From Nothing to Something: Eben Simon's RTTS [MLB 11]

[NeverEnough]

Before today the thought of playing professional baseball had never crossed my mind. Sure I loved the sport and enjoyed playing it, but I don't think I was ever confident enough in my abilities to think I could take it to the next level. I had never really been an electrifying pitcher, sure I have a pretty wicked fastball, but my secondary pitches aren't really that great.

My journey started way back in the day when my father signed me up for tee ball and I had been playing ever since. I only made 1 all-star team growing up and that wasn't even for the position I play now. During practice one day, my high school coach noticed that I had a lively fastball and wanted me to give pitching a try, and since that day I had loved it.

Of course I was the closer for my high school team freshman through junior year, but come senior year we didn't have depth in our rotation so I was moved to starting pitcher. Being a started posed some challenges as even today I don't have the stamina that a lot of starters have. I ended up having a mediocre season as a starter, but liked it even more than closing. After graduation, I had no college scholarships offered to me and ended up just going to school at my local community college, where I made the team.

This brings us to present day as I have been playing for my CC team and received some news that would change things forever. My college coach called me into his office and had me take a seat. This was pretty unusual and I wasn't sure what to expect. He started

"You know in recent years we have had two guys drafted from our teams, Brett Richardson in '08 and Kris Carlson last year....both by the Kansas City Royals. You know what you have in common with these guys? You're also a right handed pitcher on this team.........but now you also have been drafted. "

At this point I was in shock. In fact I was speechless. I was drafted?!? But by who?



Oh SERIOUSLY?!!!? When I had found out I was drafted by the team I grew up watching, loving, rooting for, and what have you I was so ecstatic. Now I really didn't know what I was going to do. There was only one thing now that I could do, report to the Mariners!

[NeverEnough]

[NeverEnough]

[NeverEnough]

So today was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. I went off and signed my contract for $30,000. At the age of 18, getting signed by your favorite team and signing a contract to play baseball for money is one of the greatest things of my life so far. Not only that, but Topps was there at the practice field where I was just throwing off the mound to my catcher, having a little bit of fun. That's right, I now have been put onto my very first baseball card

[NeverEnough]

So even though today was a lot of fun, there was a lot of business that needed to be discussed as well. After throwing off the mound and goofing around a bit, all the fun and games were over as coach Pankovits called me into his office. He just wanted to get me adjusted and let me know where I stand.

"We're real excited to have you here in our organization as a home prospect, and I'm definitely excited to see what you can do for us here in Jackson. I hear you have a really good fastball, but if you're going to be great one day you're going to have to develop some secondary pitches. Do you have any?"

"Well I have a sinker that decent, and my college coach had tried getting me to add a change up, but I haven't really worked on it a whole lot"

"At least you have some groundwork for us to work with. We'll definitely get you in with Lance and have him work with you. Now as for your spot on the team, we know you've been a starter for the past couple of years, but our rotation is pretty much set right now. We're going to start you off in the bullpen as our long reliever and mop up guy. Basically you'll be an innings eater for now. If you can prove to us that you're more valuable to us in the rotation we'll definitely give you a shot, but for now you'll be coming out of the pen. Alright, so go get acquainted with your new teammates and we look forward to getting you out on the field"

[dragosteelers]

Nice!

Good luck from here on out! And good job getting in-game pics! I plan to do the same once I find my usb cord to set up the proper equipment this weekend!

I'll be following.

[Pete_Dogg_18]

I'll follow this for sure, great start like the way your writing it...

[NeverEnough]

No Time For Nerves

Today I finally got my professional debut. I've been sitting out there in the bullpen and after a week I was starting to wonder when I would finally get my chance to go out there. The time finally came in the top of the 13th inning.

We were tied going into the 13th, but we ended up giving up two runs. When the gate opened and I jogged out to the mound. Now there were two outs, but also runners on first and second. Basically I needed to come out and stop the bleeding so that our offense could try and make back the runs in the bottom half.

The stage was starting to get to me as during my warm up pitches I was kind of getting wild, but when it was actually game time I was ready to go. I started things off with a nice fastball coming in at 95, and my sinker on the next pitch was a sinker on the outside half and the hitter popped it up in foul territory to our first baseman and the inning was over. Our offense was able to pick up a run in the bottom of the 13th, but failed to tied the game and that is how my debut would end.

It was definitely fun to get out there into a game, but I wish it would have lasted a bit longer than that.