Farkes Signs With Red Sox

TROY, N.Y.—Zak Farkes has always known just what kind of career he wants. From his childhood watching the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park through his years as a slugging infielder for the Harvard baseball team, Farkes has had the goal of playing baseball for a living.

Although various setbacks threatened to deny that dream, Farkes fulfilled his lifetime desire July 2 by signing a professional contract as a non-drafted free agent with his hometown Red Sox. Foregoing his senior season of baseball eligibility at Harvard, Farkes is embarking on what he hopes will be a long professional journey.

“What I want to do in my life is be a pro baseball player,” Farkes said before his new team, the Lowell (Mass.) Spinners, played Tuesday night. “A Harvard degree will help me out in the future, but my first commitment was to baseball.”

That commitment began last Sunday evening in Troy, N.Y. After signing the previous day—a contract that he negotiated with the team himself—Farkes was assigned to the Spinners of the New York-Pennsylvania League, a class-A franchise.

Farkes joined his new team just in time to catch the bus to Bruno Stadium, where Lowell was taking on the Tri-City ValleyCats, a minor league affiliate of the Houston Astros. He was barely settled before learning Spinners’ manager Luis Alicea had penciled him into the starting lineup at second base, the position where the Red Sox have told Farkes he’ll get the majority of his playing time.

“I haven’t even unpacked my bag yet,” Farkes said. “It’s been a hectic week…[but] when I get out on the field all that stuff fades away.”

Farkes went 0-for-4 in his professional debut Sunday for Lowell, which plays a shortened season designed for first-year pros out of college. Farkes said that he felt comfortable in the batter’s box and the field, and was eagerly looking forward to playing at the next level.

“I got a chance to get my first fly ball, my first grounder [in the field].…That takes a lot of the pressure off,” Farkes added. “The biggest thing is [adjusting to] the pro attitude of every player, every coach.”

The pressure that Farkes was feeling before he put on the gray-and-red road uniform of the Spinners for the first time was built up in the days following June’s first-year player draft. Despite putting up excellent numbers for the Crimson this past year—leading the team with a .360 average, a .432 on base percentage and a .583 slugging percentage in 139 at-bats—Farkes was not selected in the draft, a surprise considering he was taken in the thirty-ninth round by the Red Sox in 2004.

“I was disappointed,” Farkes said. “I was expecting to get drafted high…I really went through my junior season prepared and ready, mentally committed to leaving. I was looking forward to moving into pro baseball.”

Questions about Farkes’s health—an arm injury limited his playing time and sapped some of his power this season—as well as doubts about the makeup of Harvard athletes, dropped his draft stock, and no team selected Farkes, whose 28 career home runs are the most in history for any Harvard player.

“It was the commitment [to baseball]—people weren’t sure what type of athlete goes to Harvard,” Farkes said. “They look at it as an academic institution.”

Farkes, however, almost single-handedly announced Harvard as an athletic force in NCAA baseball circles. His spectacular sophomore season—he hit .342/.425/.691 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with a Harvard single-season record 14 home runs—was enough to draw recognition from the Red Sox.

Farkes decided he was not yet ready for the pros after being drafted, however, and returned to play one more year for the Crimson. In the process, he helped the team go 29-17 and win an Ivy League title, its first since 2002.

Following this year’s draft letdown, Farkes went to play in the Cape Cod League, where college prospects showcase their ability before major league scouts. Farkes, who said he had received interest from several major league teams but was unsure of where he might end up, only played for a week and a half on the Cape before the Sox called offering a contract.

“A lot of it was a question about being from Harvard and the health of my arm,” Farkes said. “I showed my arm was healthy, and when the Red Sox made an offer I jumped on it.”

Signing a pro contract was the overarching goal for Farkes, but getting inked by his favorite team has made the experience doubly sweet. Farkes is from Boston, and his family has held season tickets to the Red Sox ever since he was six years old. Now, the kid who grew up in the shadow of Fenway Park and stayed in town to play his college ball will get the chance to work up the minor league ladder with the team that is in his blood.

“It’s a dream come true. To be a part of [the Red Sox] organization is just a huge honor for me,” Farkes said. “It’s the best of both worlds—the chance to play pro ball and play for my favorite team.”

Farkes will be trying to make good on that chance with Lowell for the rest of the New York-Penn League season, which lasts until early September. Although he definitely plans on finishing school, and could possibly return to take classes this fall, his clear priority is giving baseball his best shot.

“I’d like to come back [to Harvard] this fall, but my first commitment is to playing pro ball, and if the Red Sox want me to keep playing this fall, I’m going to do that,” Farkes said.

After all, he is no longer a college student. He’s made the commitment, and is now a professional.

—Staff writer Caleb W. Peiffer can be reached at cpeiffer@fas.harvard.edu.