The Next Swisher – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/2/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 2, 2002
By RUSTY MILLER
AP Sports Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – There was never much question that Nick Swisher was born to baseball.
His father, Steve Swisher, a catcher for nine seasons with the Cubs, Cardinals and Padres, is also his best friend.
An affinity with the game seemed to follow Nick. One of his earliest recollections is of falling asleep at the age of 6 on the bat rack during one of his dad’s games as a minor-league manager in Waterloo, Iowa.
The bond between father and son remains strong, and is built on many things. Yet baseball always seems to be at the foundation.
“He’s done things that in my life I someday hope to do,” Nick said of his father. “He’s been there and he’s done it all.”
Now Nick is one of the best collegiate players in the country. He’s comfortable with who he is and what he feels he is destined to become. And the Ohio State outfielder, riding a 17-game hitting streak, has always been comfortable walking in his father’s spikes.
“The biggest thing we have in common is our drive to be the best,” Steve Swisher said. “I’m really proud of what he’s done to this point.”
Nick has made a name for himself at Ohio State, where he is second in the Big Ten in hitting with a .410 average. Not coincidentally, the Buckeyes lead the conference by a game and a half.
Ohio State has bobbed in and out of the national rankings all season and is 25-13-1 coming into the final month of the season. Swisher, a 6-foot, 200-pound junior from Parkersburg, W.Va., is one of the biggest reasons for that success.
After two glittering seasons with the Buckeyes _ in which he batted .310 with 25 home runs and 104 RBIs _ he has become a better hitter even though most pitchers try to keep the ball away from him.
“It’s definitely hard to pitch to him now,” teammate Christian Snavely said. “They go outside on him and he’ll hit it to the opposite field. If they come inside, he can drive the ball.”
As with many things in a stubborn 21-year-old’s life, it’s taken time to finally catch on. It has not been enough to tell him what to do; he had to discover it on his own. His coaches had been harping on him for more than two years to go up the alley with the outside pitch.
Since coming around, he has been hitting at a .442 clip with three homers and 13 RBIs over his hitting streak.
“Nick started out trying to impress the scouts because obviously he wants the opportunity to play pro baseball,” Ohio State head coach Bob Todd said. “He felt the way to do that was power, hitting home runs. We’ve sat and talked to him and finally, the last month of the season, he’s begun to realize that consistency and showing his athleticism is just as important.”
He remains an enigma _ a power-hitter in a relatively compact and lithe body, a cocky hitter with a hint of self-doubt, a man still trying to shed his boyish ways.
Catcher Joe Wilkins remembers when Nick showed up on campus on his recruiting visit.
“He brought pictures of all his girlfriends,” Wilkins said, laughing at the thought. “And he was real loud. He was just happy to be here, excited to meet everybody. He wanted to fit in right away. That’s the kind of guy he is _ real outgoing.”
Nick denies the part about the pictures, but he pleads guilty to being a guy who has seldom run away from a party or a joke.
“I love to have a good time,” he said. “I wear my heart on my sleeve when I play. I’m a very emotional player. I’m learning to take that and bring it down a notch. I’m learning to yell and scream when it’s time and learning when to shut my mouth at other times. When I’m out on the diamond, that’s the best time of my day.”
Todd, a disciplinarian and old-school teacher and coach, concedes that he and his star player have clashed.
He first met Nick when they lived in the same neighborhood in suburban Columbus and Nick used to play with Todd’s daughter. Todd said in many ways Nick hasn’t change a lot from that playful sixth-grader who always wanted to be the center of attention.
“Nick is a live wire,” he said with a grin. “You just never know what he’s thinking and what’s going to come out of his mouth. He means well, but sometimes his mouth and his actions can dig a hole for him.”
His father wasn’t exactly a shrinking violet, either. Steve was a baseball All-American at Ohio University and a first-round draft choice by the Cubs in 1973. Just three years later, he was a National League All-Star. He went on to play nine years before beating around the bushes for almost that long hoping to become a major-league manager.
“Things didn’t work out and life goes on,” said Steve, now a regional sales manager for an aluminum company.
That major-league dream lives on, however, in the son. Steve attends as many games as he can, making the 90-mile drive from Parkersburg to Columbus. He has been known to pitch batting practice, but he keeps his advice to himself. When he can’t make it to games, he listens patiently to his son on the phone.
“That’s an edge I have on a lot of people,” Nick said. “They can’t say, ‘Dad, what am I doing wrong?’ He’ll give me a couple of pointers and the next game I’ll go out and get a couple of base hits.”
It has been 20 years since Steve played his last game in a major-league uniform. He’s excited about what lies ahead for his son, who may soon follow a similar path. After the season, the two will sit down and discuss whether Nick will return for his senior year or pursue that big-league dream.
“As far as talent and attitude about and toward the game, I think good things are going to happen to Nick,” Steve said.
