BB = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2003
--on the OSU team in doubles (14) and third in total hits (59). His 7 home runs have also made him the conference leader in the category — each four-bagger came during league games.
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Hard-core catcher shows soft side
By Brandi Ball Daily O'Collegiate Oklahoma State University
STILLWATER, Okla. — He has a swagger, a potent bat and an arm that resembles a loaded military rifle looking for its enemy.
Oklahoma State catcher Jason Jaramillo lives, breathes and dreams the game.
You try to steal second, he'll hunt you down with no warning. You throw him an inside fastball, he'll rip it down the line.
He's fierce on the field, but his infectious personality shines through in victory and defeat.
One thing he isn't afraid of is for the competition, or his teammates, to see how much his family means to him.
And he might — just maybe — be a mommy's boy.
"No, we can't put that in a newspaper!" Jaramillo's mother, Nora, said Sunday after the Bedlam game, laughing. "He wouldn't want me to say that. Let me just say, he is still my baby even though he is all grown up."
But to his mother's surprise, Jason doesn't mind the moniker. He smiles when his family is mentioned, and the role his family plays in his life is apparent.
"I call her every night," Jason said. "Absolutely, I can say that. I have no reservations, nothing to hide. I miss my mom."
Then, standing on the field at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, surrounded by autograph-seeking youngsters and college peers, Jason speaks louder for others to hear. His macho image doesn't waiver.
"I miss my mom." And even louder, turning to face the crowd, and speaking affectionately: "I love my mom."
Hitting .391 on the season, Jason, who is coming off a 7-of-12 performance in the Bedlam
Series,
h a s
blasted 7
h o m e
runs, is
second
Tabbed a Johnny Bench Award candidate, Jason isn't going unnoticed by the powers-that-be in college baseball.
"I've got the best catcher in this conference, maybe the best one in the country," Cowboy coach Tom Holliday said earlier this season. "Jason is a player that is young, but you wouldn't know it. He's competitive, he's a perfectionist, works hard, and I don't know a coach that wouldn't take the kid in a second."
According to the Franksville, Wis., native, he learned from the best.
Not his high school coach. Not Holliday. Not those he watched on television as he was growing up.
But his brothers.
"It definitely helped me out, getting the knowledge that they already have." Jason said of older brothers Francisco Jaramillo Jr. and Lee Jaramillo. "They are seven and eight years older than I am, so I was always tagging along whether they liked it or not. Everything just rubbed off on me — it is really because of them that I'm where I am at right now."
Francisco Jr. and Lee both played baseball professionally, and Francisco just retired after finishing his career in the Milwaukee organization.
TheARAMillo family — minus youngest brother Alexis, 18 — traveled to Oklahoma last weekend to watch the Bedlam Series. Unfortunately for the OSU team,
it lost 2-of-3 to the unranked Sooners.
"(Jason) knows the game. You lose one day, maybe you don't hit well or you have an error, and you bounce back. That's Jason," Francisco Jr. said. "He is motivated by that, because that is what good players do. They bounce back and play lights out the next time."
Playing lights out is something Jason is not a stranger to. Holiday has said that he wished he had "twenty more just like him." The young catchers' ambition and hard-working attitude is something his coach can't help but like.
"He is one of those guys that makes a ballclub better, he can really make a name for himself in this game in the future," Holliday said after an OSU victory over Baylor. "I'd really like to see him in the big ones day."
To Jason, his work ethic is something that comes easily.
"I had such a great example in my father (Francisco Sr.)," Jason said. "He has such a tremendous work ethic. From where he has come to what he does now, he takes care of us, I admire him so much. He just came here and started working to make a better life for himself, and he's done it. He made a better life for all of us."
Francisco Sr. came to the United States in 1968, met Nora, and started a family.
"It it was something that I needed to do, and I met my beautiful wife." Jason's father said.
Upon first sight, Jason's father, with a serious and focused look, seems as though he may yell at you rather than talk fondly of his family.
And that is all it takes, a mention of his sons, and Francisco Sr. lights up.
"I am very proud of all my kids," Jason's father said. "It is great he has the chance to play Division I, it makes me very
proud to be here and see him play so well. But he is getting his degree at the end, that is the most important thing."
Spectators of Cowboy baseball would be able to pick No. 15's father out the crowd easily. The same focused look, as if the national championship were on the line, and the same endearing smile.
"He does look a little scary," Jason said about his father. "Don't tell anybody, but he is a teddy bear."
It is clear, after meeting the head of the Jaramillo family, just what it is that keeps them all smiling, especially Jason.
"Ever since I was young, my brothers and my parents taught me it is because of a greater power that I have been given this ability to play baseball," the power-hitter said. "I just take time, say a little prayer to keep me sale, so that he will watch out for me. And he is, he always does."
On the field, Jason takes his job seriously, he is focused, and he is prepared to do whatever it takes to propel his team to victory.
"Obviously, with my position behind the plate. I feel like I am the quarterback of the team." Jason said. "I have to be there in whatever way I can be there, it is my responsibility to keep the team in check, keep things flowing on the field."
OSU aee Scott Baker knows the importance of having a student of the game like Jason as his catcher. Baker also doesn't mind it when the Cowboy five-hole blasts 3 home runs in a game like he did against Texas.
"Having Jason behind the plate helps any pitcher," Bakers said. "He is great back there, and having him at the plate with his hitting ability, gives a pitcher assurance.
"He is one of our biggest assets."