Playing Pro Baseball, Getting Drafted by the NY Yankees, and Life as a Top Prospect with Danny Oh

The Asian American Athlete

In this episode, host Justin Hong interviews former professional baseball player Danny Oh about his baseball career. During the interview, Danny talks about his childhood and playing sports at an early age (3:10), how playing tennis as a kid helped him develop as a baseball player later on (4:30), the start of his baseball career and making his local Little League team (6:45), his practice & training routines as a kid (9:55), and hitting 32 home runs as a 12-year old in Little League and starting to get recognition for his baseball talent (11:15).

He also walks us through his incredible high school career during which he become the number one baseball recruit in the state of Washington (13:20), factors that really helped elevate him as a player and exposure to scouts (17:10), his recruiting experience, including getting recruited by over 100 colleges (20:10), exploring the route of entering the MLB draft straight out of high school (22:50) before ultimately making the decision to attend UC-Berkeley (24:05), and the experience of being a highly-recruited Asian American baseball prospect (27:05).

He shares what a day in the life of a D1 college baseball player looks like (29:00), the story of his first college at-bat (32:20), consistently adding skills and addressing weaknesses to grow as a ball player (34:20), overcoming the challenging times during his college career (36:00), and what it felt like to get drafted by the New York Yankees (44:30).

Danny then takes us through a day in the life of a minor league baseball player (47:40), his 4 seasons playing in the Yankees minor league system (51:35), transitioning from the Yankees to the Oakland A’s organization (53:20), playing his final year of pro baseball for the St. Paul Saints of the American Association (56:20), his decision to retire as a baseball player (57:35), his relationship with the sport of baseball now and transitioning into a career in business (58:25), and much more.

Danny Oh’s Cal Baseball Player Page

Danny Oh’s Minor League Baseball Player Page

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