When he began the season clad in his pin-stripped EC uniform, Bart Babineaux could only wonder what it would be like to don the suit of a major league baseball team.
After all, the Cleveland Indians drafted the sophomore last June. He accepted a draft and follow, meaning the Indians will follow Babineaux throughout the season, which could possibly lead to him signing with the Indians this summer, or even with another team should they release the rights to him.
Since last June his possible professional career has been in limbo; not knowing if he’ll be competing at a university this fall or he’ll play rookie ball for a major league club. So he steps on the field each game with a duty to help his team achieve its goals, all while playing to polarize his all-around-game to those with eyes trained on him.
Great expectations
In his first season as a Warrior, Babineaux made an impression on teammates, coaches and the opposition, batting .403 with eight home runs and 41 RBIs en route to earning all-Southern California team honors, which warranted the attention of major league baseball and university scouts.
“I can’t talk to any professional teams until a week before the draft,” the 21-year-old sophomore said. “They’ll decide if they want to offer me a contract or not.
“I want a scholarship. If the deal is not good, then I’m going to college. But if the deal is good, then I’ll say, ‘You got to pay out the scholarship.’ Because when you’ve got a scholarship, you’ve got a lot more bargaining power. … It looks good. I’ve just got to hold up my part. They’ll get me somewhere.”
Tough choices lie ahead
He said although universities such as USC, LSU and New Mexico State have expressed interest, his desire to play professionally prevails.
“I was thinking about it today. Every time people underestimate me, I step up,” he said.
Now, the prestige that he attained last year has become lost in the demanding expectations of a new season.
While he still commands the respect of the opposing pitcher when he places body and cleats inside the batter’s box, his numbers (batting .290, three home runs and 17 RBIs) aren’t indicative of his apparent capabilities.
Babineaux says it might possibly be a sophomore jinx and the pressure he pressed on himself to replicate, or more, best his impressive stats from a season ago.
“Coach (Bergeron) described it as, last year I just came out and hit,” he said. “They taught me how to hit.Now they’ve created a monster. I know how to hit and it’s working against me.”
“It’s kinda like a catch-twenty-two. I raked last year; absolutely just hit the ball around the yard. But because I learned how to hit. Now I think too much at the plate. I think about what I’m doing, instead of just seeing it and hitting it.”
Babineaux feels he’s coming around these days after seeing his performance at the beginning of he season degenerate into something unfamilar.
Freed from the top of the order and moved down to he middle so he can see more fastballs, he’s getting more wood on the ball with each time it connects while putting the ball in play.
First-half struggles
Moving to the middle of the the line up has worked for the left feild slugger as he got every fiber of wood on the second pitch he saw March 20. The ball cleared the left-center fence into the backdrop of trees taking a couple of branches down with it to the ground.
“Oh my God. (That took) so much pressure off me,” he said of that two-run home run.
“I’ve been struggling all season, but I’m starting to come out (of the slump) now,” he said “Just (too much) expectation; what I expect from myself. I think I might have put to much pressure on myself.”
So while the pressure wanes, Babineaux, can turn back to his books and classes and looks forward toward graduating, which he’s anticipating to as the semester winds down to an end.
Chasing the impossible dream
Babineaux traveled around 1900 miles from New Iberia, La, across three time zones with his’ friend two years ago to fulfill his dream of playing baseball and to complete college.
After taking a year off from competing in sports, Babineaux packed his bags along with his Southern drawl after being invited by baseball comrade and former teammate Derek Hebert who was invited by Bergeron to play for EC while playing summer ball in Ohio.
From Louisiana to California
“My dad and I met Bergeron,” Babineaux said. “I worked out for him a little bit. He said he’d love to have me, so I came and the rest is history.”
Babineaux left is hometown – a small town in comparison to neighboring Baton Rogue and New Orleans – to seek his niche. A niche that apparently eluded him at some of the local colleges.
Asked if he was homesick, he said “he was over it.” He’s enjoying the time and the chance to play.
“You don’t have as much of an opportunity back home as you do out here,” he said.
“Back home in high school, I’d never thought I would’ve been drafted. That was the farthest thing from my mind coming out here. I was just came out here to have fun and play baseball,” Babineaux said.
