From the green fields of California to the batter's boxes in Taiwan, and everywhere in between, it has been a wild baseball odyssey for Bo Durkac.

Durkac, a Kittaning native and now the assistant coach and hitting instructor for the Charlotte 49ers baseball team, has lived baseball for so many years -- it's in his blood now. The man has been through the minor leagues, been through international play, been through Major League spring training and has been an author as well.

Perhaps, like any story, it's best to start at the beginning. Durkac graduated from Virginia Tech in 1995, where he was a two-time All-Metro Conference third basemen and was named the 1993 Metro Conference Newcomer of the Year.

In the three years he spent with the Hokies after transferring from North Carolina, Durkac compiled a .360 batting average and set a school record with 60 doubles. He brought a lunch-and-pail mentality to the line-up, playing every inning except two in his final two seasons there.

Following his days in Blacksburg, Durkac jumped into minor league baseball and eventually helped the Class-A Lancaster Jethawks clinch the 1997 league championship.

He then played three seasons as a member of the Chico Heat of the Western Baseball League, where he had a break-out 1999 season in which he was named to the all-star team and garnered a spot on Team USA in the Intercontinental Cup in Sydney, Australia.

Playing international baseball, Durkac said, was one of his career highlights. For the tournament, in which the U.S. team finished 5-4 and out of medal contention, Durkac had a .250 average in four games, while scoring one run and striking out four times.

With the worldly flavor of the tournament still there, Durkac spent six weeks in March and April of 2001 with the Taichung Agan of the Taiwan Major Leagues before returning to the United States. He said the over-seas approach to the game was definitely unique, because the focus was more on physical conditioning than it was baseball skills.

"They have a different way of going about things," Durkac said. "It's not any better or any worse, just new to me."

However, Durkac began to think about life after baseball. Those thoughts became more prevalent in the spring of 2000, he said, in spring training with the Montreal Expos. What started as mere journal entries proved to be an opportunity for something greater. A University of Miami assistant coach told him that a new project had been started that involved gathering the journals of several players so fans could read first-hand about the life of players bouncing around through a minor league season.

"I was 27 at the time and I knew my time was running out and it would be the last chance to make my mark on professional baseball," Durkac said. "There are lots of diehard fans out there who want to know about [the minor league life]."

Through these journal entries grew the idea of a book, a dream that came to fruition with the publishing of "2001: A Baseball Odyssey" in January 2002. Centering on his international experience, Durkac said the book is somewhat unique in its subject.

"My playing in Taiwan spawned the idea," Durkac said. "It's not everyday a boy from Hicktown, Pa., gets to go over-seas and play pro ball."

With his next work, "How to Become a Professional Baseball Player" due out in May, and a semi-regular column on Baseball America's website, Durkac says writing provides a nice activity to pick up on the side.

"I always enjoy writing," Durkac said. "It's a nice diversion from playing."

However, the baseball demons can't merely be exorcised through the written word. As a matter of chance last July, Durkac heard about an opening at Charlotte for a hitting instructor. Tired of playing and ready to enter the college coaching ranks, Durkac got the position and has looked to bring a fundamentals-first orientation to the team.

"I'm not a big guy on results, I'm a big guy on execution," Durkac said. "The players will be more successful in the long run if they do what they need to do and not what they think they need to do."

Both Charlotte baseball coach Loren Hibbs and senior second baseman George Sandel have seen the change in the 49ers already. Hibbs praised Durkac and said the addition of a second paid assistant coach has made a world of difference.

"I have a good rapport with him," Hibbs said. "I've known him since he was a player at Virginia Tech. He's a Pennsylvania guy that's got a tremendous work ethic."

Sandel, a two-time second-team All-Conference USA selection who had a 14 game hitting streak last season on the way to a .374 average and a second-consecutive season of more than 70 hits, said that Durkac has approached him with a style unlike any of his previous coaches.

"He brings a great hitting philosophy with him," Sandel said. "He's stayed on me a lot harder than any coach ever has."

Although he has lived the baseball life for many years now, Durkac said his education is far from complete. It is that approach, he says, that keeps him going.

"I learn something new every day," Durkac said. "I have a desire to learn, I think 'I don't know all the answers.' "

Despite having traveled the world, both in a baseball and a literal sense, Durkac said his journeys aren't complete. They've only just begun.