Dec. 9, 1997
Born For the Part
By Luanne Muller
ASU Sports Information Student Assistant
The first place that ASU freshman baseball player Casey Myers was taken to after he was born was a baseball locker room. His first toys were a cloth bat and a cloth ball. At the tender age of 2 years old, his father began to teach him the fundamentals of the game.
"My dad put a catcher's mask on me when I was about 2 or 3 years old," Myers said. "He would put a pillow up to me and throw Wiffle balls to me so I wouldn't be afraid of getting hit with the ball."
It is no wonder, then, that Myers has grown up to be a catcher. In fact, he was the best high school player in the state in 1997 as he was named the Arizona Player of the Year.
Myers, a catcher, batted .500 with 43 hits, 40 RBI, 48 runs scored and 11 home runs in his final season at Casa Grande Union High School. Throughout his high school career, he made it into the record books six times. He set Arizona class 5A records for hits in a season (62 in '96), career hits (164), career RBI (121), career home runs (24), base-on-balls (91) and runs scored (129).
He played on the varsity baseball team at Casa Grande all four years that he was there, helping lead the team to a second-place finish in the State Championships in 1997. He was named the Most Valuable Player as a sophomore and a senior, and he had the second-highest batting average in the state in 1995. In 1995 and '96, Myers played for the Los Angeles Dodgers Scout Team.
Not only was he recognized by the Dodgers, but Myers was also noticed by USA Baseball. He was selected to try out for the 18 & Under USA Baseball Junior Olympics team in July 1996. Though Myers had excelled on all levels up to that point, being selected for this tryout was an accomplishment in itself.
The rough draft of the tryout list, which was derived from recommendations from scouts and coaches, included only 1,000 players from around the entire nation. The list was then narrowed to 54 players who were invited to attend the tryouts.
Myers was the only player from Arizona to make it to the trials. Competition for a position on the team was keen, but Myers was selected to the 18-member squad that was to compete in the '96 World Junior Championships in Cuba.
"It's probably the best baseball I've ever witnessed," Myers said of the tryouts. He was one of three catchers on the team.
The team won a bronze medal with Myers posting a .436 average, going 17 for 39 with nine RBI in 15 games.
Just being asked to qualify for the tournament was an honor that Myers was thrilled to have had. Even though he had to miss a few days of school for the event, he knew the experience was worth it.
"I was so excited just to earn a spot on the team," he said. "It was a great feeling."
While Myers has accomplished a lot in baseball, he has also succeeded in school. He was at the top of his class all four years of high school, and he was a member of his school's chapter of the National Honor Society. He was also valedictorian of his high school graduating class.
While Myers excelled in all subjects, math was, and still is, his strong point. He was taking advanced math courses at Central Arizona College while still in high school, and he also has been tutoring high school and college students since then.
He has already started tutoring members of the ASU baseball team.
"I have tutored seven of them," he said. "Anyone that wants help, I try to help him. If I haven't taken his class, I try to read through his book as fast as I can, and I try to figure out what he is doing. I like helping people."
Whether he is tutoring or working on his own classes, Myers feels that school is very important.
"Academics is one of the things that I was looking for in a college," he said. "I was recruited by Stanford and ASU."
Myers entered his freshman year at ASU in the fall of 1997, where he hopes to study and play baseball for four years. He has not decided on a major yet, but is looking toward math or electrical engineering.
He likes ASU and is glad he chose to come here.
"I feel comfortable at ASU," he said. "I like the players and the coaches."
Myers' dad Clint played baseball at Arizona State from 1971-73. Also a catcher, Clint Myers helped lead his team to a second-place finish in the College World Series.
Myers will be wearing number 22 this season, which is the same number his dad wore. This makes Myers very happy as his dad has been a very big influence on his life.
"He's my coach, my dad and my friend," Myers said. "If I ever have problems in baseball, or anything else, I go to him. He knows me better than anyone else."
During Fall Ball, Myers impressed the coaching staff with both his hitting and his catching. He handled the pitching staff very well, and he did not strike out once.
"We are very glad and excited to have Myers in our program," ASU assistant coach Doug Schreiber said. "We knew coming in that he was a good hitter, and he has done nothing but reinforce that since he's been here. He has also shown some maturity behind the plate. He should battle for some playing time this spring."
So, Myers just hopes to be able to help out when needed this season. He wants to do what he can for the team, and, hopefully, also be a part of a team that, like his dad's, makes it to the College World Series.