With the dream of becoming the school's first alum to make it to the majors, Messiah's Chris Heisey's voyage over the last two and a half years has been a nomadic minor league trail littered with drop-of-the-hat moves, call-ups and opportunities.
"It's not for everyone," Heisey said while visiting his alma mater over this weekend's Homecoming festivities. "There have been challenges, and doing this doesn't exactly lend itself to the most stable lifestyle. But I can only follow this dream once. And I'm enjoying it."
Still the Falcons' career leader in batting average, total bases, doubles and home runs, Heisey made the difficult choice to forgo his senior year of college to enter the draft. He was selected by the Reds in the 17th round, first being sent to the rookie-league Billings (Montana) Mustangs before moving up to the A-ball Dayton Dragons at the outset of the 2007 season. From there, the six-foot, 205 pound speedy outfielder was called up to Sarasota in mid-season, a stint truncated by a broken left thumb after just 12 games.
"I was sliding into first base and it just bent the wrong way," he said.
It would only be a slight bump in the road rather than a detour for Heisey, as he returned to his Lancaster-area home and began rehabbing over the winter. In 2008, Heisey returned to Sarasota at the start of the baseball season.
On August 11th, Heisey blasted a towering home run in what proved to be his final at-bat that evening. As he was rounding third base, he learned of the news from Sarasota Reds manager Joe Ayrault that he was being promoted to double-A Chattanooga.
"Coach Ayrault stuck his fist out to me and said, ‘That'll be the your last home run in the Florida State League,'" Heisey recalled. "The next morning, I was on a plane. It happens fast like that."
Apparently it does. Heisey finished out the '08 season with the AA Chattanooga Lookouts hitting .316 with six doubles in just 79 at-bats, numbers good enough to warrant a trip to the Puerto Rican Winter League this fall. Chris will move to the U.S. territory tomorrow, an opportunity that could provide major dividends down the road.
"This is a major, major step for Chris," said Bryan Engle, Messiah head baseball coach. "This (Puerto Rican) winter league is invite-only. You have a lot of triple-A players down there as well as some major leaguers that are on assignment. For him to be invited down there speaks volumes about the level of his play right now."
For now, however, the dream continues. Pending on how things go in Puerto Rico, Heisey will learn of his next stop, most likely just hours before they are expected to be there.
Read the
full article by Cory Furman at the Messiah web site.