School: Wissahickon
Baseball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Getting to play in a tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, with the Baseball Factory and getting to see the National Championship Game.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “After getting our pants for the season this year, a player was upset that his were too small. We did our first stretch, and his pants completely tore open with the loudest ripping sound I have ever heard.”
Music on iPod: Rise Against, Audio Slave, Staind, Shinedown, and ‘anything rock’
Future plans: “I plan to graduate from college and also play baseball. I would like to earn a master’s degree and hopefully own my own business someday.”
Words to live by: “Character is shown when nobody is watching.”
One goal before turning 30: “Face my older brother Chris in a legitimate baseball game and see the Eagles win a Super Bowl.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I enjoy spending time working on my 1966 Chevy Corvair making sure it stays safe at all speeds. Thanks for your concerns Ralph Nader.”
Drew Frankenfield is a student of the game of baseball.
The Wissahickon senior can flat out rip the cover off the ball, and he’s no slouch on the mound either, but the sport is about much more than meets the eye to Frankenfield.
“Many people think baseball is boring – they think you just have to stand around,” he said. “But when you’re pitching or at-bat, you always have to anticipate, and just to out-think someone else – I love that.
“You always have to be ready to do something, and you always have to anticipate. I love trying to figure out what’s going to happen. You really have to be thinking and moving at all times even if it looks like you don’t have to do anything. That’s what I love about baseball.”
Frankenfield’s numbers through the first seven games of the season speak for themselves. He’s batting at a torrid .600 clip with 15 hits in 25 at-bats and an on-base percentage of .643. Included in those 15 hits are 10 extra-base hits – six doubles, two triples and two home runs for a dazzling slugging percentage of 1.240.
If it’s production you’re looking for, consider only that the gifted centerfielder, who also pitches, has 18 RBIs and has scored seven runs. On the mound, he is 3-0 with 12 strikeouts in 14.1 innings with a 2.93 ERA.
But numbers are just the tip of the iceberg for a young athlete who is also an outstanding student and, according to his coach, an outstanding person.
“With Drew, it’s not just athletics, it’s not just academics – it’s character,” Trojan coach Shannon Gunby said. “It’s the way he carries himself as a young man in general.
“When you talk to Drew, he’s got a smile on his face, he’s looking you in the eye and giving you intellectual answers. It’s not about him either. He’ll talk about the team and everything else.”
Frankenfield, according to Gunby, is the product of hard work. Not just on the baseball diamond.
“He realized he wasn’t going to be the tallest, he wasn’t going to be the fastest, and he wasn’t going to be the strongest, but he has learned to maximize the skills he does have to get the most out of them for himself and the team,” the Trojans’ coach said.
“One of my coaches is an advanced math teacher, and Drew will literally be sitting on the bus to a game getting help with his AP Trigonometry course,” Gunby continued. “It doesn’t matter what he’s doing. He’ll give a maximum effort to it and make every effort he can to succeed at it, and it’s infectious.”
Frankenfield – whose older brother Chris is a pitcher at York College - grew up playing baseball, basketball and soccer.
“I played all three for as long as I can remember,” he said. “I was always hitting the baseball with my dad.”
He gave up soccer when he was in high school and opted to forego playing basketball this past winter despite the fact that he was a three-year varsity player.
“I loved basketball, but I don’t think I prepared myself as much for the baseball season,” he said. “This year I was able to do a lot more off-season lifting, a lot more off-season pitching, which has really prepared my arm.
“When my arm is feeling better, I’m able to hit a lot better. Last year when I’d throw my arm would be sore, and I felt that also penalized my hitting.”
Gone this spring are the slow starts that plagued Frankenfield in the past.
“This year I was able to get to the batting cages a lot more,” he said. “The last two years, I really struggled at the beginning of the season and then picked it up late. In the summer, I’d have good seasons because I’d get more swings and go to the batting cages more often.
“This year I was able to do that before the season, and I’m hoping it will continue from the beginning all the way through.”
In the summer, Frankenfield plays American Legion baseball for Mount Carmel where he joins forces with many of his high school archrivals from Plymouth Whitemarsh.
Needless to say, there’s a little added motivation when the Trojans take on the Colonials, and this year, Frankenfield earned the win on the mound and also had a triple and double in Wissahickon’s 7-5 win over PW.
“He pitched six and a third strong innings and had a bases-clearing triple to put us up in the game,” Gunby said. “He went out there and took that game over offensively and defensively.”
Frankenfield is hoping the Trojans will be able to compete for an American Conference crown this season.
“I feel like I can speak for the team – we all thought losing Methacton and Quakertown in our league competitive-wise maybe it’s not as great, but it gave us the opportunity to compete to win the league,” he said. “We all felt we could do it.”
He admits that goal was met by skepticism from the younger players who recalled the Trojans’ 6-13 mark in each of the last two years.
“They came in thinking, ‘Oh, is it going to be another year like that?’” he said. “But we all were real confident that with all the hard work we put in that if we got off to a good start it would only get better.”
The Trojans (6-2) have already equaled their win total of last season, and Frankenfield’s optimism appears to be well founded. The senior centerfielder will have something to say about just how far this Trojan squad will go this season.
“When I coached him as a freshman, I looked at him and said, ‘He has a chance to be a very good baseball player,’” Gunby said. “What he realized and started to learn is that he needed to complete his game.
“He needed to not only have the asset of being able to hit for average but also drive in runs, which he is doing this year. He also needed to learn how to be a leader. He needed to learn how to take over a baseball game on the mound. He needed to learn how to steal bases. He’s completed his game over the last four years of his work here in high school.”
Frankenfield plans continue his career to the collegiate level. Although he hasn’t made a final decision, he lists Messiah as his top choice. He is undecided on a major but is considering something related to business.
As for baseball, Frankenfield see his future in the outfield.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t want to continue pitching,” he said. “I don’t know – I think I’m a little bit too fiery to be a pitcher. I’ve always loved hitting, and I feel that hitting is my best asset. I would much rather play the outfield, but if I have to pitch, I’m willing to pitch.”
According to Gunby, the college that lands Frankenfield will be getting a steal.
“He can get stronger, he can get faster, and he’s just going to go out there and be an all-around team player and a great addition to the academic university he attends,” the Trojans’ coach said.
