They both grew up watching Field of Dreams. And they had their own dreams of playing at a Division I school.
“To be honest, I thought [Stanford] would be out of my league,” Cardinal center fielder Sam Fuld says. “So it was pretty flattering when I started to get recruited.”
Now, he’s known as Slammin’ Sammy Fuld, a senior who holds the all-time College World Series hits record with 24. At press time, Stanford’s lead-off batter had 320 career hits, behind only John Gall, ’00 (368), and Paul Carey, ’90 (331). Also making a hefty contribution is sophomore shortstop/second baseman Jed Lowrie, who was boasting a team-high .388 batting average, .757 slugging percentage, .496 on-base percentage, 37 RBI—and eight home runs. “It’s definitely better than last year, when I didn’t hit any the whole season,” the Oregon native says.
The two players love the college game and the 3,000-person crowds that turn out to support the Cardinal. At his Durham, N.H., high school, “I was happy to play in front of 50 people,” Fuld says. Lowrie can top that: “My high school field didn’t even have a fence—just steel bleachers where the parents of the kids who were playing sat. And maybe a couple of friends.”
In early April, Stanford was off to a 24-4 start and ranked first in the nation. “It’s tough to beat that,” says coach Mark Marquess, ’69. “But you have to play well at the right time to get to the World Series.” A trip to Omaha this June would be the Cardinal’s sixth consecutive one, a school record.
Fuld is optimistic. “We’re off to as good a start as we’ve had in my four years here,” he says. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 24th round last spring, but opted to return for a fourth crack at the Series. “It was tough because every college player’s goal is to get drafted high in his junior year,” Fuld says. “He was offered a significant amount of money, but decided to come back to finish school,” Marquess says, with a grin of relief.
For his part, Lowrie played summer ball with the Mat-Su Miners in Palmer, Alaska (population 4,385), then put himself on a six-day-a-week workout regimen that enabled him to gain 10 pounds. “I feel like balls I hit last year that I hit well would go to the warning track,” he says. “They get out now.”
