Mark Bingham

It's hard to tell where the sofa ends and Mark Bingham begins. The two seem almost fused into each other--a slouch so relaxed that the line between creature and creature comfort melts into near invisibility.

A fetching smile comes naturally to Bingham, the Harvard first baseman now in his fourth season with the Crimson varsity. Now indisputably the team's best hitter, Bingham brushed aside a shaky season start and moved up to a .328 batting average. No one's surprised, of course. Since the Hasting-on-Hudson, N.Y., native first picked up a ball, success has followed.

In fact, Bingham's precociousness almost landed him in professional baseball rather than in Winthrop House. After an outstanding high school baseball career, the Cincinatti Reds drafted Bingham in the fourth round.

Visions

"I was very tempted," he says now of the offer, which included a $50,000 bonus. But Bingham had labored through senior year with a leg injury and chose the Harvard route instead.

He hesitates now when asked whether he thinks he made the right decision. Playing baseball has--and obviously still does--mean a lot to him. "I don't think I'm going to make it (in professional baseball) and I'm not sure if it was because I came here," he says. Harvard has meant no winter ball, no constant competition, and no practice with top-flight pitching. "I think I might have improved more," he adds.

Within the parameters of the Harvard baseball world, however, Bingham has gone nearly as far as possible. Last year it was Mark Bingham--no, not the celebrated Mike Stenhouse--who led the Crimson in hitting with a .403 average. He won Harvard's Most Valuable Player award, also securing a place on the Eastern League all-star team.

Keeps Moving On

His superb Harvard career has extended a life-long success story with sports. He collected nine letters in high school--four in baseball, three in basketball and two in soccer--and that doesn't include what Bingham says may be his favorite sport, tennis. He first picked up a tennis racquet in 11th grade and won the town championship three months later.

The highest praise he can muster for tennis only underscores his preference for baseball: "Tennis is like taking batting practice all day. Instead of getting up four times, you get up a thousand."

Fun in the Sun

"I just like to bat," Bingham continues, "I think that's the whole game."

Not that Bingham can't field. He led all starters last year with a .991 fielding percentage and is going at a .988 clip this season. Still, he says, "I'm very nervous in the field. There are other people I'd rather see handle the ball."

Bingham then recounts his frustration in failing to hit in a clutch situation, his routine fly out with a man on second in the top of the ninth during Tuesday's one-run loss to Holy Cross. He laughs, "Things like that you can't even deal with."

Coach Al Nahigian agrees. In between his enthusiastic appraisal of his star's talent, Nahigian says, "Mark has a tendency to worry a little bit too much when he doesn't get a hit."

Laid Back

Bingham will admit that blown at-bats sometimes rile him excessively, but no one can call him a worrier. If he were a California, "mellow" might even be the word. With the exception of upcoming airplane trips, ("I hate flying," he says earnestly. "I just can't believe something that big can fly."), his lack of definite future plans seems not to bother him at all. He hopes to be drafted by the pros again, but says, "I'm not banking on baseball. I'd love to do it, and at this point I just don't have a contingency plan."

He says baseball management is another option, but for now, he taking things as they come, indulging in his twin passions for the Elvises (Presley and Costello), finishing up as an Economics major, and smugly playing baseball very well.

Bingham appraises Harvard's chances in the Eastern league optimistically yet realistically, saying of the 7-1 first-place team, "I think we're not a phenomenal team, but we're better than average." And with Bingham continuing to hit the way he has recently, that prediction looks good: "From now on, we control our own destiny and I think we're going to win it."