Ivy Leaguers’ decision to play baseball a no-brainer

Excuse infielder Ed Lucas’ need for secrecy. He’d prefer to just bow to pitcher Ross Ohlendorf for Rangers clubhouse ruler of intelligence.

Ohlendorf, who attended Austin St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, scored a 1,520 on the SAT. A perfect score is 1,600.

“I did not do that well. I did OK. It was lower than that. Can I say that and salvage my dignity and say he’s got me?” said Lucas, who has no reason to be ashamed.

Lucas graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in sociology and economics. He also wanted to play football, so he chose Dartmouth over other schools such as Brown, William & Mary and Emory.

Ohlendorf graduated from Princeton with a degree in operations research and financial engineering. He tried explaining what that entailed, but it would be impossible to translate.

Like Lucas, Ohlendorf was a two-sport star coming out of high school. He was recruited to play basketball, too, but he knew baseball was his future.

In the off-season, he raises longhorn cattle with his dad at a ranch near Lockhart. It brings him to Fort Worth every year. He’s not sure how he’d like to use his super-brain when his playing days are over, beyond raising cattle.

“I really enjoy it. I know I want to do that. There are a lot of challenges raising cattle,” he said.

Lucas is content with baseball for the time being.

“It’s been 12 years and I can’t say I’ve put my degree to really good use yet,” he said. “Baseball kind of has a firm grasp on me, and I want to stay in the game.”

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that.

Birthday boy

Pitcher Yovani Gallardo turned 29 on Friday, but he’ll have to wait to celebrate with his family, which is still back home near Eagle-Mountain Lake. The Fort Worth Trimble Tech graduate said his family arrives next week. “We’ll probably go out to dinner,” he said. “It’s my birthday, but I think it’s the kids who are the ones who have the fun.”

Domestic violence briefing

The Rangers’ 40-man roster will be given a domestic violence briefing before Saturday’s spring training workouts. The league mandated the educational seminar for players and coaching staffs for each team this spring.

Key stat

37 Home runs hit by Ryan Ludwick during an All-Star season in 2008 for the Cardinals. He had 26 homers for the Reds in 2012 but was limited to 11 combined the past two seasons.

Quotable

“It’s a nice welcome. It just shows the kind of guys who are in the clubhouse. It’s a family in the clubhouse, and that makes it fun.” — Pitcher Yovani Gallardo on manager Jeff Banister leading the pitching staff in singing “Happy Birthday” on Friday morning. He turned 29.

This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 7:57 PM with the headline "Ivy Leaguers’ decision to play baseball a no-brainer."