Jeffrey Hammonds - Amateur Career

Amateur Career

From Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Hammonds attended Scotch Plains High School, where he played for the school's baseball team. After high school, Hammonds was a ninth-round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1989 Major League Baseball Draft, though he did not sign. He reported that he never considered going professional at that point, as his parents insisted he attend college, and that Hammonds' brother, who had signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates out of high school, suffered a career ending injury while playing in minor league baseball.

Hammonds had scholarship offers to attend Duke University, the University of Notre Dame, and Stanford University and play college baseball. He chose to attend Stanford University, where he played for the Stanford Cardinal baseball team that competed in the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. At Stanford, Hammonds broke the Pac-10 single season stolen base record as a freshman, stealing 102 bases in 174 career games. Hammonds was awarded NCAA Freshman of the Year and voted All-College World Series in 1990 and was also named an All-American in that year.

During the 1992 season, Hammonds batted .380 with 33 stolen bases in 47 games, and was again named an All-American. He again led the Cardinal to the 1992 College World Series.