Mention Notre Dame and it conjures up visions of the Golden Dome, Knute Rockne and a host of iconic football players.
And to a large extent, men’s basketball also has been a player on the national scene.
But mention Notre Dame and baseball to the average sports fan and you might get a blank stare in return.
Yet, take away Notre Dame baseball and right-hander Kyle Weiland might not be one of the top prospects in Boston’s farm system.
Weiland, who’s in his Triple-A rookie season with the Pawtucket Red Sox, basically “recruited” Notre Dame instead of vice-versa.
“I definitely wasn’t a huge recruit coming out of (Eldorado) high school,” said Weiland, who was Boston’s third-round pick in the 2008 draft. “Not many people get to see New Mexico baseball players (he’s a native of Albuquerque) unless you leave the state, which I did once in American Legion ball when I went to a showcase in California.
“Physically, I wasn’t a big kid … maybe 6-feet and 160 pounds (Weiland now checks in at 6-5, 195). I had good numbers but only was getting recruited in state by a lot of junior colleges, New Mexico and New Mexico State.”
So how did Notre Dame enter the picture?
“I became interested in Notre Dame by a guy named Christian Parker (a Yankees draft pick) who went to my high school,” said Weiland. “He would come back in his off seasons and work with our high school team.
“He went to Notre Dame so I thought it would be an interesting school. I wrote a bunch of interest letters to several schools. Notre Dame was one of them. I used (Parker) as a reference to coach Paul Maineri.”
Whatever Weiland wrote to Maineri, and whatever the coach heard from Parker and Weiland’s high school coach, led to an invitation to the team’s fall camp and later an official visit.
“That’s where it got kick-started,” said Weiland. “I went for my official visit and they made me an offer that weekend. I signed during the early signing period.”
In three years with the Irish, Weiland set single-season (16) and career (25) records for saves.
“I thought it was a long shot when I wrote the interest letter,” said Weiland in a massive understatement. “Christian definitely sparked the interest I had in Notre Dame. And being from New Mexico, Notre Dame wasn’t a huge influence.
“But coach Manieri did a good job building up the program and won both the Big East Conference and tournament championships several years in a row (under Manieri, Notre Dame won the Big East Tournament from 2002-06).”
After a commendable 2008 season at Lowell (3-3, 1.50 ERA in 15 starts and relief appearances), Weiland (who was converted to a starter) hit the proverbial brick wall in 2009 at Class A Salem.
In his first nine starts he was 1-5 with a 7.78 ERA.
“You have to learn at each new step,” he said. “The toughest phase was my first full season when I went to High A. I had about a month-and-a-half where I felt like I wasn’t a pitcher. I didn’t know how to get guys out. It was overwhelming how bad I was doing.
“The way I got out of that was to work and do everything possible so when you get to that fifth day, you can’t say ‘Well, I didn’t work that hard this week so I deserved what I got.’ That’s the main thing I focused on – keep up my work ethic and trying not to give in. It turned around and I started to build a little confidence. I think a big turn-around for me was going through that period of struggle so I knew how to get out of it.”
That’s exactly what Weiland did since, over his last 17 outings, he was 6-4 with a microscopic 1.79 ERA.
As a result, he was promoted to Portland last year where a pair of stints on the D.L. contributed to a 5-9 record and a 4.42 ERA. Yet Weiland posted a .236 OBA which was the best among Boston farmhands who pitched at least 75 innings. And he finished second in the system with 120 strikeouts in 128 1/3 innings.
Weiland hasn’t missed a beat with Pawtucket.
Through his first 12 starts, he was 5-4 with a 3.00 ERA, only 50 hits allowed in 63 innings and 69 strikeouts which through June 10 led the I.L. (Weiland should be 5-4 but Pawtucket’s bullpen blew a 7-0 lead against Indianapolis on May 28 as the Indians rallied for a 9-7 victory).
One of Weiland more interesting stats is he led the league in each of the last two seasons in hit batters with 16 each year.
At face value, that indicates Weiland isn’t afraid to pitch inside.
“He’s not afraid at all,” said PawSox pitching coach Rich Sauveur. “I think you need to pitch inside in this game to have success. He has a good sinkerball and, obviously, it has to be coming in to a right-handed batter.
“He’s had very good command this year. I’m very happy with what he’s going and I hope he keeps doing it.”
One reason why Weiland may “keep doing it” is Boston has allowed him to throw a cutter after telling him not to do so in previous seasons.
“I told them I had a cutter but I don’t think they knew about it,” he said. “I never threw it in college because I didn’t need it as a reliever.
“They told me we just want you to work on your fastball, curveball and changeup as well as consistency and my delivery. When the time comes, they said ‘We’ll look at it.’ “
The time finally came in spring training.
“I think they liked it and thought it could be an effective pitch to use,” said Weiland who’s added it to his repertoire.
Even though Weiland wasn’t heavily recruited in high school, just the fact he pitched for Notre Dame has made a major impression on Sauveur.
“First, to go to Notre Dame, you have to be an intelligent person,” said Sauveur. “And not all baseball people are intelligent, obviously. You might be baseball smart and have baseball savvy. But this kid is intelligent and has baseball savvy. When you have a God-given talent and the brains on top, something’s going to come out of it.
“He’s putting it all together now and has progressed well through the system. I watched Clay Buchholz two years ago and knew it just was a matter of time (before he stuck with Boston). I can’t tell you what day Kyle’s going to up and not come back. But it’s going to happen. He’s going to have a nice career in the big leagues.”