EVERETT – The kid stepped up to the table and the man seated behind it said, “What’re you going to show us today? What’s your best way of getting to the big leagues?”
The kid said he was a shortstop.
The man at the table – Dana Papasedero – nodded approvingly and handed him a blue card to fill out.
Another kid stepped up and Papasedero asked him the same question.
And so it went on a recent cold, cloudy afternoon. Not a good day for baseball, unless you were trying out for an all-star team sponsored by the Seattle Mariners, then who cared? Certainly not the 118 players who showed up, most of them high school juniors and seniors, with a few 20-somethings – young men still chasing the “dream” – sprinkled in.
The kids had come to Everett Memorial Stadium to run, field, hit and throw before a group of M’s representatives, headed by scouts Phil Geisler and Papasedero, who is the baseball coach at Lakeside High School in Seattle.
This was the second of three tryout camps the M’s were holding to identify the top prospects for their Area-Code team, a 25-man squad that would play other area-code teams from around the country in a tournament at Long Beach, Calif., in August. The M’s team would come from a four-state area: Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.
The kids who caught their eye in this camp would be scouted in summer league games and the final roster would be set in mid-July. It portends well for guys making this team: 12 of the 25 players selected a year ago were drafted by major league clubs early this month.
The Long Beach tournament is a feeding frenzy of scouts, college coaches and agents, seizing an opportunity to watch some of the top teens in the country perform. “It’s become a showcase event,” Papasedero said. “Every time a kid hits a home run all you hear are pens scratching on pads.”
No home runs were hit at the Everett tryout. No bases stolen. No runs scored. The only thing resembling a game was a pre-tryout workout by the Everett AquaSox, who were winding up their first day of practice in their summer home.
Geisler had the area-code hopefuls assemble in the seats along the right-field line as the AquaSox finished their workout.
The kids on the field were what the kids in the stands aspired to be: professional baseball players. “Take a look at what you guys are competing against in a year or two,” he said.
One young man from Bellingham sat with his elbows on his knees, his chin cupped in his left hand. He was giving baseball one more try. He’d played a year in junior college and now, at 21, was working in a cold storage plant. A tall, lean, right-hander, he said he threw at a tire to get ready for the tryout.
Maybe Jim Morris’ story gave him hope. Morris, you’ll recall, was a lefthander who rediscovered his fastball at the age of 35, went to a tryout camp, got signed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, pitched in the major leagues and had a movie made of his story. “I’d love to have a lefthander throw 95 mph for us,” Geisler said. “We’ve never had that.”
Nor, he said, as he spoke to his young audience, did he see any 7-footers who would play in the NBA or any 300-pounders who were destined for the NFL. “What I do see are some guys … who might get drafted to play baseball,” he said.
One guy in the crowd had already been drafted and played three years in the minors. Now Andre Marshall, a 23-year-old outfielder who played for the University of Washington before the Philadelphia Phillies drafted him, was trying to make a comeback after getting cut a year ago.
“I got a really good shot (with the Phillies), but I was hurt three or four times last year,” Marshall, an Oak Harbor High School graduate, said. “I didn’t want to be with the Phils anymore.”
Marshall attributed his downfall to playing “110 percent on every play.”
“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “It’s a long year. You’ve got to pace yourself more.”
He said he was in the best shape of his life, and eager to start playing baseball again. At the end of the workout, he said the Mariners told him “the next spot on the (Everett) roster, you’re in there. I can’t wait for that spot, I have to go places now.” He was eyeing another workout this week. “A lot of clubs will be there,” he said. “I don’t know what I’ll do (if I don’t get signed).”
All the position players ran 60-yard dashes – “The major league average is 6.8 seconds,” Geisler said. “Hopefully you guys are all sub-seven (few were).” Infielders gloved ground balls and threw to first. Catchers were timed on throws to second. Batters hit with wooden bats. Pitchers showed their stuff in the bullpen. “If they’re righthanded, they’d better be throwing 88 to 92,” Papasedero said. “A lefthander can be 82 to 84, if he’s got a good offspeed pitch. Lefthanders are obviously a premium.”
After four hours, and with rain starting to fall, the workout ended. Geisler had told the players at the beginning of the session that those who made the area-code team would be notified in mid-July.
Now, as he reflected on the afternoon, his thoughts turned to one player in particular, a 17-year-old catcher and senior-to-be from Homer, Alaska. “He’s exciting,” Geisler gushed. “Did you see his bat speed?”
Then, turning to one of his assistants, he said, “Did you tell him that he’s on the team?”
One player who won’t be is the pitcher from Bellingham. An hour into the session, he was seen walking out the gate, his equipment bag slung over his right shoulder, his baseball career apparently over.
There would be no Jim Morrises coming out of this camp.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
