After a stellar career as a catcher at Saint Joseph's University, O'Keefe was drafted by the Cardinals in the 7th round in 2014. Since then he's moved up through the St. Louis system steadily, and here in 2019 he has spent the entire season with the Double-A Springfield Cardinals.
"Certainly a learning experience at this level," O'Keefe said. "This is the first time I've really spent time up here at the Double-A level, and it's definitely been a learning experience throughout the entire season, in a good way. I think offensively, I've learned how pitchers are attacking, their stuff is much better, their ability to throw offspeed pitches behind in the count is much better, and I have to be more selective as a hitter."
In 64 games this season, the 26-year-old has seven home runs and 28 RBI and he is second on the team with 29 walks. He's been hot as of late, hitting safety in four of his last five games to the tune of a .300 average.
O'Keefe talks about the biggest lesson he's learned during his pro career.
"You can't worry about yesterday or tomorrow or whatever, even your next at-bat or whatever it may be, the next inning," he said. "I kind of just have a saying now that I tell myself throughout the course of a game, because I have to remind myself, 'Be in the moment. Be where your feet are.' And I think that can be applied really anywhere in life. So many times we get caught up in, 'Oh, I got to do this tomorrow' or 'I've got to do this next week' or whatever. I think you forget to enjoy the moment. I think that when I'm going really well as a player, I'm pretty ingrained in the moment."
O'Keefe was first-team Atlantic 10 in 2014 with the Hawks and a three-time All Big 5 pick. He looks back at his days on Hawk Hill fondly.
"Those guys where great over there," he said. "I've said this before and I'll continue to say it, I think one of the reasons I was much further along in my development defensively is because (Hawk head coach Fritz Hamburg) gave me the freedom to call my own game. We would talk about pitches and we were constantly talking about different things, different situations throughout the course of a game from the defensive aspect, and it really helped my growth as a player defensively (and to) have an ability to think for myself."
O'Keefe and the Springfield Cardinals host Amarillo Friday night.