There are many unique challenges when starting a team from scratch. There’s the question of facilities, uniforms, ticketing and 100 other things. There’s also the question of the dynamic of the team itself. What will happen when you throw a bunch of guys together who have never played with each other before? Who will rise as the leader? Who will become the spokesman?
The Oregon baseball team is finding the answers to those questions as the season is going on. There are 17 freshmen on the team and 14 juniors and seniors on the roster, and there are no established “veterans” in the sense that guys haven’t been able to go through the system and get comfortable. This is the first year for everyone.
For Danny Pulfer, a freshman from Cypress, Calif., coming to Oregon meant dropping the persona of a freshman right away. Head coach George Horton and the staff expected the infielder to be the lightning rod and an outspoken leader from the start of fall practices.
“Danny was a representative guy that we wanted to build the program around,” Horton said. “He’s a competitive little guy. That’s what I told him in the recruiting process. He’s been everything I thought he would be for this program.”
Pulfer has embraced the role as one of the leaders on the team. He often is requested for interviews after games and practices because he’s such an open person. He doesn’t sugar-coat the truth, he’s well spoken and he talks like he’s a three-year veteran already.
Second baseman Josh Hogan, who is three years Pulfer’s elder, says Pulfer may be comfortable talking to the media and being himself now, but it took him awhile to warm up to things.
“I kind of see him as more of a quiet guy honestly,” Hogan said. “Yeah, he’s the media guy, but he’s cool. He was pretty quiet at the beginning of the year and in the fall, and he’s opened up lately. But that goes for all of us. He’s pretty laid back.”
Part of the reason Pulfer is now just hitting his stride is because of all the setbacks he encountered. He got sick and wasn’t ever completely 100-percent in the fall, then he had a horrible first couple of weeks to start the season. Then Horton decided to move Pulfer to third base from second, and he had to spend time getting used to that.
“Some of the sickness and injury in the fall kind of put a hiccup up in him feeling totally comfortable with everybody,” Horton said. “He didn’t feel like he could take the leadership personality because he was banged up.”
In his first series in February against the St. Mary’s Gaels, Pulfer was 1-for-9, and he went 3-for-25 in his first 11 games in college. He started to press, and like the rest of the team, he couldn’t dig himself out of the slump.
“I think my problem was that I had a bad first series against St. Mary’s, and then I kept struggling with the stick, and then I was trying to get 10 hits at once,” Pulfer said. “I was looking at batting average more than trying to just hit the ball hard. But then I got on a roll, and I’ve had my ups and downs, but it’s better.”
Through it all, Hogan tried to help Pulfer and the other freshmen with his experience from two years of college baseball at Mount Hood Community College.
“I just tried to have Danny stay positive,” Hogan said. “He’s a young player. Going in and succeeding a lot in high school, then seeing failure is pretty tough for freshmen, but he got through it pretty quickly.”
Pulfer credits his turnaround to finally getting used to college athletics. He’s batting .289 since the Santa Clara series, a turnaround of over .160. For the season he’s a deceptive .259, but he’s hitting the ball harder. It takes time, he says, and he finally got comfortable.
“It’s a different level up here,” Pulfer said. “In high school, everyone is used to hitting over .400, but it just comes down to getting big in the box and see ball, hit ball. Probably halfway through the season I realized, this guy is throwing 92 (mph)? It doesn’t seem like 92. At one point it just kind of clicked and you get used to the upper level, and you get more relaxed, and that’s when the hits start coming.”
There has been one minor adjustment to Pulfer’s mental game, however, Horton says.
“He always tended to have a reason why he couldn’t be successful,” Horton said. “I’m not saying he’s an excuse-maker, but he was a little bit of a finger-pointer – ‘It was the umpire’s fault, he didn’t give me time, or this guy didn’t do that.’ But I think Danny is made of the right stuff, and is going to be the future of this program. I wanted to cut that off right where it initiated and make him get used to using the thumb and saying it was his own fault, and the umpire won’t affect him sort of thing.”
“What was working against Danny was that we didn’t have that second string, more experienced guy who could motivate him while he was playing into shape,” Horton said. “We just kept him in there, and after a while he was trying too hard because he was batting .200.”
Besides Pulfer’s individual struggles, it’s been hard for him to stay positive and have fun while going through a losing season like the Ducks are. Through Wednesday, the team is 14-31, and he says part of the reason the team is having a tough time is because almost no one on the team has ever gone through a losing season before.
“It’s different. It’s tough,” Pulfer said. “A lot of these guys could have had scholarships to other schools that are doing just fine. We were talking about this the other day and people were asking if you’ve ever been on a losing season. I’ve been on one, but I’m talking 15-16.”
The losing can be a blessing in disguise, though. Pulfer thinks the blowouts and the heartbreaking defeats will strengthen this team and make them stronger in the coming years.
“What we’re getting here is like no other,” he said. “Everybody can say, ‘We were on a great team, we won a lot, yay!’ But how much did they learn? Because the real success is learning from adversity. I think we are going to succeed far more than other teams that (win a lot) because of what we’ve learned this year.”
So how do Pulfer and the Ducks translate the losing into success? By having fun, he says. Pulfer loves doing the little kid camps after Sunday home games because they don’t have a care in the world and just play for the sake of playing and having fun. That’s the sort of thing the team needs to find again.
“I was kind of looking at guys and their demeanor, and I thought, ‘You know what? I don’t think anyone is having fun anymore,’” Pulfer said. “It’s hard to have fun when you’re losing, but I love doing these little kids camps. They don’t know a lick about baseball; they just come out and play for snacks after the game. It takes you back, man. That’s just what it is. You got to find ways to have fun.”
In the end, Pulfer is just another college freshman living in the dorms and dealing with a busy social life, homework and sports. He’s sick of the food at Barnhart. He’s annoyed by noisy neighbors and he struggles with time management. He can’t wait to move out and live in an apartment or house and have his own space. All normal feelings for a 19-year-old.
And his coach, who recruited him and has helped him grow as a person and as a baseball player, thinks Pulfer is finally learning what it takes to succeed in life and on the diamond.
“I think everything is evolving in a very positive manner for him,” Horton says. “He feels comfortable in the system and I think he’s having more fun playing. He’s becoming Danny.”
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