Alissa Haber puts up statistics that are nothing less than flamboyant, which is about as weird a juxtaposition as possible in the life of such a down-to-earth individual.
But after the first 30 games of this year’s softball season, her offensive stats were glowing like an aurora borealis in the outfield. The junior left fielder was batting close to .500, had a squad-leading 23 extra-base hits (including five home runs) and was 10-for-11 in stolen base attempts. While she was doing all that, the team split a pair of games on opening day and then won 28 straight.
Nothing in Haber’s demeanor comes across anywhere near as flashy as her hitting. Her competitive intensity is obvious in the way she analyzes every nuanced aspect of her play and the sport, but her conversation is dappled with laughter and genial little personal revelations. She’s just so good a player that her performance is showier than anything in her nature.
Haber, in the running for an array of postseason honors, hits leadoff and regards it as an opportunity to assume responsibility beyond having a successful at-bat. “You get to set the tone,” she says. “You get to see a lot of pitches. That’s kind of the goal, see as many pitches as you can, so that way, if you do get out, you can go back to your teammates and say, ‘Look, here’s what she’s throwing, here’s what she threw me, here’s what working, here’s what not.’ I like being in that leadership role.”
Raised in Newark, Calif., Haber was a Stanford softball fan before she was 10. When she matured into a player targeted by college recruiters, there never was any doubt about her decision if accepted for admission: “Always Stanford.” After arriving, she made an immediate impact on the field while gradually learning how to cope with the full measure of the Stanford challenge.
“I had a really, really rough first two years academically,” notes Haber. “I mean, I passed all my classes. But I definitely wasn’t used to it, and I tried to be premed, which was a mistake. But I’m a junior now. I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve found something that I like to do. I enjoy going to classes.’’
Haber is an English major with an emphasis in creative writing. The joy she has found in that is her reward for the stick-to-itiveness that’s also central to her personality.
“She was a very highly competitive kid. In the classroom, everywhere, she’s always been highly competitive. And she got that from me,” says her father, Dave Haber, who was a national champion high jumper at CSU-Hayward (now CSU-East Bay).
“When I grew up,” he continued, “I didn’t know sometimes how to deal with that competitiveness. I was able to know what she was going through and was able to rein her in and say, ‘You gotta relax. You’re fine, you’ll be successful.’”
Spectacularly, as it turns out.
Team Spirit
When a Stanford softball player hits a homer, the team joyously streams out of the dugout to greet the hitter after she crosses home plate, and then erupts in a semi-tuneful chant. The Spanish part of the cheer was borrowed by star pitcher Missy Penna from the Dominican national team (which she has played with), and the closing words pay homage to the commentary in Nintendo’s famous NBA Jam video game. Catcher Rosey Neill translated.
No, no, no, no, no
Diga lo que no
Adios!
Pelotita de mi vida
Boom shakalaka!
She’s on fire!
From downnnnn townnnnn!’’
(The Spanish is meant to express:
Say it isn’t so
Goodbye!
Little ball of my life.)
