Komine signs with A's, will play at Visalia

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Shane Komine will get a signing bonus of between $15,000 and $20,000. Advertiser library photo

Komine, a 1998 Kalani High graduate who became one of the most successful pitchers in college baseball history at Nebraska, said he will receive a signing bonus of "between $15,000 and $20,000" and will leave Thursday for the A's farm team at Visalia, Calif.

That gives him six more days of surfing. "It will be all baseball at Visalia," he said.

Komine said he is getting "pretty good money for a senior in the ninth round." He had been told the usual bonus would be $5,000.

But money was never an object. "The signing bonus isn't important to me," Komine said. "I just want to get there and work into the starting rotation."

Komine was one of the A's easiest acquisitions. He never met face-to-face with anyone in the organization after he was the 278th player chosen in the Major League First-Year Player Draft on June 4. "I talked on the phone to Jim Pransky, (a scout) based in Iowa. They sent me the contract and I'll fax it back to them," he said.

Komine's 510 career strikeouts rank fifth in NCAA history, and he is the sixth member of college baseball's "40-500 (wins/strikeouts)" club.

His record at Nebraska was 41-8, including 10-0 this year. He led the Big 12 in strikeouts the past three years (115 this season) and held opposing hitters to a .178 batting average this year.

On Thursday, Komine added to his honors when he was chosen on the American Baseball Coaches Association first All-Midwest Region team. On Tuesday, he was named second-team All-American by Baseball America magazine for the third year in a row.

Also on Thursday, he learned that his coach at Nebraska, Dave Van Horn, was about to resign and take the same job at Arkansas.

Yesterday, Van Horn, who led the Cornhuskers to their first two College World Series appearances, was hired to replace retiring Norm DeBriyn as Razorbacks coach.

Komine's college success was attained despite a series of injuries: chronic lower back pain, surgery on his right (throwing) shoulder last September and tendinitis in his right wrist in April that sidelined him for 35 days.