College baseball: UTPB's Hook enjoying his stateside baseball experience

There was something Christopher Hook really liked about baseball. Something about the dimensions and the rules and the feeling Hook got when he watched his father play it.

In Australia, that put Hook in the minority.

There was something he liked about that, too.

"It was almost the uniqueness of playing a sport that isn't very popular in Australia," Hook said. "And being good at something that not very many people were good at back home."

Home is the coastal town Jewells, in New South Wales, the most populous state in a country where cricket and rugby dominate the sporting landscape. It is a far cry from Odessa, home of the UTPB baseball team, where Hook has broken out as the Falcons designated hitter in his first season after transferring from Western Nebraska Community College.

Hook is batting .429 with 22 RBIs and a .584 on-base percentage, the top mark in the Heartland Conference.

With those numbers the Falcons likely would have welcomed someone from Mars, but Hook said he has been welcomed by UTPB since the first day his voyage brought him to the Permian Basin.

Yet this is still different for Hook, just like Scottsbluff, Neb., was different, and just like baseball was different.

For Hook, the key always has been dealing with being different or dealing with change. In some cases, it has been easier to deal with than others.

For example, a 5-year-old Hook tearing it up at tee-ball. That's a lot easier when your father has been playing baseball in Australian leagues, a successful catcher who teaches you the fundamentals and that it is OK to be, well, different. Hook becomes a bat boy and soaks it all in.

>> A BIT OF PEER PRESSURE: As Hook approached high school and he played cricket during the summer- that went well with baseball - his friends asked him to come out for rugby in the winter. He's 6-foot-2, 215 pounds now, but even then seemed more built for a contact sport.

Hook declined. 

"I'd muck around and play rugby, but it wasn't something I was interested in," Hook said. "They told me I had the size to come play rugby. I enjoyed cricket and baseball. They're both bat and ball sports."

>> THE BASEBALL GRIND: In Australia, Hook often played just once a week. When he came to the U.S. the schedule picked up, and the games being so close to each other made it difficult to get out of a slump.

"It didn't give me a chance to refresh," Hook said. "In the third year, I've managed to deal well with it. I've talked to guys who went to high school here and they're used to it."

>> THE SURROUNDINGS: Back home, Hook lived five minutes from the beach. In Scottsbluff, he felt bordered by cornfields. And the baseball fields in West Texas aren't exactly fields of dreams, but compared to what he's seen in Australia, Hook says they are much better. The stands, the outfield walls and bigger facilities - a place like Roden Field might be surrounded with little, but it is beautiful to him. So he reminds himself of that.

"Most fields you play on (in Australia) are shared with other sports," Hook said. "To find a pure field that's just for baseball, there aren't many. A lot of fields have fake fences that are shared with cricket. Even the bad ones here, compare them to Australia and they'd be high-class facilities."

>> THE PITCHING: There's no comparison between the pitching Hook sees now and the kind he saw in leagues back home. Thing is, he says that's likely helped him with his plate discipline at the college level. He had to learn to wait for his pitch because not a lot of guys could throw for strikes.

"Back home, you face maybe one tough pitcher every five or six weeks - if you're lucky," Hook said. "In the men's leagues I play, some of those guys are pretty bad. They might throw 70 mph. Then maybe once every four weeks you face a decent pitcher."

>> THE DESIGNATED HITTER SLOT: Formerly a first baseman and catcher at Western Nebraska Community College, Hook hasn't been asked to play defense because he hasn't been needed to, really. He's taken the change - and the lull between at-bats - in stride, providing the Falcons a big bat behind Logan Forest (.460 batting average, 22 RBIs, .515 on-base percentage). The cleanup hitter, Forest was expected to be UTPB's steady presence in the lineup. Hook did not sign with the Falcons until Aug. 15.

"The one thing we knew was Logan was going to get pitched around," UTPB head coach Brian Reinke said. "We knew we had to have guys behind him to protect him. Chris, from the fall on, I knew he was going to be our guy. ... He's very patient at the plate. He doesn't do anything to get himself out."

>> THIS QUESTION: Why does Hook love baseball so much that he came to another country to play it and what about it could those in Australia not understand?

He deals with this one the best he can.

"I don't think I've ever been able to pinpoint it," Hook said. "I guess I just love playing the game."