Gazette-Times Reporter

Tyler Graham considered giving up baseball recently.

Now he has a vastly different decision to make — to go pro now as a 14th round Major League Baseball draft pick by the Chicago Cubs or come back for his final season with the Oregon State baseball team.

It was only one day when the junior felt like giving up, but the circumstances around the thought of quitting were trying to get to that point.

Graham tore his labrum muscle in his shoulder during a game as a freshman and missed most of the season. Recovery from surgery and rehab took time, which led to doubts of returning to full strength.

"There was a thought last year that I didn't know if my shoulder was going to come out of it," Graham said. "Luckily it was only one day. It was hard to deal with. It wouldn't have been fun to take because I wouldn't be able to play baseball again."

Graham made a successful comeback as a vital member of a team that won the Pacific-10 Conference championship and swept the Corvallis Regional last weekend.

Now Graham and the second-ranked Beavers are two wins away from the College World Series. They face No. 18 Southern California in a best-of-three series starting Saturday night at Goss Stadium.

"Tyler has done great, and I'm happy for him," coach Pat Casey said. "He has a huge window to get better. He has to decide if he can get better here, and decide what the best decision for him is."

It was March 23, 2003 and the Montana native dove back into first base to avoid being picked off. He reached out to grab the bag and jammed his shoulder.

Graham knew immediately there was a problem from the pain. He tried to swing his right arm around to loosen it up, but that only increased the agony.

"It was unfortunate, but things like that happen in sports, and luckily I was able to overcome it," Graham said. "It was a down time for me. I kept wondering if I would come back."

He watched plenty of baseball instead of playing, appearing in only 11 games at shortstop as a freshman with six starts and a .259 batting average.

"It was a long grueling process to get my arm good enough to throw again — that was the tough part," Graham said. "Sometimes when you have those shoulder injuries you don't come back 100 percent. I was lucky enough I was able to come back. I still have some pains, but it's been real good. So far it's held up and I think it will be good in the future."

To take the pressure off his shoulder on a day-to-day basis, Graham moved from shortstop to left field as a sophomore. Tony Calderon took over his spot while he was gone, and played well.

Graham didn't take long to adjust to the new position. He worked his way into the lineup, playing in 44 games and starting 18. His offense also picked up with a .347 batting average.

"I liked it a lot," Graham said. "I'll probably be moving to center in pro ball. I like it there when I played it in the summer."

He has been hitting second most of the year due to his good bat control, and being the second-fastest person on the team behind center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury.

Graham's hitting .319 with 45 runs scored, 19 stolen bases and a team-leading 15 sacrifice bunts. He also fields his position with 98 putouts, an assist and only one error.

"This has been the best fit I could imagine," Graham said. "When I came in here as a freshman I didn't know what to expect. Now in my junior season, at this point, it's a great feeling to be on a team that plays so well together. I couldn't have it any better than at Oregon State."

There was even an interesting story how Graham arrived here. He grew up playing in a state with no high school baseball, just American Legion.

Graham was a standout, but it was still difficult to get noticed that far north. It took recommendations from the inside to find his way south.

His family was friends with some of the strength and conditioning staff at OSU and former football coach Dennis Erickson. They tipped assistant baseball coach Dan Spencer to Graham, and all it took was watching one game to bring him to Corvallis.

Even though it took some help to get a team's attention and there was a slow start to his college career, Graham's happy he stuck with the game he loves. Deciding to stay or go will be a good move in his mind, either way. He's in a win-win situation.

"This season has been great with all the work and all the time in the offseason we put in," Graham said. "Knowing coming in we were ranked sixth (in the Pac-10) was a slap in the face to us. We knew we had a good squad coming in and I think a lot of teams underestimated our ability, and we showed that up here in the Northwest we can play as good as anyone in the country."