He is sitting on a plastic fold-out chair inside the bullpen, two hours before the first game of the double-header, as Sublime’s “What I Got” blares on the loudspeaker and the visiting team finishes up batting practice. “Obviously, I want to get to the big leagues as fast as I can,” Buckel says. Indeed, minor-league baseball teams are the very embodiment of the American Dream of upward mobility, as almost everyone working at the ballpark-the videographer, the announcer, the promotional director, the mascot, the head groundskeeper-wants to make it to “the show.”
Like all the players in the minor leagues, his ultimate goal is to play in the majors. In fact, Buckel may not be in Myrtle Beach much longer, and that would suit the eager young pitcher just fine. The Pelicans are a farm team for the Texas Rangers, and the big-league scouts are already comparing the right-hander to World Series-winning pitchers like Tim Lincecum and Roy Oswalt. At 19, Buckel is both the Pelicans’ youngest player and the team’s hottest prospect for the major leagues. He brings his glove to his stomach, kicks his left leg up, and fires another fastball, following through with his right hand down to his left hip and getting Holt to fly out to right field for the first out of the game. Lean and California-handsome, Buckel’s steely-blue eyes stare straight at Holt from beneath the flat brim of his Pelicans cap. It’s the first game of a mid-May double-header between the Single-A Advanced Carolina League rivals, and Buckel (pronounced Byoo-KEL) is coming off his second “Pitcher of the Week” honor of the season, having thrown a career-long seven innings the week before and leading the league with 41 strikeouts. On a breezy, sunny "Thirsty Thursday" at Pelican Park at Field, fans of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans are still spilling inside the stadium as ace pitcher Cody Buckel delivers his first throw of the evening-a split-finger fastball, fouled off by the Carolina Mudcats’ lead-off batter, Tyler Holt.
0 kommentar(er)
