Christian's perseverance pays off with Yankees

It was great to see former Southeast Missouri State baseball player Justin Christian called up to the major leagues last week.

Christian, an outfielder promoted by the New York Yankees from Class AAA because of an injury to Johnny Damon, wasted no time making an impact.

Christian was placed into the starting lineup for Tuesday's game at Pittsburgh, just hours after being called up.

Playing left field and batting eighth, Christian went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs batted in.

Christian has also started three more games since then, including one in right field. His bat has cooled off as he now is hitting just .200 (3-for-15).

Not only was I pleased to see Christian reach the majors for the fact he's a Southeast product, I was also happy because I got to know him fairly well during his only season in Cape Girardeau and he seemed like a great kid.

Christian played just one season at Southeast, in 2003, after transferring from Auburn, where he was the starting second baseman in 2001 but missed the entire 2002 campaign with a torn labrum.

That serious injury threatened to derail Christian's baseball career, but he revived it after leaving Auburn. By all accounts, he worked his rear end off to get back on the field.

Christian had a big season for Southeast in 2003. Playing second base, he batted .376 with 13 home runs, 12 doubles, 48 RBIs and 18 stolen bases in 20 attempts. He was the Ohio Valley Conference rookie of the year and made two All-American teams.

The 28-year-old Christian is also a neat story because he had to work his way up through the independent professional ranks, which doesn't happen very often.

Christian started his pro career with the Frontier League's River City Rascals in 2003. He also began 2004 there before the Yankees organization picked him up.

Christian has risen steadily through the Yankees minor league system. This year he was batting .309 with four homers, 14 doubles, 39 RBIs and 18 stolen bases in 20 attempts for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

During his minor league career, Christian has hit .287 with 191 stolen bases while being caught just 33 times. In 2006, he stole 68 bases for Class AA Trenton to set a team record.

Here's hoping Christian continues to succeed and has a long major league career. He's certainly deserving.

By the way, according to university officials, Christian is just the fifth Southeast product to reach the big leagues.

The most recent before Christian was Kerry Robinson, who completed his eligibility at Southeast in 1995 and last played in the majors in 2006 with the Royals. Robinson had his most success with the Cardinals, appearing in 344 games from 2001 to 2003.

Steve Bieser, who finished up at Southeast in 1989, played in 60 major league games for the Mets and Pirates in 1997 and 1998.

The other two former big-leaguers are old-timers. Jack Powell (Southeast 1912) played in two games for the St. Louis Browns in 1913, and Roy Parker (Southeast 1918) appeared in two games with the Cardinals in 1919.

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Cape Girardeau was well represented during the recent Missouri State Amateur golf tournament.

Todd Obergoenner, Blake Driskell and Brevin Giebler all navigated through the original field of 156 players to reach the final 32 of match play, with Obergoenner making it to the round of 16. Only 64 players even advanced to match play.

Obergoenner and Driskell are members of the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale golf team, where Obergoenner tied for the squad lead with five rounds in the 60s this year.

Obergoenner is also quite a student, recently earning third team Academic All American honors. He had a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

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Here's wishing Jeff Dodson all the best after he recently was hired for his first Division I baseball head coaching job at the University of North Dakota.

Dodson takes over the Fighting Sioux, who are making the jump from Division II to Division I, after serving the past five seasons as a Southeast assistant.

Dodson did a great job as the Redhawks' recruiting coordinator and pitching coach.

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Any youngsters who attended the recent Plaza Tire Capahas baseball camp but failed to receive a T-shirt can pick those up at any remaining Capahas home game.

The Capahas' next home action will be this weekend as they host the National Baseball Congress Mid-South Regional. Play will be Friday through Sunday.

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I didn't have a huge rooting interest, but I was pulling for the Boston Celtics to win the NBA championship.

I've liked Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce ever since I watched from press row as the duo put on a show during the 1995 McDonald's All American Game in St. Louis.

Garnett and Pierce, two of the nation's top high school seniors that year, led the West team to a 125-115 victory.

Garnett had 18 points and 11 rebounds to earn MVP honors, while Pierce poured in 28 points.

Garnett and Pierce did a similar number on the Lakers in the recent NBA finals.

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College baseball doesn't get nearly the attention of college basketball, especially when it comes to the NCAA tournament.

But the College World Series that concluded last week was riveting, with Fresno State pulling off one upset after another to capture the championship.

The Bulldogs were actually a top-25 team entering the season, but failed to live up to expectations and would have been left out of the NCAA field had they not won their conference tournament to earn an automatic bid.

Fresno State was a No. 4 regional seed — and regionals consist of just four teams. No squad seeded that low had ever won baseball's national title.

In fact, no team seeded so low had even won an NCAA championship in any sport.

Comparing it to basketball, that would be like a 13 through 16 seed claiming the national crown.

That's what I call an underdog.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.