banquet as was former LSU Tiger and Major League 2nd baseman, Warren Morris. Atlanta Braves prospect, J.C. Holt, was not at the banquet, but he did donate several items for the auction.

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