Thursday, July 4, 2013

Mike Cervenak, who has spent 15 years playing baseball in the minors and overseas

Grantland profiles Mike Cervenak, who has spent 15 years playing baseball in the minors and overseas. Here's one anecdote:
At the end of 2002, the Yankees announced they were moving their Double-A team [from Norwich] to Trenton, New Jersey. Cervenak, who was depreciating as a prospect, was happy to toil somewhere else. "I said to someone at the gym, 'I tell you what: That's the last time this town will see my shadow!' 
"In December," he said, "I wind up getting a call. 'You got Rule 5'd to the Giants.' I'm like, 'Where's their Double-A affiliate?'" In fact, San Francisco had just moved its Double-A team. To Norwich.
And another, on being briefly called up to the Phillies:
A day later, Cervenak got his first major league at-bat, in extra innings with the score tied. He fouled off the first pitch. The second pitch he hit to deep left, all the way to the track. His mom, Eva, was in the stands, and she got so excited that she spit her gum onto Ryan Howard's mom.