Wake Forest Athletics
Palmieri Nabs Arnold Palmer Award, Unbelievably
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 11, 1999
By Jay Reddick
Jon Palmieri wasn't supposed to know about the award he would receive at the annual Wake Forest All-Sports Banquet on April 26. But George Greer couldn't keep a secret.
Greer said he told Palmieri about the Arnold Palmer Award for Wake Forest male athlete of the year so Palmieri's parents could come down, and so he could have a speech prepared. But in talking to Greer, the excitement is unmistakable.
"Absolutely, he deserved this award," Greer said. "He's done everything we've asked and more. He's the leader on the team and a terrific young man."
And also, of course, a great athlete. Palmieri's rise to prominence in the baseball program has somewhat mirrored the fortunes of the team itself, which many would say is no coincidence.
Palmieri was a part-time utility player as a freshman, getting 124 at-bats while playing five different positions and hitting .403. He hit .314 with some power (five home runs) as a sophomore regular at second base and first base, but beginning with his junior year he has knocked the cover off the ball, with a batting average above .430 and a slugging percentage hovering above the .700 mark.
This season, he had a bit of extra pressure placed on him: he was named a first-team preseason All-America by Collegiate Baseball. But he has stepped up to the challenge, hitting .404 with 13 home runs and 59 RBIs going into the exam break, all team highs and in the ACC's top 10. The season, and the career, have dotted Palmieri's name throughout the Wake Forest record book. All the more reason why the Palmer award was so richly deserved.
"I couldn't believe it," Palmieri said. "I just think of where I started. I sat half of my freshman year , I didn't play that much, and all of a sudden four years later, I'm named the best athlete at Wake, which is ...unbelievable."
Palmieri, like many top athletes, is really his own worst critic. He sees a .404 average and starts thinking about how it could have been .425.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself and started thinking I had to hit more home runs, which maybe I did," Palmieri said, "but I tried to do that so much, I was just striking out more than I thought I should be. And then coach Greer just told me, 'Keep doing what you did last year.' Once I settled down after that, I was hitting better, and the home runs just came without even trying."
And again, the squad seemed to follow his lead. After a 4-3 start, the team is 32-13 and has a firm grip on second place in the conference, a spot Wake Forest hasn't been in in 20 years.
"Especially because this was my last year, every game you want to go out there and just win," Palmieri said. "And the spot we're in right now, secondplace, it is just pretty impressive. You just try to finish in the top three in the ACC, and we haven't finished above fifth my first three years. But that competition keeps you going and the guys want to win so bad that keeps you focused. And we do a great job on the team keeping each other that way."
The 1998 ACC champions have taken their games to a completely new level, but if another tournament championship and NCAA Regional bid are not the final results, the whole thing will have gone for naught, according to Palmieri.
"You used to just think you can win a couple of games, and at the tournament we could make a regional, but after the way it went last year - that was so good, you want to do it again," Palmieri said. "But I figure if we just go in and just take one game at a time again, we'll be all right."
Then come the regionals, followed by the new super-regionals (16 regional winners face off in eight best-of-three series to determine who moves on), and then, hopefully, Omaha for the College World Series.
"I think we have a shot at Omaha," Palmieri said. "I've never been, but our trainer went last year and said it was unbelievable. I look at Gainesville last year (in the NCAA regional), and that was 6,000 people right there. It felt like a Super Bowl. I can't imagine what Omaha must be like."
Always looming on the horizon for Palmieri is a chance at a pro career. He was disappointed with not being drafted last year, even though he said he would have returned to Wake Forest. This June, he gets another shot.
"A few teams have talked to me, a couple of scouts, so I think I'm going to get a chance," Palmieri said. "I think I have a shot to get drafted, and we'll see where I am out there, and I'll play this summer, and hopefully I'll do well and be in a good spot for the following years."
