JAMESTOWN, NY — Some of Dejai Oliver’s earliest memories are of time spent at the baseball field, watching his father play.

His childhood memories of spending time at the ball yard with Dad are a bit different than your average father and son baseball bonding time, though – trips to the stadium with Dad for Oliver meant visits to the major league locker room in places like Cincinnati and Detroit.

Dejai Oliver grew up the son of a major leaguer and has dreams of reaching the majors himself, starting with his rookie season in Jamestown.

Now, the son of former major league catcher Joe Oliver chases his own major league dream.

Some of the memories are fuzzy now for the 20-year-old, but they still bring a big smile to his face.

“When my dad was playing, my family and I lived in Orlando and we’d go up a couple times per year to watch him play,” Oliver recalled. “It was a cool experience growing up. I remember meeting Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin. I had Griffey sign a ball; got to go in the locker room after games. That was kind of cool.”

Baseball is in the blood of Oliver, whose father caught major league games for 13 seasons including a World Series championship year with Cincinnati in 1990.

Dejai hopes to become the most famous baseball name in his own family, though, after being selected in the eighth round of this year’s draft by the Marlins out of Seminole State junior college in Florida. A native of the Orlando area, Oliver was a natural fit with the Marlins on draft day.

“I’m from Florida, it’s a team I pull for all the time,” he said. “Getting that phone call on the (June) 8th was amazing; happiest time of my life. I had a feeling it was going to be the Marlins, it’s my backyard. Their scouts were at almost every (college) game I threw in. It seemed right.”

The phone call from the Marlins surpassed what had previously been Oliver’s favorite baseball memory – pitching his high school team to a state championship with a perfect game on the mound.

“That’s up there with draft day,” he smiled. “Performance-wise on the field, that’s got to be my favorite memory, but my favorite baseball memory has to be getting drafted this year.”

Oliver struck out 91 batters this year in 78 innings for Seminole State, walking only 30. He made his Jamestown debut on July 22 at Batavia and has since posted a 1-1 record with a 4.02 ERA for the Jammers, striking out 17 in 15.2 innings of work.

The jump from junior college ball has presented a much different atmosphere, especially pitching in front of 7,000 fans last month in Staten Island.

“That was phenomenal,” Oliver said. “It was an adrenaline rush walking out on the mound seeing all the fans up in the stands. It was something you don’t get out of junior college, families show up and that’s about it. That was the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of and it was cool to feed off that energy.”

Oliver worked his best outing as a professional in his last appearance for the Jammers – five innings of one-run ball at State College on Aug. 6. Being around the game his entire life, though, the right-hander knows his eye must stay on the next outing.

“Baseball is a game of what have you done for me lately, what are you doing now,” he said. “You keep earning your job. It’s a cutthroat game. If you don’t go out and perform you’re gone.”

That perspective is part of an aggressive mindset on the mound for the rookie.

“Mentally you have to be a bulldog,” he added. “Hitters get too much respect some times. The best hitters get on base three out of 10 times, you have to keep that in your mind.”

As for any lessons handed down to him from his father about life in professional baseball, well, those will have to wait.

“He told me to keep your mouth shut and your eyes open,” Oliver said. “He wanted me to learn the hard way about pro ball because he had to do it at 17. He said I had two years of junior college under my belt so I’m starting off better than he did. After this year I’ll go home and he said he’d give me some more pointers.”

For Oliver, the first summer as a professional seems like the natural next step in a role he was destined for from his days as a kid hanging around the big league locker rooms.

“Life up here is fun,” he said. “Playing pro ball is every kid’s dream.”

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