BALTIMORE - As fans sang along to “Thank God, I'm a Country Boy,” Cory Wade of the New York Yankees threw his warm up pitches before facing the Baltimore Orioles in the bottom of the seventh inning in late August at Camden Yards.
Wade, a Major League pitcher, experienced life in the country – or at least a small town – during his days as a baseball standout at Kentucky Wesleyan College.
But his career in The Show, what baseball players call the big leagues, has been a decidedly big-city experience.
Wade, 28, drafted by the Dodgers out of KWC in the 10th round in 2004, made his big league debut by pitching in 55 games in 2008 with Los Angeles.
He saw action in 27 games with the Dodgers the next year before spending all of the 2010 season in the minor leagues after coming back from shoulder surgery.
Wade, a native of Indianapolis, made it back to the major leagues earlier this season with the New York Yankees in this country's other major media market. He ended the 2011 regular-season with a record of 6-1 with an impressive ERA of 2.04 in 40 games out of the bullpen for the American League east division champs.
He then pitched two scoreless innings on Oct. 2 in Game 2 in a 5-3 loss to Detroit in the American League division series for the Yankees.
“It has been interesting, to say the least,” said Wade.
How Wade made it to the Big Apple, the second major market he has played in, was a circuitous one. He began the 2011 season with Triple-A Durham, the top farm club of Tampa Bay, but was then released by the Rays on June 12.
He was signed the next day by the Yankees and after one appearance in the minor leagues he was called up to New York on June 15 and pitched a perfect inning that day against the Texas Rangers.
“I thought I would make the (Tampa Bay) team out of training camp. I pitched well at Triple A and I figured they would offer me a chance at some point” with the big league club, Wade said.
But that never happened. “I know there is a business side of it. I was released, signed the next day by the Yankees. I pitched at Triple A, had an off day and was called up to the Yankees. It was that quick,” he said. “It was not what I was expecting.”
After he was released by Tampa Bay he planned to head to Indianapolis, his hometown. But his agent called and told of the chance to sign with the Yankees, a perennial post-season contender. “It was kind of a perfect situation for me to get into,” Wade said. “They had Joba Chamberlain go down (on the DL June 8). It was an extremely unfortunate situation for him. But it happened at the right time” for me.
The right-hander did not know too many of the Yankees but did have a prior experience with New catcher Russell Martin, a former teammate with the Dodgers.
And Martin was back of the plate in June when Wade got his first win with the Yankees.
“Two perfect innings, he's been very good,” Yankees' manager Joe Girardi told reporters after Wade got his first win with the team. “We just wanted to make sure he was careful. It was a nice job by Russell. They went and did what they had to do.”
Wade said Martin was one of the first players to greet him when he joined the Yankees earlier this season.
Martin told reporters: “He's back, probably even better than the last time I saw him. He looks like he's got his good stuff. He's got command of his changeup, his fastball. He's the type of guy that can throw any pitch, any count, and that's why he's tough to hit.”
“They had confidence in me that I can pitch in key games. I thought I was going to get back. I had age on my side,” added Wade, who was 26 when he had shoulder surgery.
And now he gets to take part in post-season baseball.
“It is nice to get a chance to shoot for the playoffs. A lot of guys play for a lot of years and never get the chance,” said
Wade, who got to take part in a pennant race while with the Dodgers.
Wade realizes he is fortunate to play with possible Hall of Famers such as Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.
“If you had a conversation with them you would not know that,” Wade, looking around the Yankees' clubhouse, said of his approachable and famous teammates.
Wade got very few college offers after playing a public high school in Indianapolis. Kentucky Wesleyan was the only school that was willing to let him play shortstop when he was not pitching. So does he have more to prove as a small-college product?
“Sometimes you don't have the big name and the big university,” said Wade, who is about 12 credits shy of a degree in sports management. “I won't say people look down upon you. You can't look at it like that. I could have played at other places but I wanted to play right away as a freshman. I wanted to go in and be ready to play. I wanted to play shortstop.
Bigger schools would not have allowed me that chance. Wesleyan was willing to let me do that. That is why I went there.”
Editor's note: David Driver, a former baseball player at Division III Eastern Mennonite in Virginia, has covered minor and major league baseball for 20 years as a free-lance writer. He can be reached at
www.davidsdriver.com
