A little less than a year ago I bought this book on a Saturday afternoon in Athens. After reading the first couple of pages I knew that I was for a few late nights. I think it was Monday night when I finished the book and I only put it down when I literally couldn't stay awake any longer, or, as was the case that Sunday, I had a baseball game to go to. It was that good.Basically, the book is about a guy named Matt McCarthy. He played college baseball at Yale and was drafted in the 21st round by the Anaheim Angels organization. The book details his year of playing rookie league baseball in Provo Utah, as well as his experience at the next season's spring training.
I'll share now a little secret that is not so much of one because I've already shared it with a few people. Soon, I'll share it with the boss man.
This year, I will be declaring myself eligible for the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft. While I harbor no illusions of being drafted based on talent (seeing as that I've never played competitive baseball beyond the little league level), my hope is that some orgaization out there will spend their 50th (last) round pick on a nice kid who loves the game and will most certainly serve as a bullpen catcher for his assigned minor league team. I have no ego when it comes to playing time, "signability" will not be an issue for me, and you'll never once hear me bitch about having to ride 11 hours one way on a bus to sleep at a Motel 6 and play four games in the middle of the week in front of a few hundred fans. SIGN ME UP.
If I am drafted, I will sign. I will resign from my beloved career, I will take their $1,000.00 mandatory signing bonus, I will figure out what to do with my current housing (probably nothing) and will report where assigned. Each MLB team has a spring training facility in Florida or Arizona. I hope its the latter. I think I'd like the desert a little bit more, but I really don't care. I really don't.
Look, the odds of it happening are non-existant. Decent college players (you know, who actually do play baseball) don't get picked. UGA had a senior left handed starting pitcher back in 2006. He was our Friday night starter, meaning that he was the #1 pitcher on the staff. He didn't get picked. Granted, he had some issues with his shoulder and labrum and couldn't throw very hard, but still, he wasn't drafted. It doesn't look good for me. But I'll still declare myself and see what happens. It may be the start of something fantastic.
And look at it this way... an MLB team is going to draft tons of kids who won't sign. UGA had three juniors last year to be drafted who all chose not to sign and came back. Usually about half of our signing class each year is drafted out of HS and they don't sign. Here's what I have going for me.... I WILL sign. You won't waste your pick, even your 50th round pick, on me. For $1,000.00, plus the league mandated $850.00 per month, I'll be dad gum happy to take the most thankless spot on the whole roster and sit night after night in the bullpen and play catch with relief pitchers. From a financial standpoint, I think that's a steal, to say nothing of the headaches I WON'T cause the manager by carping over my lack of playing time.
Pick me, tell me where to go, and I'll be the first one standing in line. Send me to an outpost. We've already established that I don't have a problem going to such a place. No reason that this shouldn't happen (well, except the reason of me not actually being a baseball player).
And if not, hey, the current gig ain't so bad either.
