"I wasn't going to sign with them, but they came around and made me a real good offer," he said, which included the payment of his tuition for his last two semesters at Harvard.

On June 5, Decareau inked a deal with the club, and just two weeks later found himself deep within the Padres farm system.

The soon-to-be Harvard senior was shipped off to the Padres' A farm club in Charleston, S.C.

The normal starting place for a player such as Decareau would have been the rookie league, but, due to an injury of a outfielder in Charleston, Decareau lucked into a starting position in right field on the A squad.

Unfortunately for the Harvard student, the injured player got better fast.

"It turned out to be a disaster," remembered Decareau. "Once he came back, I never played."

After several weeks of bench warming in Charleston, Decareau was sent down to the rookie league in Arizona where he could be guaranteed playing time.

Tendinitis

Decareau played out the rest of the 1990 summer in Arizona. While he was playing well, Decareau felt his right shoulder starting to bother him. He had noticed a pain in his shoulder during his junior year at Harvard, but he had been told that it was tendinitis and that it would go away with time.

"It started hurting a little on my throws," he said about his shoulder in Arizona, "but the weather was so hot out there that I think it kept the shoulder loose. I figured maybe I just needed a rest."

Decareau realized that the pain was a little more serious when he returned to Harvard last fall semester.

"I started lifting weights and it was killing me," he said.

The Padres flew him out to California to be examined by a team doctor, and sent him back to Cambridge with a therapy program to follow for the rest of the winter.

Decareau followed the program and then flew out this March to Yuma, Ariz. ("the middle of nowhere") where the Padres hold their spring training camp.

The Harvard player thought his shoulder was better, but he quickly realized he was wrong.