Michael McDermott knows he won't be the next Derek Jeter.

That stands to reason: McDermott's favorite major leaguer not only plays shortstop, but he throws and bats right-handed.

McDermott, a Rio Rancho High School junior, plays first base and pitches, and he bats and throws left-handed. Still, he'd like to play professionally someday and it's not without precedent in his family: His father, Terry, played professionally, including a few seasons with the Albuquerque Dukes and nine games with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Dad, 54 today, thinks his southpaw son has more potential than he did at that age, and certainly a better grasp of the game when it comes to what's going on on the field and anticipation.

Older brother Terry Jr. played baseball and basketball at St. Pius X High School, but hoops was clearly his sport of choice.

"Terry's passion was basketball; I mean, he was a great athlete, but his passion was basketball," explained Terry Sr. "He wound up going to college and playing a little college baseball, but the passion wasn't there for him.

"With Michael, it's all baseball all the time, and it always has been," he continued. "He was 3 years old (when he became interested), but the thing is he had his older brother, his older sister (Katie, former Rams softball star) - it was just one of those things. It was almost like a rite of spring, a family rite. You'd just pick up the bat, but he's always been that way when it came to baseball.

"You'd sit there and you watch a game with Michael, you watch a game on TV - when I was growing up, we didn't watch baseball, we'd play it," he continued. "But he'll sit there and watch it. When I was watching it with him, he'd start asking questions and he'd say, 'How did you know that?' So by the time he was 11 or 12 years old he had a great deal of knowledge: He has more knowledge about the game now than I had after two or three years of pro, because he studies the game."

Rams coaches like that.

Take the Rams' game with Roswell on March 11, with McDermott playing first base. He had more to say than a play-by-play announcer, if there'd been one: passing along advice to pitcher Marcus Riggs, reminding everyone on their field when there were two outs, keeping the infielders ready for a double play, telling catcher Justin Esquibel either to "Be a wall back there" or "You're a wall back there." And much more.

One day earlier, again at first base, McDermott could be seen with an arm around sophomore starter Kyle Hammond, telling him what a great job he was doing in his varsity debut on the mound. (Great job? Try four innings of no-hit ball.)

"You didn't really have to push Michael; he just took off and fell in love with (baseball) from day one," his father added. "He's a fan of the game, he's a student of the game, he's a player and he understands the psychological piece of it, too. You don't get down on a kid if he's kicking a ground ball or something like that, you go out and pick him up."

Truth be told, McDermott probably wanted to strangle an infielder or two on Saturday, when it was his turn on the hill and the Rams were facing Farmington for the championship of their own invitational. A handful of errors led to more unearned runs than the Rams could stand, and McDermott was saddled with the loss despite not giving up an earned run.

"I thought McDermott pitched one of the best games he's pitched all year ... He deserved a better fate," head coach Ron Murphy said. "We knew he had to be a little frustrated ... He kept his composure pretty well for how many mistakes we made behind him. I thought he did a fantastic job."

He said he'd be ready to pitch after going 2 for 2 with an RBI in the Rams' semifinal win, saying he'd "sleep like a rock."

Having a good day at the plate is nothing new for McDermott, who's been hitting in the clean-up spot for the Rams.

"He's changed his hitting. He understands hitting," his father said. "We've talked hitting a lot and he understands it better, and when you understand what you want to do up there, that's important. He has more confidence in his hitting so he can take a guy deeper into the count ... I had to convince him you don't have to hit home runs, you hit line drives ... Make contact, put it in play and good things happen."

Terry McDermott's description of his son goes something like this: "He's tall, he's rangy, he's incredibly skinny, He's added 10 pounds but he's only 180, 185 pounds. He's about 6-3 or 6-4 and there's a lot of room for him to get bigger, stronger. I think he'll probably play at the next level, but his coaches know more about that than I do. It would be wonderful for him to play college ball for four years; it would be a blessing, it would be a privilege, it would be an honor for him and he would treat it that way, because he understands how few even make it to that level, and how few even play varsity baseball."

"There's a lot of possibilities right now," Michael McDermott, a 'yes, sir; no, sir' type of kid,' said. "Right now, I'm just trying to look where this team is going - I think we can go a really long distance."

Jeter's his favorite player, he said, because "I just like how he does everything. He's a leader on the field all the time.

"My dream is to play in the major leagues, but we'll see what happens," he said. "I'm a 6-3 lefty that, if I can add a few more miles to my fastball, maybe I can go somewhere after high school ... pro. But right now, I'm looking at junior college after high school. The only D-1 I'd look at is UNM." (Terry McDermott is a former Lobos assistant coach.)

"I love hitting; that's my passion," he said. "If there's any way I can get there - if it's through pitching, that's great; if it's through hitting, that's what I'd prefer - any way, just so I can keep playing."

The main thing he learned from his dad, he said, is "anticipating the next play; being ready. My brother, like in basketball, that's reaction. Baseball is a thinking man's game, on defense. Hitting - you've just got to react. But, yeah, you have to anticipate everything. There's a lot to baseball."

McDermott made his varsity debut two years ago as a freshman. Then wearing No. 13, he toed the slab in a game at Rio Grande, where he received a rude introduction to varsity action: In just 1/3 of an inning, he was racked for three hits and three runs, all earned. The Rams somehow managed to bounce back and turn what had been a 9-4 deficit entering the seventh into a 12-10 victory.

By his sophomore season, he was ready to step up and meet the demands of varsity play. By season's end, he was wearing 22 on his back, went 5-1 on the mound and was swinging the bat well enough to not need a DHD in his slot in the order.

"He's a baseball player," says assistant coach Dave Bency, who works mostly with the Rams pitchers. "Coach Murphy and the staff talked about this the other day. He said, 'You know what? What we see around here is a lot of good athletes, and we see a lot of kids who really want to play baseball, but we see very few baseball players.'

"Baseball players don't make mental mistakes, they're on top of the game, they know everything that's going on, and they live for the game: That's Michael McDermott," Bency explained. "He's not just a kid that shows up to play baseball, he's a baseball player - and there's a difference."

"I set goals for myself; the team is my priority right now," he said. "But I set goals for myself, where I want to be, what I want to do. I want to be an All-State position player and an All-State pitcher; I want to beat La Cueva. And I want to make it to The Show."

If only academics came as easily.

"I'm on the field more than I'm in the classroom, but the grades are good enough," he admitted. "They could be better; I need to work on them.

"Every time I'm in the classroom, I'm thinking about being out here. This is where I feel at peace; I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," he said. "They call me a cage rat; I'm in the (batting) cage all the time."

"First off, he's got three pitches and a lot of kids just have fastball, curveball," Bency said of McDermott's attributes on the mound. "He's got three pitches and he can locate every single one: fastball, curveball, change=up. So he can come at you three different ways. His release point has gotten consistently better about hiding the pitch, so his strikeout total is very high because players, I think, are having a hard time telling what's coming because he doesn't telegraph it."

Lastly, a note to the leather-lunged fan at RRHS who shouts encouragement to McDermott on the field or at the plate: Stop calling him Mickey. There's already a Mickey McDermott in the Baseball Encyclopedia.

McDermott gets an opportunity to attain one of his goals Tuesday, when the Rams travel to undefeated La Cueva for a 3:30 p.m. game. The Bears are challenging the nation's longest prep winning streak of 68 games, set back in the mid-Sixties.