Twenty-one years ago Shane Victorino sat at the kitchen table in his family’s Maui home, torn between two paths while pondering the biggest decision of his life.
Accept a scholarship to play football (slotback and kicker) and baseball at the University of Hawaii? Or, sign a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had made him a sixth-round pick, and try to reach the major leagues?
After hours of debate that concluded with his parents telling him it was his life and his call, Victorino went with his heart that day and on Monday it put him on the doorstep of Cooperstown, N.Y., with a place on the ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Victorino is among 11 first-year finalists and 14 holdover candidates for the 2021 class. Selection requires being named on 75% or more of the ballots by the Baseball Writers Association of America when results are announced Jan. 26.
“For us, it is a tremendous tribute to him for what he has done through the years,” said his father Mike, Maui’s Mayor. “Even just the consideration. I mean, I read about (the Hall of Fame ballot) and I said, ‘ You mean our Shane?’ We never, even in our wildest dreams, ever thought that (the Hall of Fame) might be possible.”
It is, to be sure, a longshot when the list of candidates includes holdovers Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens as well as newcomers A.J. Burnett, Barry Zito, Mark Buehrle and Torii Hunter, among others.
But, then, Victorino’s climb to the major leagues from St. Anthony School, where he had been a multi-sport star (football, baseball, soccer and track) wasn’t easy, either. Twice in his early pro years Victorino was asked to try to become a switch-hitter to take advantage of the speed he flashed as a high school sprint champion. All the while some teams tried to make an infielder out of him.
And, twice, the Dodgers left him unprotected allowing other teams to claim him in the Rule 5 draft.
But Victorino eventually found his niche playing for five teams (Padres, Dodgers, Phillies, Red Sox and Angels) over a 12-year career. He mastered switch-hitting, batting a career .275, found a home in the outfield, won four Golden Gloves, earned two All-Star Game spots, and three times he was among the vote-getters for a league MVP and twice led the National League in triples.
Along the way he collected two World Series rings. He helped the Phillies to five division championships, two National League titles and the 2008 World Series championship.
He is revered in Boston, where his grand slam against Detroit Tigers in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series took the Red Sox to the World Series. And, then, he slammed a three-run double off the Green Monster to spark the Red Sox to the 2013 World Series clincher against St. Louis.
In Philadelphia, a city where sports fans famously booed Santa Claus, Victorino is revered for more than his clutch hitting and not giving in to outfield fences while in pursuit of flyballs.
He is also celebrated for his generosity in funding the Nicetown Boys and Girls Club of North Philadelphia, one of his many charity and public service projects there and in Hawaii that helped earn him MLB’s Branch Rickey Award for community contribution.
Fittingly, word of the Hall of Fame nomination Monday came as Victorino was making his way home for a fundraiser for his foundation.
In retrospect, you could say Victorino’s decision as an 18-year-old worked out for a lot more than just the man who now finds himself knocking on the door of baseball’s shrine.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
