Yassin Wahhab, starting second baseman for University City High, has relaxed his approach to baseball over the past two years. Formerly, his drive to improve so he could continue to play past high school – whether in college or even the pros – met head-on with injuries that forced him to change his perspective.
Yaz, as he is known, now seems reflective as he enjoys a stellar senior season batting at the top of new UC coach Rick Frink’s lineup. His changed approach to the game has enabled him to relax his hands at the plate, leading to a robust .361 batting average with a week left in the Western League season.
Amid the bigger picture, he has also accepted the fact that he won’t play baseball at San Diego State University, where he will attend college next year. And he can even find a healthful way to look at his final season with the Centurions, which won’t include a league title.
“I’ve relaxed,” says the 17-year-old scrapper, who Frink says will get on base any way he can. “The result has been better than I would have thought.” The statistics bear this out: Wahhab has scratched out 30 hits and crossed the plate 23 times to lead the team in both categories. Frink bats him in the leadoff or second spot in the order.
Yaz also has developed an unusual knack for getting hit by pitches this year. He has accomplished this six times so far. His coaches say it is because instead of pulling away on inside pitches, Wahhab stays in there. He turns his shoulder, and the result is contact.
Though more relaxed at the plate, he has also gotten more aggressive in attacking pitches. His walks are way down this year. He sees this as being “more balanced” in his approach to the plate.
“I get in the box,” he explains. “My hands are really relaxed. I’m thinking this is the pitch I want. I survey the field and think, ‘What do I want to do with the next pitch?'” Instead of taking so many pitches, as he did in the past, he looks at each pitch as a potential hit. This has meant not getting down in the count 0-and-1 or 0-and-2 as much, which put him at a disadvantage to the pitcher. As a result, his strikeouts are down, too.
Wahhab, though philosophical, doesn’t give in to resignation. He loves the game of baseball, he’s a fighter, and Frink views him as the “quiet leader” who motivates his teammates to play harder by his own hard work and dedication.
He seems to have come to a healthy view of things overall, partly as the result of having to deal with his experience with injuries in baseball (part of sports in general). But he talks about the wider perspective gained from having an international father. His dad, Farid, from Morocco, where Yaz has visited, grew up speaking French, Arabic and Spanish. He attended a Spanish-language middle school in Morocco, according to his son.
Does this help you have an international perspective? he is asked. “I think so,” says Yaz. “I’m pretty accepting of things. I see myself able to take things for what they are.”
It is not uncommon for schoolmates to take his name as Middle Eastern – “everything becomes Middle Eastern” – and he says he has been the object of more than his share of inappropriate terrorist jokes. He said the best response is not react, “to take it well. It’s a maturing process.”
He says he may explain that “I’m pretty white,” not just referring to his mother Janet but also to his being a typical teenager, to try to help others get past his name. The camaraderie he enjoys on the baseball team with his teammates seems to reflect the friendships he has with them.
One food tradition that has developed among teammates this season is getting the “Combo 3.77,” as they have named it, on early-dismissal Wednesdays: a Costco hot dog and a slice of pizza with a drink for that price before practice. The Centurions have had to move their practices and games to McElroy Field on Governor Drive while the upper field at University City High is renovated and brand-new ball fields are being constructed.
Says Frink of his second baseman: “He’s a big baseball guy. He’s a middle infielder who knows the game well.”