Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/109499
Irish 'Pitch' A Hit With Eddie Vanderdoes By Lou Somogyi Few athletes in sports are more cherished than a left-handed pitcher in the high school ranks with a 92 miles-per hour fastball. Unless, of course, you also happen to emerge as a five-star defensive lineman on the gridiron like Eddie Vanderdoes Jr. His decision to sign with Notre Dame on Feb. 6 was the second seismic signing day coup for the Fighting Irish in five years, rivaling National Defensive Player of the Year Manti Te'o's decision to select Notre Dame over USC in February 2009. "I always thought I would be a baseball player, a pitcher, until my junior year in high school," reflected Vanderdoes, who started playing baseball at age 5. It was natural because his father, Eddie Sr., is a baseball coach and is in his eighth season of coaching at Placer High, where his son is graduat- Vanderdoes felt right at home during his visit to Notre Dame the weekend of Jan. 25, leading him to pick the Irish over Alabama, UCLA and USC. photos courtesy U.S. Army All-American Bowl ing this spring. "Until he got so big, we kind of had him groomed as a left-handed pitcher," the father said of his 6-3, 285-pound son. "He liked the speed of football better." Scouted by the Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves