There’s something special about the middle of June for Robert Fitzpatrick in terms of his life in baseball. It was at this time in 1990 when he was playing in the College World Series with the Georgia Southern Eagles.
Now, in 2008, Fitzpatrick can celebrate the opening of a new chapter in his career. On Tuesday he became the new head varsity baseball coach for the Westfield Hornets. Fitzpatrick recently held the head baseball job at Mary Persons High School in Forsyth and once served as an assistant in the college level at Mercer University.
A native of New Jersey, Fitzpatrick had that opportunity to play the game in front of the country on Georgia Southern’s CWS team in Omaha. For his career accomplishments in Statesboro, GSU inducted Fitzpatrick into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
“I had a pretty good career at Georgia Southern,” said Fitzpatrick when he visited with some of his new Hornet players at the Westfield campus Thursday. “I was the starting catcher for four years. I came in from New Jersey on scholarship.
“I was fortunate enough that they recognized me for the Hall of Fame.” The World Series bid was in Fitzpatrick’s senior year. He played with a Freshman All-American and future first-round draft pick in Todd Greene and yet another first-round pick in pitcher Josh Hamilton.
Fitzpatrick himself was a seventh-round draft selection by the Montreal Expos organization. He was actually picked in the ninth round by the New York Mets out of high school, but opted for college ball.
“I came from a small town,” said Fitzpatrick. “I got noticed, luckily. (Scouts) will find you if they think you’re good enough. I had a graduating class of 116. We were a relatively small high school, probably the smallest classification … like a 1A school.”
As for Fitzpatrick’s professional playing days, which lasted six years, he reached as high as Class AA (even though he feels he should have reached AAA) and made the Expos’ 40-man roster. That got him to the Arizona Fall League where he first encountered players from the Major League level.
“I was right there, on the doorstep,” said Fitzpatrick. “I was in Major League spring training three straight years. I had Rondell White from Jones County as my roommate and played with him, Cliff Floyd. I caught Pedro Martinez. Even though I didn’t make it to the big leagues, it was still an unbelievable experience.
“What’s good about it is every year you get a new coach. Every coach brings to the table something different. As you pick each coach’s brain, you learn something, and when you take it all together you become a better player and a better coach. I don’t care how good you are, nobody knows it all.”
Fitzpatrick’s first venture into coaching was at Mercer. He said he went to the Macon college to take more school credits he needed, and he became the Bears’ pitching coach.
“It wasn’t so much teaching the basics; you taught more the mental side of the game,” said Fitzpatrick.
From there he jumped into the high school coaching ranks. Westfield will be his first in the GISA, and among his new assignments are finding ways to defeat some perennial powers like Tattnall Square, Deerfield-Windsor and Southland.
“I’m coming in here not knowing a whole lot about the GISA, and that may be a good thing,” he said. “I’m going to get our guys ready, work them hard and get them prepared to play baseball, whoever it may be against.”
Among Fitzpatrick’s other goals at Westfield are to push his players academically and do his part to make sure they have a chance to go to college … not necessarily as baseball players. He said it takes a special player to get as high as the Division I level, but that the coaches will take someone if they have two of the five tools.
“I want to make this a positive experience,” he said.
