If nothing else, Ryan Khoury’s life in baseball has been about overcoming odds and proving his critics wrong.
Khoury, a versatile infielder for the Portland Sea Dogs, was a first-team All-State selection as a senior at Copper Hills High in West Jordan, Utah. But after every professional baseball team and every Division I college program in the nation passed on him, he found himself without a lot of options.
Enter University of Utah head coach Tim Esmay, who’s now the assistant head coach at Arizona State.
“I always was pretty small and skinny and I really didn’t get much attention,” said Khoury, who through his first 64 games this season was batting .273 with 16 doubles and 31 RBI. “I put up some good numbers, but the only guy that recruited me was Tim Esmay. He said ‘We’d like to have you up here, but we don’t have any money.’ He said ‘We might red-shirt you, but if you come out and prove yourself in fall ball, we’ll give you a fair shot.’
“He gave me a fair shot and it ended up I started my freshman year. He kept his word and I’ll always respect him for that – for giving me a chance and a scholarship.
“A lot of times you get into college and guys tell you stuff they don’t really mean,” continued Khoury, who was Boston’s 12th-round pick in the 2006 draft. “He said he’d give me a chance and he followed through on it.”
At his first weigh-in, Khoury went into the books at 5-8 and 141 pounds (he’s now listed at 5-10, 180 — which might be a bit on the generous side). Clearly, it was up to Khoury to follow through on his end of the bargain.
He hit the jackpot as a senior when he led the Mountain West Conference with a record .438 batting average and was tops in on-base percentage (.549), hits (98) and getting hit by pitches (19).
In addition, he ranked second in slugging percentage (.728), runs scored (73) and walks (39) – and was among the top five in doubles (18) and stolen bases (16).
Khoury also finished as Utah’s all-time hits leader with 291, which ranks seconds in MWC history.
No wonder Khoury was voted the MWC Player of the Year and a First Team All-American.
That’s not bad for the kid who always had been told he was too short, too slow, too weak
