BSB: The Batman Returns

Joe Wainhouse Is Getting A Second Chance To Prove That His Super Human 2018 Season Was No Fluke // By Brian Tom

By Washington Huskies

January 29^th, 2019

Joe Wainhouse doesn’t wear a cape. He can’t leap over tall buildings. He doesn’t have super powers. Nor does he secretly fight crime at all hours of the night.

While Wainhouse might not be a certified super hero, it can be argued that the UW designated hitter is super human. All he did in 2018 is help lead the Huskies to their first College World Series in program history by swinging the bat down the stretch with such Herculean efforts that he nearly reached legendary status.

Washington entered the month of May one game over .500 at 20-19, but the Huskies would go on a 10-4 run to close the season to earn their way into the NCAA post-season. During that 14-game stretch, Wainhouse hit .356 with a .814 slugging percentage. He also mashed eight home runs – many of which were game-changers – and drove in 22 runs. His May cemented his spot on the 2018 All-Pac-12 team.

In the post-season, Wainhouse kept on terrorizing opposing pitchers. The lefty hitter mashed a home run in each of the Huskies’ three victories in Conway, S.C., earning Regional MVP honors. He added two more homers in the Huskies first-ever Super Regional at Fullerton and totaled five homers and 11 RBI’s in eight post-season games.

“It was a good time,” Wainhouse recalled of his hot streak at the end of 2018. “To match up what I was doing, with the fact that we were doing so well was great. Having a year like that is fun no matter what, but it’s not the same if you don’t make the regionals or if the team doesn’t have a good season.”

Wainhouse ended up making 57 starts (all at designated hitter) and appeared in 58 games, including twice on the mound. He reached base in 52 of those games, leading the team in home runs (19), runs batted in (61), multi-RBI games (18) while hitting .306 overall.

It seemed once the 2018 season ended, that Wainhouse’s run in a UW uniform was over. He had been classified as a senior all season and even went through senior day ceremonies in the Huskies last home game. But, because he appeared in just four games as a junior in 2017 before being shut down with an arm injury, Wainhouse was able to receive a medical hardship from the Pac-12 Conference and earn a fifth season. Coupled with being undrafted, despite a monster year, it became an easy decision for Wainhouse to return for one more go at it in a Husky uniform.

“It was obvious to me I was going to return,” Wainhouse said. “I knew if I wasn’t drafted, I was going to come back. At no point was I thinking about just stopping. I was going to come back for sure, especially after (the team’s success) on the field.”

His return for 2019 was a pleasant surprise for Washington, especially UW Coach Lindsay Meggs.

“We were ecstatic,” Meggs, who is entering his 10th year at Washington, recalled. “We now had four of our top hitters back and that takes us from being an average offensive team to immediately an above average to an outstanding offensive team.

“He’s such a force in the middle that you have to game plan for him and pinch around that spot in the middle of the batting order.”

While Wainhouse’s return was heavily celebrated, it was also somewhat problematic. Meggs had not expected his slugger’s return, so technically the money for his scholarship was gone. It had been allocated for other players on the team.

But, Wainhouse’s teammates understood the gift in front of them. They were poised to get their cleanup hitter back for another run and were ready to make some sacrifices to ensure it would happen, even if it meant returning some of their scholarship money.

“Every returner that was on money came in to my office and said, ‘whatever it takes to get him back if you need some help, we want to help’. It was worth it to them and to the program to get him back,” Meggs said. “Guys stepped up and we were able to put something together for him.”

Although Wainhouse has already earned his degree in communication (he graduated after winter quarter in 2018), he is taking a full load of online classes. When it’s all said and done, he will have earned almost a year’s worth of extra credits.

On the field, he will also have another year to work on his game and prove himself on the baseball field. Despite his outstanding season in 2018, Major League teams passed on Wainhouse in the draft. According to him and Meggs, his performance may have surprised many of the scouts.

“It wasn’t just that he caught the scouts off guard, he did it in such a short period of time over a month,” Meggs said. “When he caught fire, guys were still asking us after he hit 15 home runs if we were going to put him on the mound. I think those guys have to get over that and look at him for what he is, which is a legitimate power-hitter in an era when they value that.”

Meggs said some scouts wanted a bigger sample size. Others wanted to see Wainhouse play defense. Others wanted to see him on the mound more. All of them will now get their wish. The plan for Wainhouse is to see some time at first base and come out of the bullpen on occasion. His fastball has been touching low 90s and both his slider and command are improving daily.

“If he can play first base, then I think he has a chance to play at the big-league level,” said Meggs.

Wainhouse played first base as a freshman at Ole Miss against SEC competition, so he is ready to do whatever is best to improve his stock in the eyes of scouts. While it stung to not get drafted, Wainhouse says he is “not the kind of person to get real hung up on stuff. It happened, okay. No reason to sit and think about it – just move on to the next step, which is this.

“I have the opportunity to come back one more year and have another good season, while having fun with the team and be around the program a little bit longer. I thought it was the right move (to come back) and that it’d give me another year to just show who I am again. Whatever happens this year, I’m ready to roll with it.”

One thing that Wainhouse will embrace as a second-year senior is being a team captain. With his unparalleled experience, he can relate to everyone on the team, and he’s more than willing to pitch in as a mentor however necessary.

“I’ve kind of experienced almost everything you can go through in your career,” he said. “I’ve been a freshman. I’ve been a transfer. I’ve been hurt. I’ve done good and I’ve done bad. I’ve been through a lot. I feel like there is a lot I can tell guys when they need advice. It’s been nice to be able to help people out.”

Wainhouse is also excited about the prospects of returning to Omaha. There are some special players that were lost to the draft and graduation that the Huskies will have to replace in order to make it back to the World Series, but Wainhouse sees a lot of the same traits in the 2019 squad that were in the 2018 group.

“I don’t see much of a difference between our team this year and last year,” he said. “We lost some talent, but we added some talent. Some of the young guys got better, a lot of the pitchers learned a lot and are getting better. There are a lot of guys that didn’t make much of an impact last year that will make a big impact this year.

“I just think the most important thing is keeping the culture and keeping the vibe that we had last year, because that is why we were good. We weren’t the most talented team out there last year. We played a lot of teams that were better than us on paper and a lot of teams that had more draft picks, but it was just how we played and how we were as a family that I think is the reason we were there. I think we need to carry that over and I think that we have done a good job of that so far. It will change once we get to the season, but I’m sure we’ll keep that vibe we had last year, and we’re going to just try and make another run.”

If the Huskies make another run to Omaha in 2019, you can bet Wainhouse will be one of the main contributors behind the team’s success. He won’t have to be a super hero, nor will he have to be super human. You can also bet he won’t be an average Joe. All he’ll have to do is be himself: Joe Wainhouse.