By: Daniel Podheiser, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer

Clay Buchholz and I have a few things in common. We both live in Boston, but didn’t grow up here, we’re both dashingly good looking, and we’re both making $443,000 plus incentives in 2010.

OK, so only two of those three things are true. But when I came to Boston in the fall of 2007 to start my journey at Emerson College, Buchholz was also taking a giant leap towards embedding his stamp on Beantown.

I remember it like it was yesterday. The night before I moved into college, I was sitting in a Hamden, Ct. hotel room, impatiently waiting for morning to come so I could take the final leg of the drive into the next chapter of my life.

I turned on the TV at around 9:30, and flipped to the Sox game. And there, standing on the mound as a 22-year-old rookie in just his second major league start, Buchholz was in the midst of making history.

With two outs in the ninth inning, and two strikes on Orioles outfielder Nick Markakis, Buchholz froze Markakis with his patented hook, and became just the third pitcher since 1900 to throw a no-no in his first or second major league start.

Flash forward three years. It’s June of 2010, and Buchholz is dominating the American League. With a 10-4 record and 2.47 ERA, the 25-year-old right-hander is making a strong case for the AL Cy Young Award.

But it hasn’t been all fun and games for Buchholz since his no-hitter. Much like the life of a college student, there are ups and downs in the career of a young pitcher.

The first few months of college are pretty much the greatest times of your life. No parents, lots of beer, new girls; it’s got it all.

For Buchholz, his freshman year was just as magical. A 3-1 record with a 1.59 ERA, a no-hitter at Fenway Park, and every scout from Boston to Budapest calling him the best pitching prospect in the league; Buchholz was living like a king.

But then, life becomes a little harder. The beer starts to add up, and you can’t even remember how you used to fit into some of your clothes. The girls aren’t as easy as they looked in every college movie you’ve ever seen. And you haven’t done homework in two weeks, but tonight is definitely the night you’re going to bang out that 10-pager, right?

That’s kind of what happened to Buchholz in 2008. Just one year removed from becoming a Boston sports legend, Buchholz managed just 15 starts for the Sox, going 2-9 with a putrid 6.75 ERA.

Maybe he didn’t work hard enough the previous offseason. Or, maybe the American League figured out a young pitcher. It happens. The game of baseball catches up to you, just like those shots of tequila followed by a couple of beer bongs on a Tuesday night catch up to you. It just happens.

But what do you do, so you don’t turn out to be the next Van Wilder? You study your ass off, and pray that your parents will continue to pay your tuition.

So you join a couple of on-campus clubs. You talk to your professors, engage yourself in class discussions, and hey, maybe you even do a homework assignment or two. Whatever you have to do to bring that GPA up from below 3.0 – or, what I call the “Collegiate Mendoza Line” – you do it.

Buchholz studied up. After his miserable 2008 campaign, the young right-hander got straight to work in the offseason, as he pitched in the Arizona Fall League, which is usually designed for minor league players.

It paid off. In 16 starts in 2009, Buchholz posted a 7-4 record with a 4.21 ERA, a vast improvement from his ’08 struggles. He even earned his first career postseason start, as he pitched Game 3 of the Division Series against the Angels.

Buchholz, like a college student entering his junior year, was becoming a man. The coming-out party was over, the easy general education courses were completed and drinking your face off 6 nights a week became infeasible. It was time to buckle down, and reach his potential.

This year, Buchholz is finally living up to his potential. With an American League-leading 10 wins (he’s tied with Tampa Bay’s David Price and New York’s Phil Hughes), the 25 year-old has been the only consistent starter since Day 1 on a Red Sox pitching staff that struggled early in the season.

Buchholz learned how to pitch in the big leagues, just like how a college student learns how to survive his 8 a.m. classes, bitchy roommates, and intolerable dining hall food.

So if you ever feel bad about yourself after taking that drunken walk of shame across the Mass. Ave Bridge at four o’clock in the morning, remember this:

At least you don’t play for the Orioles.

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