Jesse Craig has taken to heart a quote he got from a fortune cookie that he now carries around in his wallet that says "We are what we repeatedly do--excellence then is not an act but a habit."
Jesse Craig's first experience with baseball came when he was five-years old and played on a tee-ball team in Henderson, Nev.
"I just liked it from the get-go," Craig said. "Ever since then my love for the game has just grown."
Craig was introduced to baseball by his step-dad Bill.
"He married my Mom when I was around four," Craig said. "He grew up in Long Island, N. Y., and was a big baseball fan and a big Yankees fan. He brought that passion for baseball into our home, and it just grew from there."
The Sandlot
Growing up Craig was a die-hard Yankees fan and loved the movie "Sandlot."
"Sandlot was cool because that is what baseball is all about," Craig said. "Just playing for the love of the game, that is baseball at its purest."
When Craig was 13, he was pitching in a game when all of a sudden he heard a loud pop and was in immense pain.
"I was sort of in shock at first," Craig said. "The pain of having my elbow broken probably wasn't the worst of it. After the doctors had taken care of it, they told me that I couldn't touch a ball for nine months. That was the hardest part, being a 13-year old kid and not being able to do too much."
Craig was a starting pitcher for Basic High School in Henderson and was actually selected in the 36th round by the Atlanta Braves in the 2001 MLB draft (he is one of five players on this year's BYU team who have been drafted). Craig declined Atlanta's offer due to his desire to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He finished his mission to Rochester, N. Y., in 2003. Craig credits his mission with helping him come out of his shell.
"I have always shied away from being really social," Craig said. "I don't really like the spotlight. I would go to school, study and play baseball and that was it."
Many people always asked Craig if he played any other sports besides baseball because of his 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame. While Craig admits that he likes playing other sports, he has always just stuck with baseball.
An Emerging Star
After his mission Craig moved on to play baseball at Southern Nevada Community College. In his sophomore season there, Craig posted an 8-2 overall record and had a 1.30 ERA. This caused a lot of schools to come calling including Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Tennessee and BYU.
The decision for Craig came down to BYU and Oklahoma State.
"The coach at Oklahoma State really impressed me," Craig said. "My first day there I walked into his office, and he threw down a phone book on the table and opened it up to the Church section and showed me all of the LDS Churches that were in the area. That was really cool to me, being a Latter-day Saint and having this coach respect my religion."
Craig ultimately chose BYU because it just felt right.
"It was actually a pretty humbling experience when I told BYU that I wanted to come here, because just a couple of days before I had told assistant coach Bobby Applegate that I wasn't going to come," Craig said. "So I had to pick up the phone and tell them that I had changed my mind and that I wanted to come to BYU."
Becoming a Cougar
In Craig's first season with the Cougars he started off a little rough going 0-5, but then bounced back to finish the year on a 7-2 tear and lead the team with a 4.70 ERA. He was also named second-team All-Mountain West Conference, Academic All-MWC, MWC Pitcher of Week (vs. New Mexico St.) and a Cougar Club Scholar Athlete.
"It was a big adjustment for me coming to this league because they play with aluminum bats," Craig said. "In the league I came from they used wood bats, so it took me a little while to get adjusted."
Craig also met his wife Stephanie during his junior year and the two were married on May 13 the day after he had pitched a strong eight-inning performance to give the Cougars a 12-3 win over the San Diego State Aztecs.
"That had to be one of my most memorable moments," Craig said. "Pitching as well as I did and then the next day getting married; it was just an all-around great week."
Speaking on consenting to Craig's choice to get married during a pivotal series Coach Law said, "He's probably the only player on the team I'd do it for because he's mature. I might have been upset if he only gave us two innings and given up seven runs."
Craig said that the he and his fiancee chose the midseason date because of the MLB draft this past June. He said that he didn't know what was going to happen and wanted to have has much time as he could with Stephanie before the draft.
Unfortunately the draft did not work out the way Craig would have hoped as he went undrafted.
"It was a little disappointing," Craig said. "But it just gives me motivation to work harder and come out and have a great senior season."
Craig is excited to have Stephanie take part in his life and be there every step of the way.
"She doesn't know too much about baseball, so I help her out with that," Craig said. "But honestly that was one of the things that I liked about her. She didn't like me because I was a baseball player; she liked me for me."
Future Plans
Craig knows that making it to the Majors will take a lot of hard work and effort.
"I look at guys like Roger Clemens (Houston Astros) and Greg Maddux (Chicago Cubs) and can just imagine all of the time and effort that they have put into it," Craig said. "In my opinion Maddux can do anything he wants with a baseball, because he has taken the time to figure it out and to practice. He is constantly learning."
Craig knows that with being a pitcher that comes a lot of pressure at times, but he doesn't let it get to him.
"I know that if I go out there and give it my best effort then I will be satisfied," Craig said. "I always want to leave it all on the field."
Craig is majoring in exercise science with an emphasis in athletic training, but says that it is still his dream to make it to the majors. A lot of people doubt if he will because of his age. Craig is 23 right now and in baseball circles that is considered to be too old when you can draft someone five years younger than he, but Craig doesn't let that get him down.
"My dream is to make it to the Majors," Craig said. "I just need to keep working hard, and hopefully that day will come. I can't worry about what other people say or do. I just have to know that if I just keep on working and never give up, then it will all pay off in the end."