Hanging with Hobie Harris
It isn't everyday someone gets to lace up a pair of baseball cleats, put on a jersey, and take the field as a professional baseball player. For Hobie Harris that dream became his reality.
Hobie Harris is a 6'3" 200-pound right-handed pitcher for the RiverDogs and is in his second season of professional baseball. Harris works predominantly as a reliever out of the bullpen in Charleston, but that hasn't always been his role.
The McKinney, Texas native starting playing baseball when he was three years old; playing catch with his dad in their back yard. Fast-forward a couple of years and Harris is a senior at McKinney High School playing in the outfield. Outfield, why was he in the outfield if he pitches?
Well to answer your question, Harris stated, "Honestly, going into my senior year I hadn't really pitched much just because I was behind a two kids [at McKinney High School] that actually when in the first round the same year before the year I graduated, so I didn't get much of a look. " Though not having much of a look as a pitcher, his talents elsewhere around the field led him to other opportunities.
Harris began his collegiate career at Paris Junior College. The Texan said, "I actually went to Paris because my coach's younger brother went there. My coach in high school knew the head coach there so I talked to him, and he luckily came out and watched a game where I pitched really well, had a couple of good hits, and I was up on a visit the next week. In my head, I had never really thought of playing college ball so this was an opportunity for me to further playing baseball so that's what got me there."
At Paris Harris pitched 21.0 innings in his freshman season while also sharing time roving the outfield. After the season he and his coaching staff collaborated and came to the conclusion: he should focus on pitching. "It was tough at first because I enjoyed hitting, but when I realized I had so much less to think about and I could focus on honing my craft at the mound, it turned into a good thing."
Now focusing just on pitching, Harris was able to do just that in his sophomore season at Paris Junior College. While looking at several schools such as Arkansas, George Washington, TCU, and Ole Miss, something unexpected came Hobie's way.
When traveling to Arkansas to play in a tournament, one of Harris' teammates was being looked at by a recruiter from the University of Pittsburgh. As Harris reflected, he said, "He [the recruiter] came down to check out Matt [teammate] and they were in need of a couple arms and he saw me throw, and I got a call from him the next day. He said 'we've got scholarships for two more guys; if you come up and visit and like it will just give you the rest of the scholarship money.' So I went up, fell in love with it, and even crazier than that, totally unrelated, both of my parents went to Pitt so that worked out."
While playing with the Panthers for two years Harris had a 6-9 record with a 3.82 ERA over the course of 44 games with two starts in 92.0 innings pitched. Harris had two saves and gave up 52 runs (39 earned) with 44 walks and 81 strikeouts.
His play in Pittsburgh earned him some views from scouts around the majors; enough so, the Yankees took Harris in the 31st round of the 2015 draft. The righty was asked if he knew the Yankees were interested in him and what he was doing when he found out he had been drafted.
"I knew going into my senior year, I really didn't have much to lose. It may have been my last year playing ball so I might as well go all out and hope for the best. Towards the end of the year, I got a call from my area scout for the New York Yankees, and he said 'we want you to come out for a pre-draft workout up in Staten Island. So I went up there, did pretty well in a scrimmage situation, and then had to turn around and drive six hours to go to another one the next day with the Twins and didn't do nearly as well. He said that I showed what I needed to and up until I got drafted, which was 933rd overall, which I remember because we watched every pick. After the 20th and 30th round, they take a ten minute intermission and after the 30th round, my best friend, myself, and my little sister jumped in the car just to get something to eat really quick, and I got a call from my scout and he said 'Hobie, it's Stew. How would you like to play for the Yankees?' And for me, it was so surreal; I never thought I'd get that call. So the three of us knew, but my folks had no idea, so [the Yankees scout] said 'we're about to call your name so get back.' So we walked back into the house, and didn't tell my mom or dad and got a real genuine reaction out of them so that was really cool. To this day, it's still just a really surreal moment for me. I feel like it's a moment I worked for, for 18 years and to reach that moment was really special."
Being drafted by the New York Yankees you know you're going to be put to work quickly. Harris had a full slate and was thrown right into the middle of things from the get-go. Harris spent his time with four teams in the Yankees organization in 2015 ranging from rookie ball going all the way to Advanced A Tampa. He even stopped for a stint in Charleston for two games where he pitched 4.1 innings and gave up three runs. With each team last season Harris held a 2-1 record with a 4.24 ERA in 23.1 innings pitched.
On having to make adjustments to not only the travel but the level of baseball being played Harris commented saying, "It was beneficial to me in the sense that I got number one, to play around a lot of different guys so I could pick their minds, veteran guys that have been around the organization for a little while. I got a little bit of a change of scenery, especially in the Florida State League and the SALLY League…and it gave me a little more hope going into this year because I feel like I got myself on the radar a little bit with myself being a 31st rounder. I feel like I earned it, I worked as hard as I could, as I do today and I will for the rest of my career wherever it takes me. "
On the subject of moving into the challenges of moving from level to level and the adjustments to the competiveness, Harris said, "There are two things that I really noticed. Number one, the strike zone got a lot smaller, and number two, the hitters were a lot more disciplined. I feel like in college, there were a lot of hitters who would sit on one pitch. When I get ahead in the count, I go to my curveball so a lot of guys knew to sit on that curveball, but I felt like at [the professional] level, aside from looking at one pitch, they were looking for one zone. So if you cut the plate in half, if you were going to the side they weren't looking at, they wouldn't even think about regardless of how close or far away it was and if you gave them that zone they were looking for they could hurt you a little bit. As good as those hitters were in comparison to the GCL, it still came down to making competitive pitches and trusting in my stuff."
Being called up to the next level is certainly exciting for everyone involved. Though when being called up in the middle of the season when players have been steadily playing everyday as compared to a player in extended spring training, there is an adjustment to be made there as well.
"I feel like the biggest adjustment I had to make was handling my adrenaline that I had going into the games because as you know, pitching in extended [Spring Training] is just kind of like intrasquad games every day. Especially at The Joe, we tend to get a lot of fans so going out and pitching in front of a lot of people like that will get your heart rate going a little bit, so the biggest adjustment in my first couple of outings was continuing to take it one pitch at a time but slow the game down. Nothing changes, the mound here is the same as it is in Tampa, in extended, it's the same as it is when I was in high school; it's the same game. It's just about making sure mentally I'm focused and I'm prepared enough to handle the task at hand every time I go out."
Harris was called up to the RiverDogs from Extended Spring Training on May 8th and has thrown in five games. In his five relief appearances, Harris holds a 3.27 ERA in 11.0 innings and has given up four runs with no walks and 11 strikeouts on the season.
-Written by Audie Wise
Assistant Director of Media Relations and Broadcasting