But Ross Ohlendorf ’05 is not your typical baseball player.
The former Princeton standout now spends his summers pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates. But in addition to working out to prepare for this season, Ohlendorf gained experience in a less celebrated field last winter. He took an unpaid internship at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the offseason, pursuing an interest that stems from his family’s longhorn cattle business in Texas.
“I was [at the USDA] in the morning, and able to work out in the afternoons,” Ohlendorf said. “I really enjoyed it, and I felt like I learned a lot. But it was a good reminder of how nice we have it as baseball players.”
Ohlendorf left Princeton after his junior year when he was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fourth round of the 2004 amateur draft. He came back to school to complete his studies in fall semesters, graduating two years later with a 3.75 GPA and a degree in operations research and financial engineering.
“[Leaving Princeton] wasn’t a hard decision, because I was able to come back to school,” Ohlendorf said. “If I wanted to make it to the majors, it was really going to help me to start playing professionally right away. I had almost 30 starts my first year in the minors, while at Princeton I was averaging about 10 per year, so I had a lot more time to work on improving.”
Ohlendorf has long had a reputation for being one of the game’s most cerebral players. His senior thesis, discussing the value of amateur draft picks, garnered attention inside and outside baseball circles.
So when Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack threw out the first pitch at a Pirates game last summer, the third-year pitcher asked to be the catcher, a duty normally forced upon rookies and players lower on the clubhouse totem pole. The short encounter eventually led to Ohlendorf’s winter opportunity.
“[Vilsack] told me he was a big Pirates fan, I told him I raised longhorns, so I thought it was cool to meet him,” Ohlendorf said. “A couple weeks later, I emailed somebody at the department, told them a little about myself and a couple programs I’d be interested in working on, and I was set up from there.”
“We were very surprised at the e-mail,” said Doug McKalip, confidential assistant to the secretary of agriculture. “But looking at his qualifications and background, it was clear that he had outstanding credentials to serve in government and to help do policy analysis. All the achievements he had at Princeton really made a difference in how we looked at him as a potential intern for us.”
Ohlendorf’s experience with farming and ranching made him a particularly good candidate for the job.
“He worked on complicated policy,” McKalip said. “He worked on a lot of cost-benefit analysis, and what legal liability the farmers would face under proposed policy options. His papers were great, and his work ethic was fantastic. He was great for morale and a great employee.”
It is perhaps not unusual for Ohlendorf to dazzle people with his brains and initiative. Even in the competitive Princeton community, he was known as one of the quickest thinkers.
“His intelligence definitely stood out, especially in terms of his card-playing ability,” said Ryan Quillian ’03, who pitched alongside Ohlendorf for two years at Princeton. “He and I were Spades partners on bus trips, and he was definitely one of the best card players around. I don’t know if he can count cards or what, but that stood out to me.”
For Princeton baseball head coach Scott Bradley, Ohlendorf’s work ethic was what made him a special student-athlete.
“He was as hard a worker as we’ve ever had, and it went for every aspect of his life,” Bradley said. “The lacrosse team used to have a fall tournament, and to raise some money, we would go clean up the stadium. A lot of our guys would come down and not want to get involved in picking up trash. But Ross ran down to the field and was like Paul Bunyan. He had more garbage bags than anyone else, which was sort of a statement: ‘I’m the best pitcher on this team, one of the best students, and today I’m going to be the best garbage picker-upper.’ And that’s the way he went about everything.”
Ohlendorf’s combination of talent and work ethic made him a fearsome college pitcher. As a freshman, the righthander went 6-2 with a 3.02 ERA, earning Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors. He continued to throw well for the rest of his college career, averaging more strikeouts than innings pitched in both his sophomore and junior years.
In his final collegiate season, Ohlendorf went 7-3 for the Tigers. He capped the season by throwing eight-and-two-thirds innings, leading Princeton to a 4-2 victory over heavily favored Virginia in the first game of the NCAA tournament. Without Ohlendorf on the mound, the Tigers fell in the next two games, against Vanderbilt and Virginia.
“We knew Ross had ability, because he could throw very hard when he got here,” Bradley said. “He’s a big, strong, physical pitcher, and we gave him the opportunity to become more consistent and develop. That’s all he needed, an opportunity.”
Ohlendorf has continued to impress in his professional career. After posting a 3.29 ERA in 27 starts for the AA Tennessee Smokies in 2006, the Diamondbacks traded him in 2007 to the New York Yankees as part of a package for Randy Johnson. The Yankees attempted to convert Ohlendorf to a reliever, but instead they sent him to Pittsburgh in the middle of the 2008 season.
The Pirates moved Ohlendorf back to the rotation, and they have reaped the benefits. The righty broke out last season, leading the Pittsburgh staff with a 3.92 ERA and punching out 109 batters.
“He was always one of the people that worked the hardest on the team, and from what I’ve read, he’s continued that on the Pirates,” Quillian said. “I think that’s served him well, and it’s helped him in terms of developing his mechanics and his arm strength. He’s really developed into a true pitcher, rather than a thrower.”
Ohlendorf is currently on the 15-day disabled list as a result of back spasms. He is scheduled to make a rehab start in the minor leagues on Friday and hopes to return to the Pirates in early May.
If his track record is any indication, Ohlendorf will come back stronger than ever. National League batters — and any potential Spades opponents on the Pirates’ team plane — should be warned.
Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified the class year of Ross Ohlendorf '05.
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