SARASOTA, Fla. -- Fresh off his first season of professional baseball, Jason Hackett returned to Worton, on the Eastern Shore. Friends would stop and ask him about the experience, about his progress.
Hackett suspected they already knew. The local paper trumpeted each appearance made by the Orioles' fourth-round selection of 1993, a left-handed pitcher.
But Hackett told them anyway: He had a terrible, frustrating year.
Hackett was winless in 14 appearances, compiling an 8.53 ERA for the Orioles' Gulf Coast rookie affiliate. Nothing like he envi
sioned as a player at Caravel Academy in Delaware, where he earned the state Gatorade Player of the Year Award.
In his junior and senior years at Caravel, he struck out 228 hitters in 108 innings. He signed a letter of intent at the University of Miami, which, to ballplayers, is like landing a Rhodes scholarship.
He signed with the Orioles just before attending his first class at Miami, went to spring training and felt good, felt he pitched well in extended spring training. Gulf Coast's season opened in June, Hackett threw OK in his first start and then. . . .
Ka-boom. He fell apart.
"It was so frustrating," Hackett said. "As much as people tell you it's going to be OK, you wonder while it's actually happening."
Hackett allowed 81 hits in 50 2/3 innings, allowing 28 walks and 34 strikeouts, and it was the first time in his life he really struggled. When he was in high school and he got behind in the count, no big deal. He could throw a fastball and eventually finish off the hitter for a strikeout.
But in rookie ball, the hitters would fight off good pitches and drop a single over the infield. Hackett might walk the next hitter and then somebody would rope a single and he would be in serious trouble.
"There's usually an adjustment period the first time somebody plays professionally," said Syd Thrift, the Orioles director of player development. "The other players are better.
"I like him. He's got a good body and he's got a good delivery."
It's just that it didn't translate in his first full season. Hackett's high school coach, Paul Niggebrugge, thinks the lengthy negotiations may have affected the left-hander. Hackett went to the Miami campus in August of '93, certain he was going to enroll. He had a change of heart just before attending his first class.
Hackett admits that he fell out of shape during the winter, his weight going from 160 pounds to 185. "I could feel the extra weight," said Hackett, who has since worked off the extra pounds.
Hackett was eager to pitch, sure that he would follow up on his high school success.
But within three or four starts, he says, he was frustrated. Hackett would call Niggebrugge and the conversations would go something like this.
Niggebrugge: "How did it go?"
Hackett, discouraged: "Same as usual."
Niggebrugge says now, "I think [the trouble] was the mental approach, more than anything. He sounded confused, and I think he was thinking too much at times. He wasn't just simply going after it."
Niggebrugge could hear it in his voice -- "I'm struggling. Help. I'd give him a few tips . . . . and he would call me back later."
Hackett says his confidence never really wavered, but Niggebrugge wonders.
"Often times," Hackett said, "what you see on the outside doesn't reflect what's going on on the inside."
Hackett got angry, but he found an outlet for his frustration: Pool. He and some teammates would drive to a billiards hall off Route 41 and Hackett would attack the eight-ball for a few hours, rather than stand behind it.
"I played a lot of pool," he said, laughing at himself.
A week after he returned home, he picked up his glove and started playing catch with his older brother, in effect putting 1994 behind him and focusing on 1995.
Hackett's lost the extra weight. He's working on the flawed parts of his mechanics.
"Basically, I just need to be more consistent," Hackett said. "I want to prove I'm better than what the stats showed."