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| Pollock scores on a Paul Goldschmidt sacrifice fly. /AP Photo |
Lee toed the rubber at 5:10 p.m. Pacific Time and reared back for his first pitch, unleashing an 89 mph four-seam fastball that would’ve painted the bottom of the strike zone, but AJ Pollock was ready and slapped a line drive through the first base side and into left field.
He was nearly picked off attempting to steal second but managed to get a good enough jump, and a costly error at second base saw him sneak under a bad tag attempt by Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins. He moved to third on a groundout and scored with a slide on a sacrifice fly by 2013 NL MVP runner-up Paul Goldschmidt.
This combination of good hitting, speed and heads-up baserunning should be very familiar to Vermonters, as should the 6-foot-1 Pollock, who graced Montpelier Recreation Field seven years ago in the green and white of the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Mountaineers.
Pollock now has a new home in the massive, $354 million, Chase Field.
Chase Field is an expansive ballpark complete with perfectly manicured grass and level upon level of seats. It is a completely different world from the friendly confines of Recreation Field, a park Pollock affectionately rememberedthree hours before he laced a game opening hit.
“You felt like you were in your own little world right there,” Pollock said. “I remember the occasional fog delay too, rolling off the mountain.”
Pollock sat framed by Gatorade bottles and towels in the dugout, all perfectly laid out and ready for the game. The floor was spotless, with no seeds or discarded cups. Pollock had a red Diamondbacks warmup on and was relaxed, a welcome sight after an irritating neck injury had kept him previously sidelined. He’d been taken out in the sixth inning of a game against the Dodgers after he felt a jolt in his neck, and he struggled to pick up his head at points. He was healthy again on the afternoon before the Phillies game, having gone 2-for-4 with a go-ahead home run the day before.
Looking back to 2007 when the Mountaineers were in their fourth season, Pollock was 19 years old and fresh off a rookie season at Notre Dame where he hit .372 with 28 RBIs and 11 stolen bases.
Pollock’s incredible seasons as a member of the Fightin’ Irish almost didn’t come to be, however. He looked at schools like the University of Vermont and the University of Connecticut. In fact, he was on a trip to visit the Connecticut campus when Notre Dame had called. If he’d ended up a Catamount, the baseball program was cut two years after he would’ve arrived.
He carried over his success from Notre Dame and lit up the NECBL, hitting .348 (good enough for fourth in the league) and adding 29 runs and a league-high 15 doubles. The icing on his already incredible summer season was the Mountaineers secondstraight championship over the Newport Gulls. Pollock had a double and scored in the series clincher, a 3-0 win at home.
“Winning the championship sticks out of course,” Pollock said. “But playing with Coach (John) Russo was awesome. It was also my first experience with wood bats, which was definitely a challenge that I would say helped me as a player.”
Pollock also enjoyed his teammates, playing with a bunch of “really cool guys” who he has run into throughout his ascent through the minor league system to The Show. Nobody from the 2007 team has joined Pollock in the majors, but they’re scattered across the minor league levels.
Curt Smith was a part of the ‘07 squad and finds himself in Double-A Springfield while fellow teammate Michael Brady sits in Triple-A Salt Lake. Pollock still keeps up with his old Mountaineers teammates who are still playing, as well as some from different years.
Rockies left-hander Christian Friedrich is one of them.
“He was on the Mountaineers the year before me,” Pollock said. “He’s with the Rockies, so I run into him a bunch.”
However, baseball’s a tough business to stay in touch with people, Pollock said.
“You play games until 10 p.m. and then go to bed,” he said.“You get two hours of free time in the morning and thats really it. It’s hard to stay in touch, but they were a great group of guys.”
After returning to Notre Dame for a stellar sophomore season, teams began to take notice, the Diamondbacks in particular. Arizona held the 17th pick and they used it on Pollock, 16 picks after former NECBLer Stephen Strasburg was taken by the Washington Nationals first overall.
“I thought the NECBL was an excellent league,” Pollock said. “For me, it was awesome. It was great to just go play in New England — I’m from Connecticut — it was just a lot of fun and good baseball.
“A lot of good players come out of there. I know Strasburg was there the year I was and a lot of guys I’ve run into in pro ball I’ve seen in the NECBL and the Cape.”
Pollock’s success continued the summer following his stint in Vermont. He was the 2008 Pat Sorenti Cape Cod Baseball League MVP, a very prestigious award as he hit .377 with 61 hits and 15 doubles for Falmouth. The Commodores invited Pollock into the heavily-scouted league after his impressive Mountaineers season.
He quickly moved his way up the Diamondbacks farm system as a heavily touted prospect, advancing a level in consecutive years (he did sit out with an injury in 2010, however). Each level Pollock went up, he got seemingly better as he raised his batting average from a .271 mark in Single-A South Bend to .318 in Triple-A Reno.
Pollock’s hot hitting earned him a Major League Baseball callup in 2012, which lasted 31 games.He still had rookie eligibility in 2013 and he was the center fielder on Baseball America’s All-Rookie list. He replaced prospect Adam Eaton and did such a good job as an outstanding defensive center fielder who contributed at the plate that the Diamondbacks traded Eaton away and gave Pollock the spot.
His start to the 2014 season was rough.He went 0-for-13, but he’s slowly but surely dug his batting average out of a slump, especially over the last few games, including April 26.
After scoring in the first, Pollock knocked a 73 mph curveball from Lee deep into right field and it rolled up against the wall. He kicked it into high gear and sped around the bases, sliding into third ahead of the tag for a triple. He later came around to score for his second run of the game.
Later in the game, Jeff Manship replaced Lee and Pollock had no problem facing him. Manship gave him a looping 84 mph curve and Pollock continued his hot streak and lined a double into left field, leaving him a home run short of a cycle.
He came up in the bottom of the eighth and launched a high fly ball that had a majority of the 35,462 in attendance on their feet, but it dropped into the waiting hands of Marlon Byrd.
He added a 1-for-3 performance at the plate in the third game of the Diamondbacks series against the Phillies for a 6-for-12 mark in the three-game stretch after returning. His average has continued to climb. It’s up to .275 now and that rough 0-for-13 start to the season is long in the rear view mirror.
Pollock was sidelined this past week with a groin injury and hasn’t made it back into the lineup despite wanting to. His manager, Kirk Gibson, wants him to rest to get to full strength moving forward. The Diamondbacks might be having a tough year, but if Pollock continues his hot hitting at the plate and fights off the nagging injuries, there’s no where to go but up for the former Mountaineer.
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