What Does It Take to Excel?

Eight players with Southland ties were selected in the first round of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft. Palmdale High School senior Matt Harrington was the seventh pick in the first round, earning a spot with the Colorado Rockies. KATHRYN MACLAREN spoke with the 18-year-old, who has a 95-mph fastball.

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MATT HARRINGTON

18, senior, Palmdale High School

I have been playing baseball since I was 11. I think it’s every kid’s dream to play major league ball, but a lot of times that doesn’t happen. What we wanted to do at first was just get a scholarship to college; I was offered one to Arizona State University. I had the grades and the SATs to go, but that was before this happened (being drafted by the Colorado Rockies). The draft was one of the most exciting days of my life.

Baseball was never like a chore to me; it’s always been something I loved to do and never really gave a thought of giving it up. I was always hoping and working for this dream to play major league ball.

I have played all the positions at one time or another, but pitching is what I work at every day, a couple of hours a day, every day--year round. Pitching is kind of an art. Nothing stresses me out about baseball. It’s just a game, my life, but a game.

My advice to those who have the dream of playing major league baseball is don’t ever give up. A lot of kids go out there and they want the dream, but don’t want to work for it. Sometimes they get frustrated with what they do and they just stop because it just seems too much for them. You have to have all of your heart in it and just never give it up; good things happen to those who work hard. I don’t know that I’m so much a “natural” as I am someone who had to work really hard and did it.

I think it is awesome that people might look to me as a role model because not many high school students have been drafted from high school to the major leagues.

My role model is my dad. He’s the one who pushed me all these years. I never took pitching lessons or any other kind of training. The only person who worked with me outside of the coaches from the teams I played for is my dad. He also played baseball for a while and had hoped and dreamed about playing major league baseball, but it didn’t happen for him.

There were a lot of people who thought that he pushed me too hard when I was young, but I never felt that he went overboard. Plus look where it got me.

I think you just have to keep your head on straight, set a couple of goals for yourself and always go straight at them. Drugs, alcohol and parties--stay away from all three. I enjoyed going to Palmdale High; I enjoyed playing baseball for my high school team. Everyone there works his butt off all year long and then they award you at the end of the year for what you did.