AMHERST — Perhaps it’s too early to say Griffin Weir’s dream has come true, but next summer he will begin living his dream on the other side of the continent.
Weir, 17, a senior at Amherst Steele High School and a pitcher/first baseman on the Comets’ baseball team, has made an oral commitment to play baseball at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., in 2013.
“I mentioned to my summer team coach (Neall French of the Midwest Pelicans) that Stanford was my dream school,” Weir said. “He told me he had an old teammate from when he was playing in the Yankees’ organization who went to Stanford. So we contacted his former teammate. That got everything started.”
Weir, the son of Jeff and Lisa Weir, visited the university and said Stanford received film of him in action.
“Fortunately, they must have liked what they saw,” Weir said.
No one saw much of Weir pitching for Amherst this spring. A strained elbow muscle limited the right-hander to just 4⅓ innings. The injury did not affect his ability to swing the bat though. Weir hit .422 with 22 runs batted in and eight doubles for the 19-9 Comets.
He has returned to the mound and is pitching for the Pelicans.
“The elbow is pretty much back to normal,” Weir said. “I’d say it’s 99.9 percent normal.”
Weir (6-foot-3, 185 pounds) was 4-1 with a 6.50 earned run average and 28 strikeouts in 31⅔ innings as a sophomore and was Prep Baseball Report’s No. 5 junior prospect last spring. His fastball consistently clocks in the 86-88 miles-per-hour range, occasionally topping 90.
Amherst coach Al McConihe was pleased a university of the academic reputation of Stanford was interested in one of his players.
“Clearly I’m excited to have an Amherst kid going to a prestigious school like Stanford,” McConihe said. “It isn’t every day the Cardinal comes to Northeast Ohio to recruit a player. This is great for our school and our community.”
“I felt Stanford was the best combination of academics and athletics,” Weir said. “I couldn’t be happier. It feels good to get this out of the way, right before my senior year.”
Weir, who also plays basketball for the Comets, said he has not chosen a major, but plans to make it something business related.
Stanford finished 41-18 and 18-12 in the PAC-12 in 2012. The Cardinal was ranked No. 12 in the USA Today poll and No. 13 by Baseball America.
Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or stephenbyrne@att.net.
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