When Brent Weaver went to batting practice after three years pitching, Weaver went hitless.
Weaver had been recruited to Oklahoma State to be a closer, but after two surgeries to his shoulder and Tommy John surgery on his elbow, Weaver attempted to recapture the form that made him a feared hitter at Midwest City High School.
Hitting .429 with 26 home runs and 70 RBIs as a senior at Oklahoma City University, Weaver has come a long way since he first came to Rose State to return to being a full-time hitter.
Weaver hit .611 with four homers and 11 RBIs this past week to be Super Star of the Week. When he goes yard one more time, Weaver will tie the single-season school record for homers.
"It would be a huge honor especially with as many great hitters as have come through here,” Weaver said. “I had heard about the tradition of how they go to the World Series almost every year. Playing here is a chance to compete for the national championship.”
To get from swinging and missing at that BP session to leading the NAIA in homers, Weaver put in extra work.
“It was tough,” Weaver said. “I went in the first day, and I missed four balls. I didn’t even make contact. I thought it’d be hard, but I didn’t know how hard it would be. I worked before practice and after practice to get my swing back.”
Weaver spent his sophomore year at Rose State, then came to OCU and hit .428 with 24 homers and 89 RBIs as a junior. Weaver credits OCU coaches Keith Lytle and Denney Crabaugh for putting in work with him.
“It’s an advantage having them as coaches,” Weaver said. “Lytle has worked with me. He never says no if you want to hit more. It’s shown in games and on paper.”
Along the way, Weaver soaked in hitting lessons from Ted Williams’ book “The Science of Hitting” and life lessons from his father, Ronnie.
Weaver pitched for OSU in 2004 then suffered one shoulder injury, then another. In attempting to come back from the second one, he suffered an elbow injury.
Meanwhile, doctors gave Ronnie Weaver three months to live after finding cancer in him. Ronnie Weaver underwent chemotherapy, beat that prognosis and lived nearly a year. The former three-sport athlete at Del City High School lost 100 pounds before succumbing to the illness.
At the funeral, there was a slide presentation with the final slide saying, “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyways.”
“I took that to heart that he may have been scared, and he knew the chemo wouldn’t work, but he kept fighting and set goals to live as long as he could and see his grandson born,” Brent Weaver said. “He was a stud athlete in everything he did. All I heard was how good an athlete he was and how I would never be as good an athlete. Everything about baseball I learned from him, not to mention how to live and be a man.”
Weaver intends to follow his father Ronnie and his brother Ryan into firefighting. Ronnie spent 24 years as a firefighter. Ryan took Ronnie’s place at the fire department in Del City.
“I grew up in the fire department,” Brent said. “It’s like being on a team. It’s your second family. You sleep in the same place and see them every day. It’s a family thing with my brother doing it, too.”
While he was at Rose State, Brent Weaver read the book “The Science of Hitting.” The book says hitters should identify their hitting zones and look for pitches in those places.
“A couple of buddies told me about it,” Weaver said. “Ted Williams was the best hitter ever. I take his approach every day to the plate. He thought of his strike zone. You have to be patient and get the right pitches to hit. If I hit .200 swinging low and away, why swing?”
Having a patient approach has been paying dividends for Weaver this year. Many pitchers have avoided giving him pitches to hit.
“I don’t really understand why people pitch around me,” Weaver said. “You’re not going to have an easy out. It’s frustrating, but it’s not a big deal. There are eight other guys who can pick us up.”
OCU’s third-place finish in last year’s NAIA World Series motivated the team in the off-season. This year’s Stars are 40-5, having risen to No. 1 in the national rankings earlier in the year.
“The way last year ended, it made everybody work that much harder,” Weaver said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it.”
The kind of labor Weaver put in since that oh-fer BP.
More on Brent:
Favorite team: Atlanta Braves
First car I ever owned: ’88 Chevy Silverado
My prediction for the upcoming season: Huge dog pile in Lewiston
Favorite candy: Reese’s peanut butter cup
Best bumper sticker I have ever seen: Women want me, fish fear me
