It only makes sense that Texas people take high school baseball further, because baseball takes Texas high schoolers further, too. Every February, fans in Bellaire and Round Rock and Spring watch 17-year-olds jog onto their diamonds. Millionaires trot off them in June.

Just last year, Houston-area Cy Falls High saw two of its pitchers, lefthander Scott Kazmir and righthander Clint Everts, taken in the first round of the Amateur Baseball Draft. The pair signed for $2.15 and $2.5 million, respectively.

It’s serious money. It’s a serious game. Where Hendricks comes from, baseball is played for more than fun.

During the Spring of 1999, Houston fell in love with a 6’5 fireballer named Josh Beckett. Beckett, the Florida Marlins’ opening day starter this year, threw 96 mph consistently his final two seasons. His senior year, he went 10-1 with a 0.46 ERA and more than two strikeouts per inning. He was the nation’s back-to-back high school player of the year. He was also Hendricks’ teammate.

For comparison, Harvard ace Ben Crockett ’02 was the top prospect the Ivy League had seen in almost a decade, and he drew a handful of scouts to each of his contests last season. Some publications called Beckett the best high school pitcher ever.

“When Beckett was there, there would be 30-40 scouts,” Hendricks says. “It was just a great experience.”

Hendricks’ high school games were broadcast regularly on the radio. ESPN even showed up one weekend to produce a segment for Scholastic Sports America. It may have been overwhelming, if Hendricks hadn’t been born to play ball in Texas.

Like most Texas boys, Hendricks swung his first bat soon after he said his first word. Little Trey was only two-years-old when he became captivated with his high-school age neighbors playing catch regularly in the yard nearby.

“I’d see them throwing back there, so I’d just wander over there with my dad, and I’d watch them,” Hendricks says. “My dad had gotten me one of those big bats, so I liked to hit.”

Two years later, he was on his first organized team, a four-year-old playing with six- and seven-year-old kids. But being the youngest never bothered him. Art was a college baseball umpire at the time, and his son often tagged along to the ballpark. Soon Trey was a bat boy for the University of Houston, sitting in the same dugout as current Brewers pitcher Shane Nance.

“[Former Houston Coach] Dr. Bragg Stockton, who just passed away, was probably the biggest influence on my baseball life other than my dad,” Hendricks says. “I always went to all of his camps, so I was his bat boy. He let me come out there whenever I wasn’t playing, and I got to hang around college players.”

Hendricks even traveled with the club sometimes, toting bats off of fields he seemed destined to play on one day. Then destiny threw an Ivy-covered curve ball his way.

A Whole New Ball Game

Now Hendricks is the centerpiece of a Harvard team no one outside of Cambridge expects to defend its Ivy title. Though not a vocal player, he is expected to lead the Crimson on and off the field this season.

“He’s very quiet, no doubt about that,” Walsh says. “He’s not a let’s go type of guy, but he does his talking with his bat a little bit.”