Former MHS pitcher to join Padres training

By Glen Miller/The Mustang News

Like any other baseball player looking to make it big in the professional ranks, former Mustang High School pitcher Scott Anderson waited by the phone during the 2004 Major League Baseball draft.

He was expecting to get a call from one of the many MLB teams that saw him pitch by pure accident at a tryout in Fort Worth. It was a call that never came.

“I didn’t get drafted because the scouts said I came from a smaller college and I didn’t get recognized as fast,” Anderson said. “The scouts all told me to go to the independent leagues and see what I could do.”

Anderson gained the attention of scouts in March when he attended a tryout camp. It was a tryout that he wasn’t supposed to be at, since he was still pitching at the time for Hillsdale Baptist College in Moore.

“After a few pitches I went to put on my jacket and turned around and there were all these scouts chasing after me asking where I was from,” Anderson said. “The tryout was for recent college graduates or those just released from pro ball. I was throwing in the low 90s and before I left I had the cards of four or five scouts telling me to give them a call after I got out of college.”

Anderson did call and even tried out for the Cincinnati Reds. He also fielded inquires from the Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers and the San Diego Padres.

Still no MLB contract.

Now eight months later and a roller-coaster ride through two independent leagues, Anderson’s drive to one day pitch in the major leagues could be starting up. The call he was waiting for came from the Padres after he pitched a simulated game for San Diego at their spring training site in Arizona.

“I was jumping up and down and yelling ‘I’m going to play pro ball’,” Anderson said. “Then I get another call on the cell phone and it was Gary Templeton, the former major league player, who is managing the team I signed with. He just wanted let me know about spring training.”

Anderson was signed to a single A contract with the Lake Elsinore Storm, one of three teams for the Padres on that level. He was also invited to spring training with the Padres.

“Not everyone has a job and what you do in spring training will determine if you keep your job and your contract,” Anderson said. “If I don’t make it, I have contract with an independent team in Missouri and the Padres will keep and eye on me.”

Going back down to the independent leagues is something Anderson wants to avoid. After being shut out of the summer draft, Anderson signed with the Winnipeg Goldeyes out of the Northern Pro Baseball League and pitched three days later.

“I remember it was a three-game series in Kansas City. On the third night I wanted to pitch so badly and finally in the fifth inning they called down to the pull pen and told me to get ready. My adrenaline was going 90 miles to nothing and then in the seventh inning they called down and said I was in.

“I was so nervous I couldn’t even get the gate to the field open. I finally got it opened and that was the longest run of my life to the mound. All the way through my warm up pitches my knees where shaking,” Anderson said.

As it turned out, Anderson got a save that night and he thought he was off to a successful career. Fate had a different plan.

Having gone straight from college to the pros, Anderson had little time to rest his arm. Soreness would soon set in and his velocity dropped from the low 90s to the high 70s during one outing. He pitched in a total of six games for Winnipeg before he was cut, posting a 6.75 ERA with six walks and five strikeouts over eight innings of relief work.

“I think it overused my arm and some tendonitis was setting in. They gave me some rest and I got the velocity back up to 85 but I wasn’t striking people out so they let me go,” Anderson said.

He admitted he was a little disappointed, but not devastated since he was picked up by the Fort Worth Cats of the Central Professional Baseball League. He pitched two games for the Cats, striking out three batters, but decided to forgo the final two weeks of the season due to his arm.

“My mechanics were so off at that point because I was trying to compensate for the pain,” Anderson said.

He returned to Winnipeg to rehab his arm along side his girlfriend, a registered nurse in Canada. After a month or so of resting, the call from the Padres came and he was off for the Arizona tryout.

Anderson said his arm is still not 100 percent, but he is not going to let that stop him from living out his dream.

“I’ve always had this saying, ‘if you dream there is no such word as impossible.’ That’s something I have tried to carry with me all my life,” Anderson said.

“My mom taught me determination and how to get through the tough times in life and I learned my work ethic from my dad. I know that if I work hard enough I can achieve my dreams.”