Once a Little League hot dog, Frias now awaiting MLB call

George Washington's Fernando Frias first made his name during the 2002 Little League World Series. AP

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, N.Y. -- A soothsayer, Fernando Frias is not.

Settling into the batter's box during a Little League World Series game six years ago, the unsuspecting 12-year-old stepped into the national spotlight.

Benched for the game's first three innings due to an off-field issue, Harlem coach Morris McWilliams called upon Frias to pinch hit. With two runners on base, he poured water over his head, walked purposefully to the plate and pointed his silver bat toward center field. "I figured if Babe Ruth could do it why not me?" Frias says, referencing Ruth's clairvoyance at Wrigley Field in 1932.

Connecting on the first pitch, the ball did not carry over the center field fence, instead landing atop it and bouncing back into play for a game-tying double. Harangued as a hot dog, editorialists, parents and Little League officials chided the pre-teen for a lack of sportsmanship. "How was I supposed to know?" Frias says.

"You've heard of Manny being Manny?" McWilliams says. "Well, we just say That's Fernando."

Now a Major League prospect expected to be selected on the first day of this year's amateur draft, Frias, 18, is a senior right fielder for Ramirez's former school, George Washington, the nation's No. 5-ranked team according to USA Today. He maintains that he has not called a shot in years. "I learned my lesson," Frias says.

Growing up at the cross streets of 151st and Broadway in upper Manhattan, Frias embraced the baseball culture of what many consider Little Santo Domingo for its heavy Dominican population. "If there was a spot of grass to be played on," McWilliams says. "Fernando found it."

When Frias chases fly balls to right field on Washington's home turf, he can pivot right, look southeast thru the Harlem River Valley and see the lights of Yankee Stadium and its rising replacement. Last week, Frias and teammate Jean Carlos Rodriguez -- a 5-11, 180-pound converted catcher who is expected to go higher than Frias in the draft -- took batting practice and went through fielding drills for Major League scouts. Rodriguez, who hits with power to all fields, has been rated with an above average arm. Frias, known better for his bat, ran a 6.7 in the 60-yard dash during a workout for the St. Louis Cardinals in New Jersey. "He operates on planet Frias," says Ian Millman, who coaches both players for the New York Nine summer team. "He can visualize hitting with the best."

A detail-oriented disciple of Ramirez, from his baggy baseball pants to his two-tap of home plate before each swing, Frias, who has grown to 6-feet, 225 pounds, reminds George Washington coach Steve Mandl of his most famous former player's swing.

Whether it is something in the water fountains at the school or not, Mandl also believes Rodriguez -- who plays summer ball with Frias on the New York Nine travel team -- is on the same wave length as Ramirez, too. If Mandl's locker is open Rodriguez will walk in, say hello and take whatever he desires. Last year, Mandl finally said no mas. "He just takes everything so I had two new turf shoes and I said he could not touch them," Mandl says. "I said he had to hit two home runs or throw someone out at second and third."

The next game Rodriguez hit two home runs.

"I've seen this before," Mandl says. "Manny used to walk in and take my underwear."

Seventeen years ago, Ramirez was selected with the 13th overall pick. Mandl says the George Washington tradition has been for players to crowd around his computer and await names of his players to appear. On Thursday, the afternoon following the senior prom, the team is expected to meet at its home field to prepare for Friday night's PSAL city title game at Shea Stadium. With all interest pointing at the possibility of being drafted high enough to skip past junior college, Frias says he will be happy wherever he goes. "No prediction from me," he says.