College Baseball Career
In 2001, Gardner attended walk-on tryouts for the baseball team at the College of Charleston. After the tryouts, Coach John Pawlowski told the players that he would contact them if they made the team. Without hearing a word from the coach, Gardner came to the field the next day for the first official practice, wearing his high school uniform. When Pawlowski asked Gardner why he was there, Gardner told him that he knew he was capable of playing at the Division I level. Pawlowski told Gardner that he could practice with the team, but if at any time if Pawlowski saw that Gardner wasn't capable then he would be let go.
Gardner was a three-year starter at the College of Charleston. In 2004, he was chosen to the All-Southern Conference Team. His .447 batting average was third in the nation in 2005, and his 122 hits tied for most in the country. His 85 runs in 2005 is the all-time record at College of Charleston, and his 38 stolen bases led the Southern Conference. He wrapped up his Cougar career as a third-team All-American and a second-time All-Southern Conference player, sporting a .382/.456/.508 career line, mostly from the lead-off spot.
Read more about this topic: Brett Gardner
Famous quotes containing the words college, baseball and/or career:
“When a girl of today leaves school or college and looks about her for material upon which to exercise her trained intelligence, there are a hundred things that force themselves upon her attention as more vital and necessary than mastering the housewife.”
—Cornelia Atwood Pratt, U.S. author, women’s magazine contributor. The Delineator: A Journal of Fashion, Culture and Fine Arts (January 1900)
“Baseball is the religion that worships the obvious and gives thanks that things are exactly as they seem. Instead of celebrating mysteries, baseball rejoices in the absence of mysteries and trusts that, if we watch what is laid before our eyes, down to the last detail, we will cultivate the gift of seeing things as they really are.”
—Thomas Boswell, U.S. sports journalist. “The Church of Baseball,” Baseball: An Illustrated History, ed. Geoffrey C. Ward, Knopf (1994)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)