VIANO COLUMN: Pistorese chasing the dream
To get to where Joe Pistorese is today borders on the impossible.
It took an entire childhood of work, on pitching mounds, competing with teammates, learning from coaches, traveling on buses and dedicating himself, near completely, to the game of baseball.
To get to where Pistorese wants to go is going to take even more, and the hardest part is he won’t even control all of it.
Pistorese, a 2011 Flathead High School grad and 17th-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2015, is starting this baseball season in Peoria, Arizona, and taking part in Extended Spring Training. The southpaw is serving out the remainder of a 50-game suspension that interrupted a terrific first year as a pro in September.
His suspension aside — Pistorese said it was the result of a mix-up over his use of a prescribed drug to treat an attention disorder — the former Washington State Cougar is part of an extremely exclusive club: he gets paid to play sports.
If he can make it to the next, even more elite, level as a major leaguer, he will have beaten some of the longest odds that exist in any field and endured a business more cruel and cutthroat than any Wall Street boardroom or Silicon Valley incubator.
Imagine the best player on your high school team. Maybe he or she played at a major college.
What about the best player on your college team? It’s a long shot, but maybe they got a sniff at the pros.
Then there’s the best player in rookie ball in baseball’s minor leagues, where Pistorese was last year. All he’s earned is a chance to be the best player at the next level, only to have to do it again three more times before he sees a hint of the money and fame we associate with professional athletes.
Josh Fields, a Columbia Falls grad who played eight seasons of professional baseball, knows the realities of the business all too well.
“It was 2005. Charlotte and Richmond Braves. I’ll never forget it,” he said. “August 11, I want to say. I was 20 days from a September call-up.”
Fields, who was already five years into an unlikely ascension through the Chicago White Sox system and up to Triple-A (Charlotte), injured his right shoulder that day, believing he would be called up to the major league team when rosters expanded on September 1.
Instead, Fields had a pair of shoulder surgeries and, in his own words, was “never the same.”
The fact that Fields, a 23rd-round draft choice, had made it so close to the pinnacle is both heartbreaking and remarkable. Both he and Pistorese had to first make it out of the baseball hinterland that is Northwest Montana to strong college programs, and then dominate enough at those stops to be drafted.
Pistorese dominated enough at rookie-level Everett last season to keep his dream going. But he can’t stop now.
“You can get by on a lot of talent and just survive, but once you start to get to the professional level, you talk about a performance-based business,” Fields said. “Talent and results outweigh everything. It just does.”
There are 40 rounds in the baseball draft, meaning as many as 1,200 new players could be entering the minor leagues every June. Which means there’s always someone else after your job and that sacred roster spot.
And it’s even tougher as a later-round pick, which Pistorese and Fields both were.
“You’ve got to go out there and grind it out and take the ball and take the ball (as a low-round pick). And a lot of praying,” Fields said with a laugh.
Sometimes, too, your survival in baseball depends on more than just results, and that’s the truly scary part.
As the top of the climb draws near, luck and timing factor in as much as anything. An injury to someone in your position at the major league level could mean a call up. That player staying healthy, or your minor league team being too many miles away, or the fact that you just pitched last night, could mean you get passed over and your chance disappears forever.
“Your window is short,” Fields said. “Mine was a 20-day window to make the big leagues when I look back on it now.”
It’s hard to tell how open Pistorese’s window is, but the fact that it’s open at all is worth celebrating.
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Andy Viano is a sports reporter and columnist. He can be reached at 758-4446 or aviano@dailyinterlake.com.