Rafael Pineda - Part 1
Rafael Pineda - Part 2
Texas A&M Baseball
* He feels like a freshman on the team because of the struggles that have kept him out of the game the past year. Being able to hang out with the guys in the dugout in a great feeling. The guys are really brothers and consider each other family. Texas A&M is exactly what he dreamed it to be when Coach Childress was originally recruiting him.
* In his first start, he didn’t even notice that he was closing in on a perfect game. He was so nervous the night before his debut and couldn’t fall asleep that night. During the day, he talked to Michael Wacha and Ross Stripling about what it is like being a starter and they told him to just go to work and put the batter back down in the dugout where they came from. He woke up that morning and was still nervous and went up to the Olsen Field. On the way there, his hand was shaking on the steering wheel from being so nervous, but once he stepped out on the field his nerves went calm. When game time drew closer, he started getting anxious and then calmed himself down by thinking about how much he has worked to get to where he is now. With the help of his teammates, he was able to go out and throw a great game and ended up getting his first win as a starter at Texas A&M.
* He didn’t know he had a no-hitter working that game until after he hit the batter in the sixth inning. He felt really bad about it, but the guys calmed him down and he apologized to the UIC coach after the inning. When he came into the stretch and checked the runner at first who was hit by the pitch, he stepped off the mound and looked at the scoreboard and noticed he had a no-hitter going for himself. It wasn’t he was out of that inning that it began to set in that what he was doing was a big time thing. For the rest of the game, he was able to keep focus on throwing strikes and getting the team back in the dugout as opposed to trying to pitch a no-hitter.
* The biggest thing he learned coming out of high school before his time at A&M was having a mental approach to the game. It doesn’t matter what happened the day before, the only thing that matters is what’s happening today. The team takes each day individually and considers the present day, the biggest day of the season. Coach Childress always pounds forgetting the past, good or bad, into the player’s heads to get them focused on the current day.
* His dad signed to play professional baseball at the age of 19 around the same time that Sammy Sosa also signed to play professionally. Coming from the Dominican Republic, the game of baseball means a lot to him and his family. The way the Dominican people play the game of baseball is not a hobby at all, it’s a lifestyle. He is fortunate that his dad signed at the age he did and was able to come to the United States and make it into the majors. He goes back to the Dominican and sees the passion that they play the game of baseball with and it helps him grow to be a better player. It makes him think that he doesn’t need to play the game as a hobby, but as the most important thing in his life. Any time he goes there, it reassures him that if you’re going to play baseball, you need to play with everything you have. Every pitch needs to be like it’s your last. Getting hurt also reaffirmed that play like it’s your last mentality in him. It’s easy to take things like running water or coming to the field everyday for granted. He had a great arm in high school and he lost it in days after his injury. Every time he goes back to the Dominican, he feels the need to bring the fire they play with back with him to the States. It can’t be one day yes, one day no because any day could be your last.
* It was a good decision by his parents to have him born in the United States for citizenship reasons. He sees people born in other countries struggle with getting a visa or green card and he is glad he doesn’t have to deal with that. Coming back to the United States is hard because they give people who are not American citizens a hard time because of drug trafficking or whatever other reason and to not have to deal with that is a blessing. The United States is the best country in the world because there is so much opportunity here.
* In high school, he had not been approached by many colleges because of his Dominican descent. In the Dominican, you either play pro-ball or you don’t play at all so college wasn’t really a big thing to him. He pitched at Weatherford Junior College once and that is when A&M saw him for the first time. They called him and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go to college but it turns out going to school at A&M was the best decision he has ever made. Nebraska and a few other schools started pursuing him, but he eventually ended up signing with the Aggies. One of the deciding factors that kept him from going to Nebraska was their use of the underground tunnels the students use to get to class in because it’s too snowy and icy topside. At first he thought Coach Childress didn’t know anything about Nebraska, and then he did a little background search and found out he coached there for eight years and went to the College World Series with them. The whole recruiting staff reassured him that Texas A&M was the best place for him and he ended up making the right decision. About two months after being in Aggieland, his shoulder started hurting and eventually the velocity on his ball dropped 10 to 12 miles per hour. He saw the doctor and was told that surgery wouldn’t be required. After doing rehab for a few months, his velocity was back up around 87 or 88 miles per hour but he was above that before his shoulder pain. All of a sudden it went back down and he got an MRI and found out his rotator cuff was slightly torn. He ended up getting surgery and the doctor did a really good job on it. He remembers having trouble hearing the words that he was going to need surgery when the doctor gave him the news, and as soon as he was alone, he broke down and started to cry. He thought he would never play baseball again because shoulder injuries are hard to come back from. Coach Childress told him that they really wanted him to stay, but the reality was that it was a toss-up if he would make it back. That semester, he didn’t do very well at his finals because surgery was the day after his last one and he couldn’t focus on his studies because of it. He felt like something was being taken away from him and he didn’t deserve it. His dad is a pastor and prayed for him a lot during that time. As soon as possible, he started rehab and put his mind to coming back better than he was before. He and Coach Childress had a talk once he started throwing again and Childress gave him the choice to give up baseball and keep his scholarship that he was promised, or he could walk-on and try to get better. He had no doubt that he was not going to give up baseball and decided to walk-on to the team. Last year, he didn’t quite have his normal stuff so he had another conversation with Childress about waiting another season to get 100% healthy and then proving himself during the summer. He remembers sitting in his locker after the conversation crying because he had put in so much work to get back to where he was. He went on a workout program that pushed him 100% every day and he knew that by the time summer rolled around, he would be making Childress know that he was coming back with everything he had.
* He remembers back in the Dominican seeing Vladimir Guerrero get asked why he swings at everything, and he replied, “You don’t get off the island by getting walks.” He isn’t in the position where he needs to “get off the island” because he was born in the United States, but he is in the position where he has a nine month old son that he has to take care of somehow, whether that is through baseball or the degree he gets from Texas A&M. He has to have a mentality of what comes next after his four years at A&M. The reality right now is that the team is focused on winning a national championship, but at the end of his college career, what’s next? Reality really set in when he found out he was having a little boy and he knows that if baseball doesn’t happen, he will be able to find a nice job somewhere with a degree from Texas A&M.
* He remembers talking to his girlfriend about going to the Texas series in Austin to see the team potentially win the Big 12 title last year and she thought he shouldn’t go because his son was going to be born within the month. The team ended up tying for first and his parents eventually convinced him not to go because he shouldn’t miss out on the birth of his first child. He ended up staying and was on his way to work out the Saturday of that weekend when he got a call from his girlfriend telling him her water had broken. He freaked out and turned the car around and got to her house as fast as he could and they were off to the hospital. It all happened so fast and he was more nervous during his son’s birth than he was the night before his first start against UIC. Even though the team lost that same Saturday against the Longhorns, he personally won something so much greater than any game he could ever imagine. He remembers holding his son for the first time and crying as he was overcome with pure emotion.
* The birth of his son served as inspiration that summer as he spent his summer playing in Coppell. His son was able to come to a few games and he always wanted to play his best when he was there even though he would be too young to remember what was going on. He loved his role as a set-up man and being able to help the Coppell team when he could.
* At the end of the fall, Coach Childress told him that the team needed a Sunday starter and that someone was going to have to step up and take that role. Since he already had the mentality of being a leader and working hard day in and day out, nothing needed to change for him to have a great shot at landing the Sunday starting role. He just had to stick to being himself and with what he proved over the summer and into the fall, Coach Childress decided to give him a chance and he is currently doing his best to not let that chance slip away from him.
* The team has great leaders in Michael Wacha and Ross Stripling and it can be hard at times to back up the All-American duo. With the current team, all he has to do is throw strikes and everything else should be taken care of for him. He also knows that if he fails, the team has guys behind him that can step up and throw a good game as well. For himself, he wants to have to confidence to go out and finish a sweep or win a series on any given Sunday and give the team the best possible chance to get to Omaha.
The epic story of Rafael Pineda
Notes from Rafael Pineda interview
* It’s a beautiful feeling to be off to such a great start in 2012. He is just enjoying the game and being a part of the team every day. To be able to share the new park with the guys on the team is an indescribable feeling.* He feels like a freshman on the team because of the struggles that have kept him out of the game the past year. Being able to hang out with the guys in the dugout in a great feeling. The guys are really brothers and consider each other family. Texas A&M is exactly what he dreamed it to be when Coach Childress was originally recruiting him.
* In his first start, he didn’t even notice that he was closing in on a perfect game. He was so nervous the night before his debut and couldn’t fall asleep that night. During the day, he talked to Michael Wacha and Ross Stripling about what it is like being a starter and they told him to just go to work and put the batter back down in the dugout where they came from. He woke up that morning and was still nervous and went up to the Olsen Field. On the way there, his hand was shaking on the steering wheel from being so nervous, but once he stepped out on the field his nerves went calm. When game time drew closer, he started getting anxious and then calmed himself down by thinking about how much he has worked to get to where he is now. With the help of his teammates, he was able to go out and throw a great game and ended up getting his first win as a starter at Texas A&M.
* He didn’t know he had a no-hitter working that game until after he hit the batter in the sixth inning. He felt really bad about it, but the guys calmed him down and he apologized to the UIC coach after the inning. When he came into the stretch and checked the runner at first who was hit by the pitch, he stepped off the mound and looked at the scoreboard and noticed he had a no-hitter going for himself. It wasn’t he was out of that inning that it began to set in that what he was doing was a big time thing. For the rest of the game, he was able to keep focus on throwing strikes and getting the team back in the dugout as opposed to trying to pitch a no-hitter.
* The biggest thing he learned coming out of high school before his time at A&M was having a mental approach to the game. It doesn’t matter what happened the day before, the only thing that matters is what’s happening today. The team takes each day individually and considers the present day, the biggest day of the season. Coach Childress always pounds forgetting the past, good or bad, into the player’s heads to get them focused on the current day.
* His dad signed to play professional baseball at the age of 19 around the same time that Sammy Sosa also signed to play professionally. Coming from the Dominican Republic, the game of baseball means a lot to him and his family. The way the Dominican people play the game of baseball is not a hobby at all, it’s a lifestyle. He is fortunate that his dad signed at the age he did and was able to come to the United States and make it into the majors. He goes back to the Dominican and sees the passion that they play the game of baseball with and it helps him grow to be a better player. It makes him think that he doesn’t need to play the game as a hobby, but as the most important thing in his life. Any time he goes there, it reassures him that if you’re going to play baseball, you need to play with everything you have. Every pitch needs to be like it’s your last. Getting hurt also reaffirmed that play like it’s your last mentality in him. It’s easy to take things like running water or coming to the field everyday for granted. He had a great arm in high school and he lost it in days after his injury. Every time he goes back to the Dominican, he feels the need to bring the fire they play with back with him to the States. It can’t be one day yes, one day no because any day could be your last.
* It was a good decision by his parents to have him born in the United States for citizenship reasons. He sees people born in other countries struggle with getting a visa or green card and he is glad he doesn’t have to deal with that. Coming back to the United States is hard because they give people who are not American citizens a hard time because of drug trafficking or whatever other reason and to not have to deal with that is a blessing. The United States is the best country in the world because there is so much opportunity here.
* In high school, he had not been approached by many colleges because of his Dominican descent. In the Dominican, you either play pro-ball or you don’t play at all so college wasn’t really a big thing to him. He pitched at Weatherford Junior College once and that is when A&M saw him for the first time. They called him and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go to college but it turns out going to school at A&M was the best decision he has ever made. Nebraska and a few other schools started pursuing him, but he eventually ended up signing with the Aggies. One of the deciding factors that kept him from going to Nebraska was their use of the underground tunnels the students use to get to class in because it’s too snowy and icy topside. At first he thought Coach Childress didn’t know anything about Nebraska, and then he did a little background search and found out he coached there for eight years and went to the College World Series with them. The whole recruiting staff reassured him that Texas A&M was the best place for him and he ended up making the right decision. About two months after being in Aggieland, his shoulder started hurting and eventually the velocity on his ball dropped 10 to 12 miles per hour. He saw the doctor and was told that surgery wouldn’t be required. After doing rehab for a few months, his velocity was back up around 87 or 88 miles per hour but he was above that before his shoulder pain. All of a sudden it went back down and he got an MRI and found out his rotator cuff was slightly torn. He ended up getting surgery and the doctor did a really good job on it. He remembers having trouble hearing the words that he was going to need surgery when the doctor gave him the news, and as soon as he was alone, he broke down and started to cry. He thought he would never play baseball again because shoulder injuries are hard to come back from. Coach Childress told him that they really wanted him to stay, but the reality was that it was a toss-up if he would make it back. That semester, he didn’t do very well at his finals because surgery was the day after his last one and he couldn’t focus on his studies because of it. He felt like something was being taken away from him and he didn’t deserve it. His dad is a pastor and prayed for him a lot during that time. As soon as possible, he started rehab and put his mind to coming back better than he was before. He and Coach Childress had a talk once he started throwing again and Childress gave him the choice to give up baseball and keep his scholarship that he was promised, or he could walk-on and try to get better. He had no doubt that he was not going to give up baseball and decided to walk-on to the team. Last year, he didn’t quite have his normal stuff so he had another conversation with Childress about waiting another season to get 100% healthy and then proving himself during the summer. He remembers sitting in his locker after the conversation crying because he had put in so much work to get back to where he was. He went on a workout program that pushed him 100% every day and he knew that by the time summer rolled around, he would be making Childress know that he was coming back with everything he had.
* He remembers back in the Dominican seeing Vladimir Guerrero get asked why he swings at everything, and he replied, “You don’t get off the island by getting walks.” He isn’t in the position where he needs to “get off the island” because he was born in the United States, but he is in the position where he has a nine month old son that he has to take care of somehow, whether that is through baseball or the degree he gets from Texas A&M. He has to have a mentality of what comes next after his four years at A&M. The reality right now is that the team is focused on winning a national championship, but at the end of his college career, what’s next? Reality really set in when he found out he was having a little boy and he knows that if baseball doesn’t happen, he will be able to find a nice job somewhere with a degree from Texas A&M.
* He remembers talking to his girlfriend about going to the Texas series in Austin to see the team potentially win the Big 12 title last year and she thought he shouldn’t go because his son was going to be born within the month. The team ended up tying for first and his parents eventually convinced him not to go because he shouldn’t miss out on the birth of his first child. He ended up staying and was on his way to work out the Saturday of that weekend when he got a call from his girlfriend telling him her water had broken. He freaked out and turned the car around and got to her house as fast as he could and they were off to the hospital. It all happened so fast and he was more nervous during his son’s birth than he was the night before his first start against UIC. Even though the team lost that same Saturday against the Longhorns, he personally won something so much greater than any game he could ever imagine. He remembers holding his son for the first time and crying as he was overcome with pure emotion.
* The birth of his son served as inspiration that summer as he spent his summer playing in Coppell. His son was able to come to a few games and he always wanted to play his best when he was there even though he would be too young to remember what was going on. He loved his role as a set-up man and being able to help the Coppell team when he could.
* At the end of the fall, Coach Childress told him that the team needed a Sunday starter and that someone was going to have to step up and take that role. Since he already had the mentality of being a leader and working hard day in and day out, nothing needed to change for him to have a great shot at landing the Sunday starting role. He just had to stick to being himself and with what he proved over the summer and into the fall, Coach Childress decided to give him a chance and he is currently doing his best to not let that chance slip away from him.
* The team has great leaders in Michael Wacha and Ross Stripling and it can be hard at times to back up the All-American duo. With the current team, all he has to do is throw strikes and everything else should be taken care of for him. He also knows that if he fails, the team has guys behind him that can step up and throw a good game as well. For himself, he wants to have to confidence to go out and finish a sweep or win a series on any given Sunday and give the team the best possible chance to get to Omaha.
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