Where Have You Gone, Brandon O' Hearn?
This is easily defined when you consider O'Hearn went from a "diamond in the rough" 38th round draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds to starring on the diamonds of the Appy League to his current position today as a professional sports agent for Diamond Sports Management.
"I've been with Diamond Sports Management for about five years. I help to recruit clients and with negotiating contracts. It really helps that I am a former pro player when I work with high school kids that have just been drafted. It really comforts the moms and the dads that I personally have been through all the process of signing a pro contract," described O'Hearn during a late October telephone interview about his duties with this agency that can count Atlanta Braves' star pitcher John Smoltz among it's clients.
It also does not take a lot to stoke O'Hearn's memories of Princeton as his agency also represents three former Princeton Devil Rays: Paul Hoover and Travis Phelps from the 1997 squad as well as 1998 P-Ray Pete Laforest.
"I remember the first time I was introduced to Travis Phelps and found out we both had played in Princeton. Our faces both lit up when we talked about our seasons there. The more we talked, the more I realized how much a part the townspeople of Princeton played in making it a smooth transition for me in my first year of pro ball," O'Hearn recollected and also added that "The first names that come to mind for me when I look back at Princeton are Roy and Ruby Beasley and Peggy Lambert as people who were especially good to me. Miss Ruby especially took the whole team under her wing with those baked goodies."
Ask a fan about Brandon O'Hearn in 1996 and they will tell you about a player who started out of the gate fast to soar among the league's leading power hitters for that season. Ask Brandon the same question and he will agree that he had a good early season but he will also remind you it did not start until his third game.
"I think I went 0-for-4 in each of my first two games and I was looking around at the high draft picks on our team like Johnny Oliver (outfielder-1st round), Buddy Carlyle (future major league pitcher-2nd round), and Nick Presto (shortstop-5th round), and wondering why I signed," explained O'Hearn, who still had a year of college eligibility remaining at the time of his signing.
But with his next game of 1996, O'Hearn took off on a tear that would see him end up getting named to the league All-Star team on the basis of his 13 homers and 52 runs batted in with 17 doubles and 33 runs scored thrown in for good measure in his 65 games of action for the P-Reds. A late season tailspin dropped his batting average to .277 for the year but it could also be attributed to a lineup on a 28-40 team that (other than O'Hearn himself and before the mid-season departure of first baseman Jason Parsons) displayed no potent bats that would offer O'Hearn the chance to see more good pitches. He credits 1996 P-Reds' manager Mark Wagner with keeping him focused until the first base hits started to fall.
"Obviously, I wasn't pleased I started off 0-for-8 but Mark Wagner told me not to worry as he was planning to play me every day. All of a sudden things started clicking and I never really hit a bump until the last two weeks of the season. I just felt good all season and seeing the ball so well it was like everything was in slow motion," commented O'Hearn.
He also had a quick and decisive answer when asked about his most memorable game during that first pro season in Princeton.
"The first time my mom saw me play pro ball was at Princeton and I hit two homers that night. A lady won a boom box that night because I hit two homers in the same game. I remember she gave me $100.00 after the game as a thank you for winning that prize for her so it definitely was a memorable game for me," recalled O'Hearn.
A versatile college player at Columbus (GA) State University, O'Hearn played some at first base for the 1996 P-Reds and even made one mound appearance that proved profitable also.
"One of our pitchers, Jon Phillips, bet me $20.00 I could not strike out the side in an inning. I did but I think I gave up three or four runs while I was doing it," laughed O'Hearn.
The versatility that O'Hearn showed was indeed important as the number of players on the 1996 P-Reds' roster shrunk dangerously low as it became increasingly apparent that the Cincinnati Reds were not going to return a farm team to Princeton the following season.
"I personally did not hear any talk around the locker room that the Reds were leaving. I was trying to stay focused on getting acclimated to pro ball and did not want to pay attention to any talk like that. I do remember a lot of guys getting called up and moved out of Princeton," he said.
Going into August 1996, O'Hearn was locked in a home run chase with Calvin Pickering of the Bluefield Orioles, who eventually won the crown with 18 round trippers. O'Hearn remembered 1996 P-Reds' pitching coach Terry Abbott threatened a fine to any Princeton pitcher that yielded a homer to Pickering, but it was to no avail since the Baby Birds slugger continued to go deep versus the Reds' staff for the balance of the season.
O'Hearn's career stayed in West Virginia for the following two seasons as a member of the Charleston (WV) Alley Cats before parting ways with the the Cincinnati Reds in 1999 as the result of a broken hand that continued to hurt him even after the bone had mended. At that time he was being converted to a pitcher by Cincinnati. He then returned to his alma mater, Columbus State (GA) University and obtained a degree in Criminal Justice. For the three months immediately following his graduation, he was a local high school baseball coach before deciding to forego that for his current career with Diamond Sports Management.
His current job has enabled him to stay in touch with many players that were both his teammates and his opponents. Two former Princeton names he occasionally crosses paths with are both now in scouting: 1996 P-Reds' shortstop Nick Presto, who now scouts for the Orioles, and 1997-1998 P-Rays' pitching coach Milt Hill, a fellow Georgian, who scouts for the Devil Rays. O'Hearn himself is another in a string of players from Columbus, GA to wear the Princeton colors, which includes among others first baseman Marlon Allen (1994), second baseman Derek Mann (1998), and pitcher Brian Baker (2006). The subject of good times in Princeton always comes up whenever he sees any of these people.
He now makes his home in the Atlanta area with his wife of four years, Keisha, and his two-year old daughter Brelyn.