Photo by: Evan Triplett /Houston Astros
From WCWS to World Series Champ
12/02/22 | Softball, @GoDucksMoseley
Sara Goodrum, who made it to OKC three times with Oregon softball, helped the Houston Astros win the 2022 World Series as director of player personnel.
A decade ago, Sara Goodrum learned what it meant to be a cog in a machine that churned out wins, as a member of the Oregon softball program for three Women's College World Series appearances.
Now, she's a cog in a similar machine, albeit at a different level. And she'll soon have a Major League Baseball World Series ring to prove it.
Goodrum, a reserve outfielder for the UO softball team from 2012-15, was named earlier this year as the director of player development for the Houston Astros. Ten months to the day after being hired to that position, Goodrum watched the Astros clinch a World Series title with a Game 6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Nov. 5.
"Coming over to the Astros and being in the position I'm in, and being part of a World Series championship organization, it's been pretty awesome, and surreal," Goodrum said.
A 2015 graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in human physiology, Goodrum went on to earn a master's in exercise and sports science at Utah. A lifelong baseball fan, she joined the Milwaukee Brewers organization as a sports science intern in 2017, getting her first taste of the MLB postseason a year later when the Brewers won the NL Central Division.
"I'll never forget being at Miller Park and talking to another staff member who told me, 'Take this in, because there's people in this game that work decades to get to this point,' " Goodrum recalled recently. "I really took that to heart. I always tried, every postseason with the Brewers, to enjoy it. Because that's the time, even as a player back in college, that's what you work so hard for."
Goodrum broke new ground while with the Brewers for women in baseball. She was announced in January 2021 as the organization's minor-league hitting coordinator, becoming the first woman to hold that job in the big leagues; among the players she worked with was outfielder Garrett Mitchell, now the husband of another UO softball alum, Haley Cruse.
And Goodrum smashed another glass ceiling earlier this year, when she was named Jan. 5 as director of player development with the Astros. She became the first woman to hold that position in MLB as well, overseeing big-picture organizational initiatives to be implemented throughout the minor leagues, with the goal of molding future contributors to the Astros' big-league club.
Goodrum works with minor-league coordinators in specific skills such as hitting, pitching and fielding to craft organizational and also individual player-development plans for some 180 prospects in the Astros' system in the U.S., and also those at the team's complex in the Dominican Republic.
"When we're looking at it through a developmental lens, it's not always about wins and losses in the minor leagues, but more so making sure players are getting the appropriate reps they need," Goodrum said. "But we have to balance that with creating a winning culture, too. We want our players to value winning – because that's what we want to do at the Major League level."
The Astros were a shining success in that regard this past season. Houston won 106 games in the regular season to win the AL West, then went 7-0 through the first two rounds of the playoffs before reaching the World Series for the fourth time in the last six years. There, they beat the Phillies in six games for their first title since 2017.
Though she relocated to Houston upon joining the organization, Goodrum watched much of that success from afar, spending the season on the road with minor-league affiliates in places like Fayetteville, N.C., West Palm Beach, Fla., and Sugar Land, Texas. Once the postseason began, she got to sit back and enjoy the playoffs – with some moments of tension sprinkled in, to be sure.
"It's been great coming in, especially as a person that's new in a leadership role, and leaning on so many different people to quickly get caught up to speed on the organization – what we do well, and also providing a perspective coming from a different organization as well," Goodrum said. "They're very motivated people; it's just awesome to see that. The players, they know what winning is like and they want to keep doing it. So they're very motivated."
Goodrum knows first-hand what that's like. She joined the UO softball team as a freshman from Mesa, Ariz., in 2012, and drove in two runs for the Ducks in a WCWS elimination game against Cal that season. Twice more in her career, Oregon would make it back to Oklahoma City.
"Being on the softball team and contending for a national championship every single year, and being a Pac-12 powerhouse, really taught me what a winning culture looks like," Goodrum said. "When you're a part of that, you always want to be part of it – it's addicting. It's something that drives me to this day."
And yet while she was enjoying that success, Goodrum was also coming to terms with the reality that her playing career soon would come to an end. Looking to mix her love of sports with her academic interests, she began working with the Bowerman Sports Science Center in the UO department of human physiology. Under the tutelage of BSSC director Mike Hahn, Goodrum got hands-on experience in a program that specialized in work with track and field athletes.
The convergence of her academic pursuits with athletics opened Goodrum's eyes to potential career paths in professional sports.
"I owe a lot to the University of Oregon, across a lot of different spectrums," she said.
Her hard work and perceptive insight have been on display ever since she left Eugene. Soon, Goodrum will have a World Series ring to prove it.
Now, she's a cog in a similar machine, albeit at a different level. And she'll soon have a Major League Baseball World Series ring to prove it.
Goodrum, a reserve outfielder for the UO softball team from 2012-15, was named earlier this year as the director of player development for the Houston Astros. Ten months to the day after being hired to that position, Goodrum watched the Astros clinch a World Series title with a Game 6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Nov. 5.
"Coming over to the Astros and being in the position I'm in, and being part of a World Series championship organization, it's been pretty awesome, and surreal," Goodrum said.
A 2015 graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in human physiology, Goodrum went on to earn a master's in exercise and sports science at Utah. A lifelong baseball fan, she joined the Milwaukee Brewers organization as a sports science intern in 2017, getting her first taste of the MLB postseason a year later when the Brewers won the NL Central Division.
"I'll never forget being at Miller Park and talking to another staff member who told me, 'Take this in, because there's people in this game that work decades to get to this point,' " Goodrum recalled recently. "I really took that to heart. I always tried, every postseason with the Brewers, to enjoy it. Because that's the time, even as a player back in college, that's what you work so hard for."
Goodrum broke new ground while with the Brewers for women in baseball. She was announced in January 2021 as the organization's minor-league hitting coordinator, becoming the first woman to hold that job in the big leagues; among the players she worked with was outfielder Garrett Mitchell, now the husband of another UO softball alum, Haley Cruse.
And Goodrum smashed another glass ceiling earlier this year, when she was named Jan. 5 as director of player development with the Astros. She became the first woman to hold that position in MLB as well, overseeing big-picture organizational initiatives to be implemented throughout the minor leagues, with the goal of molding future contributors to the Astros' big-league club.
Goodrum works with minor-league coordinators in specific skills such as hitting, pitching and fielding to craft organizational and also individual player-development plans for some 180 prospects in the Astros' system in the U.S., and also those at the team's complex in the Dominican Republic.
"When we're looking at it through a developmental lens, it's not always about wins and losses in the minor leagues, but more so making sure players are getting the appropriate reps they need," Goodrum said. "But we have to balance that with creating a winning culture, too. We want our players to value winning – because that's what we want to do at the Major League level."
The Astros were a shining success in that regard this past season. Houston won 106 games in the regular season to win the AL West, then went 7-0 through the first two rounds of the playoffs before reaching the World Series for the fourth time in the last six years. There, they beat the Phillies in six games for their first title since 2017.
Though she relocated to Houston upon joining the organization, Goodrum watched much of that success from afar, spending the season on the road with minor-league affiliates in places like Fayetteville, N.C., West Palm Beach, Fla., and Sugar Land, Texas. Once the postseason began, she got to sit back and enjoy the playoffs – with some moments of tension sprinkled in, to be sure.
"It's been great coming in, especially as a person that's new in a leadership role, and leaning on so many different people to quickly get caught up to speed on the organization – what we do well, and also providing a perspective coming from a different organization as well," Goodrum said. "They're very motivated people; it's just awesome to see that. The players, they know what winning is like and they want to keep doing it. So they're very motivated."
Goodrum knows first-hand what that's like. She joined the UO softball team as a freshman from Mesa, Ariz., in 2012, and drove in two runs for the Ducks in a WCWS elimination game against Cal that season. Twice more in her career, Oregon would make it back to Oklahoma City.
"Being on the softball team and contending for a national championship every single year, and being a Pac-12 powerhouse, really taught me what a winning culture looks like," Goodrum said. "When you're a part of that, you always want to be part of it – it's addicting. It's something that drives me to this day."
And yet while she was enjoying that success, Goodrum was also coming to terms with the reality that her playing career soon would come to an end. Looking to mix her love of sports with her academic interests, she began working with the Bowerman Sports Science Center in the UO department of human physiology. Under the tutelage of BSSC director Mike Hahn, Goodrum got hands-on experience in a program that specialized in work with track and field athletes.
The convergence of her academic pursuits with athletics opened Goodrum's eyes to potential career paths in professional sports.
"I owe a lot to the University of Oregon, across a lot of different spectrums," she said.
Her hard work and perceptive insight have been on display ever since she left Eugene. Soon, Goodrum will have a World Series ring to prove it.
Players Mentioned
OF
/ SoftballMelyssa Lombardi | Postgame - Ohio State (Game 3)
Sunday, April 26
Emma Cox | Postgame - Ohio State (Game 2)
Sunday, April 26
Taryn Ho | Postgame - Ohio State (Game 2)
Sunday, April 26
Melyssa Lombardi | Postgame - Ohio State (Game 2)
Sunday, April 26
