Name: Pat Moran
Sport played: Baseball
Years played: 2008-2010
Year graduated: 2010
Academic major: Exercise Science
Current address: Melbourne, Victoria - Australia
Please share some of your favorite SJC memories - on and off the field:
Some favorite memories on the field at SJC were making NCAA Regionals two out of three years and going farther than any St. Joe's team had before to the semi-final game (2010). Being at home plate for the game-winning, walk-off run to slide home for the conference championship in 2010 and being at the bottom of the celebration dog pile that year.
A few personal performances include a walk-off home run against in-conference rival Suffolk and some late-inning pitching appearances against cross-town rival USM. Although at the time practices could often seem to be draining and monotonous, looking back on them it was great to be putting in all that time with teammates who were my good friends off the field.
Off the field there are lots of great memories, having met a few of my best friends at St. Joe's. Spending time watching football on Sundays, making trips to Patches - to get their delicious steak and cheese or ham, egg and cheese on Texas toast - and just relaxing with my friends in the dorms, and pretending I can sing to my roommates’ guitar playing.
Notable performances as an SJC athlete (records, championships, individual accolades):
As I mentioned before, two conference championships, with trips to the NCAA New England Regional were great team accomplishments. I don't know exactly what the team records were, but I know we had some exceptional offensive statistics my junior and senior years. Individually I had a couple good years at St. Joe's. I was lucky enough to be a two-way player, pitching and also hitting. Probably my favorite performance was in a decisive doubleheader with Suffolk for the regular season conference title; I had a walk-off home run in the first game, and pitched a complete-game win the second game.
Where are you employed? Please tell us your job title, duties, how long you've been there, etc.:
I am employed with the Rockland Boulders professional baseball team. I have been playing professionally for three years. The team is based out of Rockland County, New York. The first two years the team I played for was based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Playing baseball at the professional level is an entirely different scene than playing in college. It really is a full time job, getting to the field five or six hours before game time and not getting back home (or to your hotel room, while on the road) until 11pm. Since the season only lasts for about five months or so, in the offseason I have worked a few odd jobs. I worked construction for a few months in my first offseason which gave me a good dose of reality. For the most part in the offseason, I substitute teach, working mostly with special needs students from grades 1-8. Even though teaching was not my major I have found I enjoy working with kids, and trying to have a positive impact on their lives.
Please tell us about your family, if applicable:
My mother and father live in Winterport, Maine. My dad works for Bangor Hydro Electric Company, and my mother is a nurse at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. I have an older sister, Megan who lives in Atlanta and is a doctor of physical therapy.
What do you do for fun?
I enjoy being active; hiking, white water rafting, exercising, and staying in shape for baseball. I help coach a high school baseball team in the spring before I leave for the season and I like to use my experience in teaching at the younger levels. I have also taken the opportunity to travel in the offseason. Last year I went to Ecuador to hike a dormant volcano named Chimborazo. The mountain is over 20,000 feet and very close to the equator so its peak is the farthest point from the center of the earth and the closest point on earth to the sun.
This offseason I have come to play baseball in Australia. Being away from home and all my friends and family isn't always easy but it's great to see different parts of the world and experience different cultures and lifestyles.
Tell the readers about your baseball experience…
I would start by saying that where I have advanced to in my baseball career has been one of the road-less-traveled. It was pretty standard up until college. Then I was recruited to play baseball at a number of Division I universities on scholarship, and chose to attend the University of Maine. That was a decision that was a great learning and playing experience but did not end up working out in the long run. I ended up at St. Joe's, and had an awesome college as well as baseball experience playing under Coach Sanborn.
Leaving in the summers and playing a plane ride away, then attending school, I wasn't home very much. Always striving for that dream of being drafted to play professional baseball, wasn't always an easy thing, and often looked far from attainable and never did truly happen.
I received a call about a month after I graduated to see if I would be interested in trying out for a professional independent team. I didn't know too much about it, but decided since I didn't know what else I was going to do for the summer I might as well see what it was all about. That was in 2010 and this upcoming season will be my 4th. Playing professionally (though I've never been lucky enough to be with an affiliated club) is an entirely different atmosphere. It is truly a job, spending hours and hours at the field and on the road. There is little time for anything else, no weekends off, work nights and holidays.
How did you end up playing in Australia this winter?
I came to Australia because the club teams down here are allowed one import player per organization. Part of the deal for playing here is that players are asked to help coach the younger teams to help further the development of baseball within the club, so I am helping as a coach for a 12 year-old team. The club president is in charge of bringing out an import, and they pretty much scan the internet and look at professional guys who fit what they are looking for. What interested them in me was that I not only was a pitcher but had hit in college. Since I was a two-way player they figured I would be able to help them in more ways. The biggest difference out here, other than the level of competition, is how much different their approach to the game is. Their practices and routines are much more relaxed than what I'm used to at home. The whole culture is much less athletic driven. I always knew the U.S. was really big into sports from young kids to professional. Being here it has really stood out. We have so much money invested into athletics and such a demand to be successful and out here it's hard just to find people interested enough to help out with a team or run a practice.
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