Former CLU star Hirsh gets promoted to the big leagues
By Steve Ames

GETTING THE CALL-Jason Hirsh, formerly of CLU, delivers a pitch for the Round Rock Express earlier this season. Hirsh was recently promoted to the Houston Astros' major league roster.

The baseballs that were whizzing past batters at speeds in the 90s three years ago at California Lutheran University are today propelling Jason Hirsh as he pitches for the Houston Astros.

Promoted to the major league roster on Aug. 10, he absorbed a loss to the San Diego Padres on Saturday at Minute Maid Field in his first big league start.

Final score: Padres 6, Astros 3.

"It's a lot of fun," Hirsh said. "It's a pleasure to have the fan support that we have. Obviously, I look forward to giving the people more things to cheer about in the future.

"There were definitely a lot of people there rooting for me," he said. "I wasn't expecting as many as I heard when I came out on the field. It was nice to see the big fan support. Everyone was giving me thumbs up and smiles and cheering. So I was very appreciative of that. They made my welcome into the city very nice."

Hirsh left the game in the fourth inning after throwing 87 pitches while giving up four runs, all earned, on seven hits including three home runs. He struck out four and walked two.

"I was comfortable up there, I just wasn't very sharp," he said. "I made some mistake pitches and when you make mistake pitches, it can end up hurting you. . .

"They are a very aggressive team, and I left a couple of pitches hanging-and when you make a mistake, it goes real far."

For the Round Rock Express this season, Hirsh had a 13-2 winloss record, a 2.10 ERA, a PCLleading 118 strikeouts and 51 walks, while pitching 137.1 innings in 23 games.

Hirsh, who turned 24 in February, was selected by the Astros in the second round (22nd pick, 59th overall) of the June 2003 amateur entry draft and received a reported $625,000 signing bonus.

This season's record is reflective of Hirsh's statistics while pitching for the Kingsmen-including his junior year in 2003, his last at CLU, when he went 9-1 with a 3.58 ERA, 126 strikeouts and 22 walks in 100 innings.

Twice he was named to the First Team All Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and in 2003, he was also an American Baseball Coaches Association All-West Region first team selection.

In his pro team stops along the way to Houston, Hirsh, who's 6feet-8, 250 pounds and throws right handed, pitched with the Short Season ('03) Tri-City Valley Cats in Troy, N.Y.; at Advanced-A ('04) Salem (Va.) Avalanche; and at Double-A ('05) Corpus Christi, and had an overall record of 27-26 with a 3.22 ERA, 294 strikeouts and 106 walks in 335 innings.

While at Corpus Christi, he was honored as the Double-A AllStar starting pitcher, the Texas

League Most Outstanding Pitcher, and to the Texas League All-Star team.

This season, he was the starter for the United States team in the Futures Game during the Major League All-Star Weekend in Detroit and pitched an inning for the Pacific Coast League against the International League in the TripleA All-Star Game at Toledo, Ohio.

Hirsh believes that his progression toward playing in the major leagues has been due in part to coaching.

At CLU he learned from head coach Marty Slimak of Moorpark and his staff, but Hirsh said that it was often a hard learning experience and one he didn't appreciate until he turned pro.

"In college, the coaches I didn't like the most were probably the best for me," he said.

"The guys who coached me and the guys who ragged me, they were the guys I was saying, 'Leave me alone, stop picking on me, stop telling me what to do,' but when I look back at it, they knew what they were talking about," Hirsh said.

Slimak said Hirsh was an athlete with tremendous character.

"We'd ask him to do something. We'd say, 'Try this.' And he would try it," Slimak said. "He would never question it. He would just do it and if it worked, he'd tell you right away. If it didn't work, I'd say, 'Keep on going.' And if it didn't work, we'd try something else. He was never a player who would refuse to try something else.

"Jason Hirsh was always trying to learn, learn his position," the coach said. "I told him that his best years would come."

The pitcher has high regard for Slimak and gets back to the CLU campus between seasons and has during-the-season phone visits.

The coach "was a lot of fun to play for," Hirsh said. "He kept everything loose, and there are some things he did that made playing for him a lot of fun. He's a good guy, a good coach."

Slimak, whose Kingsmen play baseball at the NCAA III level, said that he expected Hirsh to get drafted into the majors.

"The opportunities are always at the Division III," he said. "Sparky Anderson said one thing to a lot of these guys who come in: 'If you are good enough, somebody will notice you. It doesn't matter if you are at Stanford, Cal Lu or Penn State, or a NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) school.'"

Hirsh, a St. Francis High graduate and former Burbank resident who was born in Santa Monica, said that making the transition from high school to college was perhaps an even more difficult time for him than from college to pro ball.

"It was difficult getting used to coming from high school where we only play 20 games a year to playing 40 in college and play six times a week and getting acclimated to throwing a lot more, being around a lot of better players," he said.

His games in high school, college or the minors are now important for what Hirsh learned from playing baseball at those levels. Early this season, he was focused on perfecting the slider, but not fretting about it.

"The slider," he said, "I think I'm pretty much there. I have three solid pitches right now that I can throw for strikes: fastball, slider, and my changeup has come a long ways since I first started. It's my second best pitch right now."

While pitching is his main concern, Hirsh knows taking his at-bats while in the minors is now part of playing in the National League.

He said he started hitting last season when he played at Corpus Christi when the Hooks faced National League teams, and he finished with one hit in 10 at-bats.

"It's definitely hard. I remember the first time I stepped in the box," he said. "The ball was coming to the plate at 88 mph. Holy cow, that's hard. It's a lot harder than it looks. You get a perspective (as a pitcher). What you like or don't like is probably what a hitter likes or doesn't like.

Hirsh is scheduled to start tonight's game at Miller Park against Milwaukee Brewers' ace Ben Sheets.

"I'm going to approach it like I would any other start," he said. "I've got to tighten up my location on some pitches and you should see some better outings from me."