Back in the day – before the proliferation of independent leagues and professional baseball overseas – it wasn’t that uncommon for a big league baseball player who’d gotten released during the season, but who still had aspirations of getting back to the show, to return to the “semi-pro”/amateur ranks in order to continue to be able to play in front of Major League scouts.
Example: Outfielder Rich Chiles played six seasons in the big leagues before what would be his final season with the Minnesota Twins in 1978. Even after being released, Chiles had no intention of hanging up his spikes. In 1979, he spent the season with the Cleveland’s Triple A team in Tacoma, Washington, and in 1980 he was back in the Pacific Coast League with Portland, at the time an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Unable to find another professional team the following season after being released by the Pirates, Chiles joined the Clarinda, Iowa A’s collegiate “semi-pro” summer league team in the highly acclaimed Jayhawk League, and played a large role in the A’s winning the big prize – the National Baseball Congress title – in August of 1981.
That was a long time ago. Chiles was among the last of a breed of player willing to go back to playing without getting paid. Today, there’s probably 100 future major leaguers playing in these leagues for every one former pro. In typical seasons, if a player is unable to find a job with an MLB team/organization, he’ll typically go play for pay in places like Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea or even Italy. A paycheck by any other name.
That was before the bizarreness of 2020.
Take the case of veteran middle infielder Kelby Tomlinson. Drafted in 2011, he’d played all or parts of four big league seasons for the San Francisco Giants, and spent last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners. In January, he signed with the Colorado Rockies as a free agent and was feeling good about his chances to make the big league roster when Spring Training was abruptly halted in mid-March.
As MLB tried to find its way in the darkness of the pandemic, it was decided that each team would have just 60 players active in their organization for what would be a partial big league season. There would be no minor league baseball this year. The Rockies released Tomlinson in late June.
Faced with a decision about his immediate and long term future, and without a big league organization to call home for the first time since 2011, Tomlinson went old school.
The middle infielder out of Texas Tech decided to return to the scene of some of his best amateur days. Ten years after he last played there during the carefree summer of his college days, Tomlinson is suiting up for the Liberal, Kansas BeeJays, a legendary summer collegiate program first managed by former New York Yankee Bob Cerv in 1976. (The team was named after the founder of the American League, Ban Johnson.)
The height of amateur/semi-pro/college summer baseball had always been the NBC in Wichita, Kansas. Before the Cape Cod League became the “en vogue” place to spend the summer, guys would travel to play summer ball in places as far away as Alaska, and yes, outposts as remote as Liberal, Kansas to play against the best college players in the country. And in front of a bevy of big league scouts. But that’s not why Tomlinson returned to Liberal.
“It’s been quite a few months since I got to play in some games,” Tomlinson smiled. He’s getting ready to head to Nashville, Tennessee to join a new venture started by Nashville Sounds General Manager Adam Nuse.
It will feature two teams of free agent players who’ve been left off all the 60-man rosters. They’ll play weekend series games in front of a few thousand fans – and presumably big league scouts. Former Rockie Jordan Pacheco is also among those who will start play in Nashville in the near (still TBD) future.
Tomlinson wanted a chance to prepare for that in familiar surroundings.
“Coming back here…I had such a good time here 10 years ago,” he added, before revealing that he and his family now call Liberal home. “Yeah, I live here now,” grinning while holding one of his two small children. “My wife is from here, and I played (at Seward Community College) junior college ball here, so it was an easy call.”
Tomlinson didn’t look at his return to Liberal as an old school type move. It just seemed like the right thing to do under the bizarre circumstances of 2020.
“It’s been a weird year, honestly, with everything that’s been going on. This was kind of a no-brainer, being from here, and there’s games going on, so things lined up.”
Being roughly a decade older than his current teammates, the 30-year-old Tomlinson has felt the age gap. “It’s been fun to get to know the guys and get out here and play,” he added, but acknowledged some communication issues. “I was trying to use a quote from the movie Dennis the Menace and none of them even knew the movie.”
Tomlinson is counting on his at-bats in Liberal, and his game action in Nashville to propel him back into the picture with a major league team.
“It kind of gives you a leg up, and an opportunity to get picked up maybe this year, or something for next year or maybe winter ball. We’ll see what happens.”
Proof once again that you can – and sometimes should – go home.
Listen to Mark Knudson on Monday’s at 12:30 with Brady Hull on AM 1310 KFKA and on Saturday mornings on “Klahr and Kompany” on AM 1600 ESPN Denver.
More from The Woody Paige Sports Network:
- Betting odds to win the 2020 World Series
- Time to stop bashing MLB over imperfect response to pandemic
- Woody Paige: Thanks to MLB owners, there will be crying in baseball
- Happy Father’s Day: Saluting the WWII pilot, college and NFL coach … and Dad
- Underdogs once again: Boise State Baseball players pledge to save program
- Bet here is that closed locker rooms, scaled-back access will stick in NBA, NHL
