The Legend of Chase Sanford

[majormet]

(This dynasty is about a character that will be drafted in 2010 in my Las Vegas Croupiers dynasty)

I sit at home on the eve of the 2010 Amateur Baseball draft as a player that will be selected at some point, because just about everyone gets drafted. I wish I could tell you that I was some hungry kid that is looking to sign a bonus paycheck to make it some day to the major leagues, but I'm not. I am Chase Sanford and I am just a rich kid with a minor dream.

My life started just like most middle class kids. I was being raised in East Meadow, Long Island, New York as the only child of a computer programmer and a stay at home "mom". My dad would get home early from work and he would have catches with me, and we would watch the Mets play. Being born in 1989, it took a few years to get to 1999 to see the Mets make the postseason but that was one of my fondest youth memories.

From the time I was around 6 years old, my father wanted me to be a pitcher and we would go to the park and he would squat and catch my pitches. He managed my little league teams, and my summer and fall travel teams. Life was great. We were avid baseball fans.

I made my varsity team in 9th grade and hurled 2 perfect games and then pitched a shutout in 10th grade in 2004, then my life changed.

My dad used to stay up late at night playing with the computer. Somewhere in those nights he developed technology so that people can broadcast themselves online and he sold that technology for a whopping 225 million dollars to Google. Needless to say as I was in 11th grade, my life changed.

Dad seemed to have lost his interest in baseball, maybe it was the steroids in the game, maybe it was the lack of solid pitching or just maybe it was 225 milllion bucks. We sold our modest home and my dad bought a luxury ocean liner and we sailed around the world.

I was being home schooled by the finest instructors as we were in Berlin one night and Munich the next. For 2 full years we sailed around the world and saw everything. I had not picked up a baseball and I just learned to study on board and pick up women from all over the world. i might have slept with over 50 women in 50 different countries in 2005 and 2006.

The international cruising came to a halt and my parents boughts a home in Upper Brookville on the North Shore of Long Island. I got into Stanford and headed to Palo Alto.

The first 2 years at Stanford I got to have some fun and I hit the books well. I went to the football games and basketball games. In my Junior Year, I became friends with a guy named Jeff Spencer who became my best friend. He was on the baseball team and we played in some pickup games and fooled around. He saw that I could pitch and got me a tryout with the baseball team.

I made the team and pitched OK in my junior year in light use. An injury to the ace of the staff in 2010 (the past couple of months) and I was now pitching against USC, Arizona State and Oregon State. We did OK, we qualified for the College World Series and got ousted by Rice, but I left some impression on agents and scouts and was advised to hit the draft.

My agent, Andy Ashe feels I will go in the 6th round in this draft. Given my family's financial status I probably never have to work, so why not give it a try.

My timing is also pretty good because Major League Baseball expanded in 2010 with 4 teams desperate for pitching. If I end up on any of those teams, I could fast track to the majors. If I end up on an established team I will most likely be headed to some one story town in the minors, but I have nothing to lose.

Hopefully if I get drafted, my father will notice and renew his interest in baseball and my life, and at the same time, I can pick up where my legacy started.

[majormet]

The day of the 2010 MLB Draft came upon me fast. I wasn't a super prospect and did not elect to fly to Louisville for the draft, so I sat with my father in our screening room on the west wing of the family mansion.

The early surprise of Butchie Yost getting picked by the Grand Rapids Drag Queens was a stunner, since all the talk was of this Borat character. Borat went second to the Jacksonville Hurricanes. I really am hoping to land on one of those sorry expansion teams. It is my chance to get to the majors, if I end up on a decent team, I will be battling with other no names like myself to make a roster.

I anticipate being picked in the 5th or 6th round. My father left the room as the pace of the draft was very dull. It has been televised since 2007 and it is not like an NBA draft where the average fan knows of the entire draft pool. This draft pool might have about 20 known entities and those entities would be only known to those guys that watch college baseball or have a lot of time on their hands surfing the net.

I watched the first round and decided to hit the jacuzzi. It was kind of nervewrecking, not knowing where you would end up. I know most of the scouts saw me pitch at the combines, but I really didn't talk to anyone. The scouts gladhand the top prospects of which maybe two will end up on their draftboard.

The jacuzzi is refreshing and takes me to another dimension. I am not listening to my cell phone. It rang a few times while I took in the bubbles and the 105 degree temperature. I figure after the jacuzzi and the shower I will probably get to the 5th round and can expect to be drafted then. There are 36 teams in the majors in 2010 and I could theoretically end up on any of them. Everyone needs starting pitching in their minors leagues.

I towel off from the shower. I feel refreshed and as I walk back into the home theater, with a bag of baked chips, I feel the butterflies. The draft was now in the 4th round and they kept showing the ticket taker of the first round with no mention of rounds two or three.

I start to bite my nails as the top 6 rounds have now been completed and a lot of strange names have been drafted. My college teammate, Travis Slater was selected by the San Francisco Giants. Slater was not very good, and was the beneficiary of a lot of run support. Kind of mortified that Slater was taken before me. I thought I pitched well in the combines and certainly had some good games on National TV in the Pac 10.

ESPN's feed of the draft ended at the 7th round. I could not take it any more. I checked my cell phone and had 10 messages. My first message was from Darrell Hogan, an old friend from my early days in East Meadow, he wished me good luck. The second calls was from Google, about their new phone service, Google got into other forms of communication by 2010. A few "non messages" and the 5th message was from some dude named Zach that was the bat boy for the Stanford baseball team. He was congratulating me on being drafted.

I had 4 other calls from contacts congratulating me on being drafted. None of these messages told me who, where, when... I guess I must have been drafted earlier in the 4th round, because I certainly didn't hear my name being called by Bob Watson. Bob Watson is the commissioner of baseball in 2010.

My curiosity drove me to the internet. I went to the ESPN site and did not see my name listed in the 5th round page. Just for safekeeping, I checked rounds 6 and 7 and didn't see this. I was tempted to call one of these sources back, but really didn't want to be the participant in cruel joke upon myself.

I checked the third round, I mean with 36 teams, I may have moved up, and there I saw my name. I was taken in the third round by the St Louis Cardinals. My father was not going to be happy as the Cardinals were the thorn in the Mets side in the 1980's. I remember seeing Whitey Herzog being interviewed on TV and my dad wanted to throw darts at the White Rat. The Cardinals are not in the Mets' division but who cares, my days of being a fan are long over.

I was still in shock, I never suspected that I would be drafted in the third round. The single A affiliate for the Cardinals is in Oklahoma City, which is not bad for that low a division, of course AA is Rolla, Missouri, which is a one story town from nowhere.

My father came back into the house and said "How is the newest Redbird doing". I guess he knew before me, but I am sure he had been contacted by someone that was watching all along.

I had not heard back from the Cardinals on this day. They had not won the World Series since 1982 (editor's note - 2006 was first year of replay, Twins won). They took a cocky Dominican pitcher named Oscar Ojeda in the first round. I remember him in the combines, he had a weird delivery but can throw harder than me for sure.

The 2010 Cardinals seem to be in a dogfight with Milwaukee and Cincinnati for first place, they are managed by Aaron Holbert. Holbert is a young manager, but I doubt he would be there if I ever made it to the major leagues.

As I look at the 2010 Cardinals online, they have a solid rotation. Nate Robertson, Charlie Haegar and Mark Prior are the core starters. Haeger has developed into quite the strikeout pitcher. Randy Criddle is a young stud who was originally drafted by Seattle that found his way to St Louis and their 5th starter is another former first round pick named John Gerald who hails from New York City.

I have to pitch well and catch attention quickly. Oddly I just played a few seasons for the Cardinals of Stanford now I am part of the St Louis Cardinal organization. I am assuming that Oklahoma City is where I will be headed on this long journey to the show.

[majormet]

Life is strange. I went to bad the evening of the draft quite perplexed. I was drafted by St Louis at around 2:45 PM and did not hear from anyone in the organization all day or all night. I knew that it was not a misprint on the countless websites. Luckily none of these sites listed by lofty background as a "fortunate son". Ross Baumgarten was very lucky until magically he appeared in Comiskey Park one day to start and then as if everyone was holding a dark secret.. Baumgarten was the son of a billionaire. Needless to say, Ross never had a chance after that.

I woke up the next day around 11:00 AM and my cell phone was charging. I disconnected the cell phone from the adapter and saw that I had 3 missed calls. Each of these calls had a 314 area code. I would have to assume that is the area code for St Louis. I played the messages and saw I heard from a Preston Matthews, who was some office person in the Cardinals front office. I called Matthews back and he was very excited to tell me about my $60,000 signing bonus for this afternoon and that I would have a flight out of LaGuardia at around 2:00 to make this signing at 5:00 CST. I tried to act excited as if 60K were going to set me up nicely for the next 2 months. It didn't but I acted cordial and scrambled to pack things.

Among other things, I would be catching a 6:30 flight out ot St Louis to Oklahoma City and I would arrive in the middle of the game for the Oklahoma City game vs Ardmore tonight. Welcome to the no thrills world of minor league baseball.


I packed lightly as I figured I would buy a wardrobe and toileteries. I did make sure i had my ipod packed with all 15,000 songs on it and I also made sure I had a good supply of protein powder. Other than that I was ready to go, naturally my glove was packaged too.

I arrived at LaGuardia and looked for the United flight to St Louis that I was boarding and hustled to make the plane. The tightness of the schedule made it difficult to acquire a sense of anxiousness or nervousness. The people were all a blur. I have been in and out of airports for the past 6 years like they were go carts. I just knew I had to be at this meeting and get it over with so I can suit up in Oklahoma City tonight.


Some of the drafted guys ended up in Oklahoma City with me including the top pick in Oscar Ojeda. The 2nd round guy ended up reporting to AA Rolla, as he was some 24 year old Japanese pitcher. It was great being the 3rd round selection but I was also the 3rd starting pitcher selected by Walt Jocketty and the Cardinals.


I boarded the very empty plane and tried to fall asleep. I put on my ipod and listened to the new Pearl Jam album. This album was called Mutation, it was their 10th release and the critics were high on it. Every Pearl Jam album since Vitalogy was a letdown even if the critics loved it. It ws 2010, and they were 18 years into their recording career.


Luckily the Pearl Jam album was kind of dull with no great hooks or lead tracks and I woke up as the plane was descending. I grabbed my bags and saw a large sign for "sanford" in the waiting area of the gate. A large man with a rotund stomach in a suit was the driver and he introduced himself as Carl. Carl took my bag and got me to the limousine where I saw Oscar Ojeda for the first time. Ojeda did not know any English and had a very limp handshake for a dude that can throw 99 MPH.

We didn't say much as Carl was driving through St Louis rush hour traffic and Oscar was reading some kind of soccer magazine. I thought about the teammates I would have down in Oklahoma City and I all I could think of were Jorge Alvarado, a power hitting dimunuite second baseman who knew no English and Rich Gannon the former Delaware quarterback. I keep to myself so the less social the atmosphere the better it would be.

I arrived at the office and was dressed in dockers and a Stanford T-shirt. Ojeda came in with me and he was dressed in a nice suit. He knew he would be drafted in the first round unlike me and oh yeah... he was at the draft last night in Louisville anyway.

Walt Jocketty was in the room and it was an honor to meet the crafty GM of the St Louis Cardinals. I also was taken aback as Ozzie Smith was in the room as well. Ozzie greeted me first and he seemed to the friendly guy that everyone in the history of baseball has always said was. Great for Ozzie, not everyday you can overcome putting a job ad in the paper when you are in the MLB and end up in the hall of fame.

Jocketty spoke with me and told me that for now I am in Oklahoma City and that the Cardinals are fast tracking their pitchers so that if I produce I could be in the majors by as early as 2012. That seemed to be regular tracking for me, but what did I know. Just 3 years ago I had not picked up a baseball for 5 years.

The reporters were converging on Ojeda while no one could care about me and a few of the other draft picks in the room. I like being below the radar, this will work out fine as far I am concerned.


I will be off to Oklahoma City and I was told that I was pitching on Saturday which was only 3 days from now. I have no idea what to expect but I will take the 60K check and put it in the bank, and maybe buy some cheap Hyundai to get around the OKC.