Going homerless only blight on Stainback’s sterling career
A handmade poster greeted Rice second baseman Ford Stainback when he arrived on campus for freshman orientation.
As he recalls, it said something along the lines of: “Ford hits the long ball … and chicks dig it.”
“It’s funny,” Stainback said, “because I’ve never hit (a home run).”
Four years later, Stainback is still waiting to take that trot around the bases. That’s 227 regular-season games and 867 at-bats.
The home-run drought goes back eight years if you count high school.
“I want to know the feeling of hitting one in a game,” Stainback said. “But time is running out.”
No. 2 seed Rice opens against third-seeded Louisiana Lafayette on Friday in the first game of the Houston Regional at Cougar Field.
With the exception of the one statistic to elude him, Stainback is having the best season of his career. He was named firstteam All-Conference USA after hitting a career-high .336 and leading the Owls in hits (72), runs (46) and triples (three).
“He’s been a consistent force since he’s been here,” Rice assistant coach Clay Van Hook said. “This has been his best year.”
Stainback said the “point it all clicked” for him came last summer while he played for the Santa Barbara Foresters of the California Collegiate League.
Before this season, Stainback’s best year was as a sophomore in 2013, when he hit .295 and was a second-team all-C-USA pick. His first three seasons were split between second base and shortstop; he started all but one of the Owls’ 55 games at second base this season.
“It kind of all came together,” he said.
Not bad for a three-time state tennis champion who did not have a baseball scholarship offer heading into his senior season at Highland Park High School in Dallas.
The Rice coaching staff told him at a summer camp there were no scholarships available and to try back at the Owls’ winter camp. Having decided not play in junior college, Stainback thought his playing career was over, with the Owls his last chance.
“I knew I was good enough to play, but no one seemed interested until right there at the end,” Stainback said. “The fact Rice essentially gave me a chance is something I definitely look back as a big blessing.”
Now if only Stainback could get that first home run. He’s come close, hitting the wall in a game. Then there was the home run in an intrasquad game that he refuses to count.
“I’ve gotten close,” he said.
The summer after his freshman year at Rice, Stainback played for the Haymarket Senators of the Valley. On one at-bat, he hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball that carried over the 260-foot wall in left field. “Nothing big,” he said. As his career winds down, Stainback has come to terms that he may never get a home run.
“I’ve embraced it,” he said. “I’m going to go for no home runs and see if I can claim the best hitter to come through with 800 atbats without a home run.”