Always remember him for being a solid long reliever on the comeback '89 O's. Never knew that's how he broke in the pros. Great story.

Any other fairly recent stories like that? Guy that didn't really play organized baseball and tries out like that to make it a pro team? UL Washington is another example, although he went through the Royals Academy. Herb Washington is a different example, but that was a bit of a stunt. And of course there are those Pirates pitchers from India.

Always remember him for being a solid long reliever on the comeback '89 O's.

Eh? You don't remember him that well; he was a LOOGY, not a long reliever, for the Why Not? team.

Well in fairness I was 11 and the only Orioles games I saw were when he played the Royals! And up until today I thought he was the Rays pitching coach.

and ex-Royal pitcher Frank Wills also died recently......

Not positive on this, but I believe former Astro's OF Eric Anthony didn't play baseball in HS. A friend told him he should try out for baseball in JC.

It's just that he stands out very strongly in my mind because he was the Orioles first real LOOGY.

Mark Hamburger, who pitched 8 innings for the Rangers last year, was signed in an open tryout by the Twins in 2007. He was traded straight up for Eddie Guardado 13 months later.

Mark Hamburger, who pitched 8 innings for the Rangers last year, was signed in an open tryout by the Twins in 2007. He was traded straight up for Eddie Guardado 13 months later.

I will gladly trade you "Everyday" for a Hamburger today?

Any other fairly recent stories like that? Guy that didn't really play organized baseball and tries out like that to make it a pro team?

Art Howe. He'd played college ball at Wyoming, was undrafted, tried out for the Pirates, was turned down, went to work in an insurance office, tried out again the next year and was signed.

Jim Morris, obviously, ignoring his initial pro washout.

I found an old Sport Magazine article that says Frank White and Marvell Wynne were signed out of tryout camps, but that goes back 40 and 30 years.

I vaugely remember him from those Orioles. What was he doing from 84-88?

Jeff Zimmerman went undrafted out of TCU, then pitched professionally in France, quit pro ball to get an MBA, came back to pitch in an independent league, then got signed by the Rangers after faxing his resume to every MLB team. He then went on to have pretty spectacular 1999 and 2001 seasons before his elbow blew up and that was it.

That first half-season in 1999 (earning him an All-Star selection as a middle reliever) was incredible. Absolutely electric stuff that no one could touch. A .106/.162/.153 slash line for the first half. 8-0 with an 0.86 ERA at the height of the most recent Liveball Era.

The White Sox had been hanging Hickey's jersey in the dugout every game this season, both because his condition had deteriorated since spring training and because he was a beloved figure in the organization. How one of Bill Veeck's local tryouts turned into a big league career was a nice story, and Hickey's return to the Sox as BP pitcher is an example of the best of Jerry Reinsdorf's loyalty to particular employees.

I will gladly trade you "Everyday" for a Hamburger today?

Wimpy. And nerdy.

Ron LeFlore. On his first day in prison he fended off an attacker with a baseball bat and he said it was the first time in his life he'd ever held a bat in his hands.

Well, I could name a fair number of guys who were signed from tryout camps (rod Barajas, for example). Stories like hickey's, otoh, those are few and far between in modern ball...

Going back a ways, 1950s shortstop Roy McMillan had never played a nine-inning baseball game before signing a minor league baseball contract -- he'd been playing softball.

Does it count that John Lackey doesn't look like he has played organized baseball?

Kansas City Royals' Baseball Academy

Frank White
Ron Washington
Bruce Miller
Rodney Scott
UL Washington

A total of 14 players from the 3 classes would go on to play in the major leagues.


Hal Baird was part of the first class and he would eventually manage Auburn and future stars like Bo Jackson, Frank Thomas, and Tim Hudson.

Frank White had not played high school baseball because his high school did not have a baseball team. He was working at a local sheet metal company when he took a day off to try out.

Kansas City Royals' Baseball Academy

Frank White
Ron Washington
Bruce Miller
Rodney Scott
UL Washington

A total of 14 players from the 3 classes would go on to play in the major leagues.

And teams are not doing this now because why, again?

And teams are not doing this now because why, again?

Can't find a city that will build them a complex on the taxpayer's dime, I guess.

It cost the Royals 1.5 million to build the complex and $700,000 a year to run it back in the early 1970's. Back then they had 7 minor league teams, nowadays teams have only 4 teams. There simply isn't enough roster space to do it. The only way you could do it is to have the players not sign a contract and hope that they don't jump ship on you. Plus since they aren't signed they can't play baseball against any other minor league team. Well, they might be able to play against Indy League teams but again you run the risk of them jumping ship.

It got shut down back then because the idea came from Kauffman and his baseball people hated that he came up with it so they were against it from the beginning. They pulled the plug on it before Frank White had come up and done anything at the major league level.

When I was a kid I read a book called Strange But True Baseball Stories. One of the stories was about a kid who got his buddy to go to an open tryout camp. The friend ran track and field but never played baseball. The friend got signed and made it to the big leagues. While I can't remember the name I do remember a picture of him standing beside Yankee manager Casey Stengel and holding a watch for being the most outstanding prospect in spring training that spring. He played several years in the big leagues.

Back then they had 7 minor league teams, nowadays teams have only 4 teams.

How much of a savings does that generate? Just looking at the 1972 Royals as an example they had ten minor league teams but only 4 of them were above Rookie ball. They had AAA, AA, 2 A Ball teams then six other teams designated on BBRef as "Rk" (Rookie) "Wrk" (Some kind of modified rookie I assume) and "Spr" (extended Spring league of some sort?). The 2011 Royals featured the same AAA, AA, Hi A and Lo A set up then 4 teams of varying rookie levels. That seems like a pretty standard set up for most teams.

I can't imagine the cost savings of knocking out a couple of those Rookie level teams is particularly meaningful.

That's not to say that the idea isn't viable. If a club can get anything out of the set up it would be worthwhile but I don't think the cost savings in any changes from the minor leagues in the last 40 years is going to be meaningful. I'm not as um...experienced as you but it doesn't seem that the general set up or size of the minor leagues relative to MLB teams has changed that dramatically since the late-70s. The Rookie-LoA-HiA-AA-AAA format seems pretty well established in my memory. Maybe not quite as directly as it is today but the general size seems about right.

That was Gordie Windhorn.

Thanks Tom.

I gotta find that book for my kids. There were some great stories in there.