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By Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI -- University of Cincinnati outfielder Ian Happ, who leads the American Athletic Conference in hitting, can count a Reds Hall of Famer from his hometown of Pittsburgh among his biggest fans.
Sean Casey, the former Reds first baseman whose upbeat personality was so magnetic that he was nicknamed "The Mayor" when he played here from 1998 to 2005, has become a valued mentor to Happ. Casey was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 2012 after hitting .305 with 115 home runs and 604 runs batted in with the club.
"He's so charismatic," Happ said, "such a great guy. He just loves talking hitting. He'll get in your face and he'll yell at you about hitting. That's the way he talks."
The two met at a facility in Pittsburgh where they both work out. Casey attended Upper St. Clair High School. Happ went to Mt. Lebanon. They talk regularly on the phone, sometimes as often as once a week.
"I knew of Ian," Casey said. "I knew that he was a really good player from the area and I knew he was going to Cincinnati. We struck up a friendship. One day he said, `Is there any chance we could hit sometime?' I said, `Yeah, I'd love to hit with you.'
"The biggest thing about Ian is that he loves baseball. I was so impressed that he would come in and work out by himself - and they were hard workouts - and how he would get after it. It was stuff like I used to do. I just saw that he loved the game."
Happ, a junior switch-hitter, is projected as a first-round pick in Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft, which will be conducted from June 8 to June 10. He began UC's weekend series at Houston leading the American with a .397 batting average. He also leads the league in on-base percentage at .519. His 10 home runs are tied for second in the league.
Casey sees a lot of himself in Happ. Both spray the ball to all fields and neither was drafted out of high school. Casey attended the University of Richmond where he led the nation in hitting as a junior in 1995 with a .461 average. He was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the second round.
The three-time All-Star gave Happ a book called the Mental Game of Baseball by Harvey Dorfman. The book was Casey's bible when he was playing and he tried to convince Happ that it would serve him well, too.
"I remember giving it to him, saying, `If you read it every day for the next few years, I'll know you're serious about this,' "Casey said. " `If you read it and just put it down, I'll know you just want to be an OK player.' I said, `There shouldn't be a day that goes by where you don't look at this book.' "
Happ has learned its lessons well. His mental approach at the plate is now considered one of the strongest aspects of his game.
"Baseball is such a difficult game," Happ said. "When you fail so much, you have to define success the right way -- hitting the ball hard, getting on base, helping your team - those are the things that you have to thrive on so that you can stay positive."
Casey, 40, retired from baseball in 2008 with a lifetime .305 average after he also played for the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox. He works as an analyst for MLB Network and keeps busy with his four kids -- 13-year-old Andrew, 12-year-old Jake, 9-year-old Carli and 5-year-old Jillian.
"There's a lot of action," he said laughing.
It doesn't seem like that long ago when Casey was in the same position that Happ is now, as a hitter having a big year as a junior in college, waiting to see what will happen in the draft, and trying to decide if he'll turn pro at the end of the season. He remembers how excited he was as the draft approached and he would go to the neighborhood 7-Eleven to buy a copy of Baseball Weekly to see what it was writing about the draft.
After Happ gets drafted in a few months, Casey will have more advice for his young protégé as he begins his professional career. When Casey was drafted by the Indians, slugger Jim Thome played first base in Cleveland, but because of counsel that he received from Joel Skinner, his first minor league manager in Watertown, New York, he didn't let himself worry about being stuck in the organization behind Thome or any other player.
"I would say control what you can control," Casey said. "At the end of the day, you play for 30 teams. You do your job every day to the best of your ability. Don't waste a pitch. See what your numbers are. Make sure you're doing every day what you need to do to be great. Everyone's watching you. You never know where you're going to end up. You don't know that you're going to play for the team you get drafted by."
As it turned out, Casey played only briefly for the Indians before the Reds sent pitcher Dave Burba to Cleveland to get him the day before Opening Day in 1998.
Casey says he's confident that Happ will be a high draft pick, probably near the top in the first round. Assuming the money is right -- and it usually is for such high picks -- Happ probably will leave UC at the end of this season, although he says he hasn't made that decision yet.
"One thing I know about Ian," Casey said, "and I get asked about him by a lot of scouts, is that he comes from a good family. He loves the game. He works hard and he studies the game. Those are the kind of kids I bet on all the time."
Bill Koch covered UC Athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com in January, 2015 as featured columnist. Follow him on Twitter @bkoch.