ALTOONA, Pa. - Open a map and point to anywhere in the world.  There’s a good chance Cord Heine has cracked a home run out of the nearest baseball field.  The well-traveled Heine, a power-hitting freshman outfielder on the Penn State Altoona baseball team who grew up in an oil family, has quite literally been all over the world, playing the game he loves and gaining some incredible experiences in the process.

“Cord definitely has the most frequent flyer miles on the team,” laughed Lion head coach Joe Piotti.  “We’re really fortunate to have him at Penn State Altoona, and I think he has a real chance to set some home run records here.  He’s a great kid who will anchor our lineup for the next few years.”

The freshman lists his hometown as Malvern, PA, where he won two PIAA State Championships at Mercersburg Academy, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of Heine’s upbringing.  Born in New Orleans, he moved to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in 1991 when his father, Chris, worked for Mobile Oil before becoming employed by a Saudi oil company.

The Heine family, consisting of Cord, his father, brother Kyle, and mother Deirdre, lived on a small compound of about 8,000 people with similar families from around the world.  The school that he attended ranged from kindergarten through ninth grades and was for ex-patriot families only.

“Trying to describe life in Saudi is difficult because basically it’s the exact opposite of life here in the states,” noted Heine. “Imagine your hometown surrounded by 10 foot walls, and once you leave those walls you’re in the middle of the desert.  It’s kind of surreal.”

Baseball is played year round in Saudi Arabia and is very popular among American families.  Heine was selected to the travel team that would compete in Poland and eventually make it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  He played in back-to-back LLWS in 2000 and 2001 representing Saudi Arabia and blasted a home run in a game against Panama.

“Playing in the LLWS was a great experience,” he said.  “It was a lot of fun playing teams from all over the world, and we were literally treated like royalty for a week.  Our families would take vacation and come to watch us play, and the whole experience was just awesome.”         

After ninth grade, each student was sent off to boarding school with tuition almost fully paid by the oil company.  That’s how Heine arrived at Mercersburg Academy where a laundry list of accolades would await.  He was a three-year letter winner who earned two All-Area First Team and Player of the Year honors from the Hagerstown, Maryland, Herald-Mail News.  He was a Baseball Coaches Association of America All-District and Second Team All-American in 2007, hitting .575 with 13 home runs, which set a school record.  He also won the Mercersburg MVP award in 2007 and earned Mid-Atlantic Prep League First Team all-star recognition as a junior and senior.

With a wealth of talent and the aforementioned numbers to back it up, Heine was heavily recruited by a number of college coaches including Piotti.  He was set to attend Penn State Altoona but received and accepted a late scholarship offer to play Division I baseball at the University of Massachusetts.  During his first semester at UMass, he suffered a sports hernia, forcing him to sit out the entire year.  At that point, Heine decided his best option was to transfer and contacted Piotti about coming to Altoona.

“UMass wasn’t a great fit for me and the injury really set me back, too,” reflected Heine.  “Transferring was my best option, and Coach Piotti seemed like the right coach to play for.  Penn State Altoona is great; I enjoy playing on the team and think we have the talent to win a lot of games.”

Through his first 20 games at Penn State Altoona, Heine is hitting .362 with 25 hits, 24 RBI, and seven home runs.  He has 37 putouts and two outfield assists, starting and playing every game in right field.  A Environmental Studies major, he plans on staying at Penn State Altoona all four years and causing major headaches for Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference pitchers.  He currently leads the league in home runs and RBI and is just two long balls away from the Penn State Altoona single-season record of nine set by Chris Scelsi in 2006.

His parents, who attended all of the team’s games in Florida during spring break, returned to Saudi Arabia recently and will not see their son play the rest of the season.  The 20-year-old Heine says he plans on staying in the states after graduation but would be open to moving back to Saudi Arabia as an adult.  But for the time being, Heine is keeping his suitcase in the closet, letting the baseballs do the traveling, and absolutely loving his new home at Penn State Altoona.