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Jeremy Guthrie was just 19 years old when he faced a problem that would change his life forever. The right-handed pitcher was drafted by the Mets in the 15th round of the 1997 draft and had to choose between signing with the team or heading to Spain for a two-year mission trip with the LDS Church.
Even though he was drafted in the late rounds, he clearly had a distinct upside to scouts who watched him pitch. It was enough for then-Mets general manager Steve Phillips to fly the young pitcher to New York for a bullpen session and a discussion that would hopefully end with Guthrie signing his name on the dotted line.
But Guthrie wanted the best of both worlds.
“Is there a way to make a deal where in exchange for him signing, he’s also allowed to spend those two years away?” Guthrie asked.
Phillips told him there was no way to do it. he will have to make a choice.
“For you, it’s baseball right now or it’s your other job, and we’ll support you in either. But it’s not like you have a chance to be drafted again after two years away,” Phillips said. Told. “This is once in a lifetime.”
“I decided in that moment that I was going to actually pursue what I knew was most important to me at that moment,” Guthrie told MLB.com over Zoom. He turned down the Mets’ offer and headed to Spain, never playing baseball there for the next two years.
“For two years, I didn’t do any exercise other than walking,” Guthrie said. “I was walking an average of about nine miles a day because that was our means of transportation. That was how we connected with people. We visited their homes and talked to people on the street. So I walked a lot, and I didn’t walk at all.”
You can understand the story from there. After Guthrie returned from his trip, he attended Stanford University. will do Guthrie enjoyed 13 successful years in the major leagues, including two away trips, as a rotation centerpiece for the Orioles and Royals, pitching 200 or more innings five times. Those two years in Spain – the 2014 and 2015 postseasons in Kansas City – were life-changing for him. For a young man who had not yet left North America, it opened his eyes to a world beyond baseball and the United States.
It also gave Gasly another dream. It was a dream he was interested in, even though his hopes for the major leagues were coming true. Guthrie wanted to see the world, and more importantly, he wanted to meet people who play baseball all over the world.
(Years later, Guthrie would run into Phillips, now an analyst for MLB Network, at the last game in Yankee Stadium history.) Guthrie approached Phillips and introduced himself, noting that he still remembered who he was. “Jeremy, I-” “I know you’re right, but I was clearly wrong,” Guthrie remembers Phillips saying. Lack of sufficient understanding of people is the reason why people like me get fired.”
The seeds first planted in Spain blossomed into a vision for the right-hander’s future when he played for Aguilas Cibaenhas in the Dominican Winter League in 2006-07. Guthrie, who speaks Spanish, often walked to the ballpark and stopped to play with the kids he passed along the way.
“As I was walking, I saw kids there doing the typical things you would imagine: brandishing little broomsticks and makeshift bats, rocking rocks. “I hit anything I could think of, like a bottle cap or an actual ball,” Guthrie said. “I was playing with kids on the way and they had no idea who I was. They just had a love and passion for sports. That’s what they did. It was cartoons and video games. , or even soccer.”
As Guthrie entered his 30s, and with his major league career coming to an end in the not-too-distant future, he began to dream of playing in a country around the world that would accept him. There were 15 or so professional and semi-pro leagues in operation, but the right-hander had one big problem. He was still in the midst of his major league career, and places like Japan and South Korea were simply too good to take. About someone after his big league days are over.
“I said to my agent, what if I played every game?” [the leagues]And Major League Baseball just followed me and documented what world baseball is like? ” Guthrie remembers asking. [the Royals] We ended up winning the World Series in ’15, but I don’t think he really liked the idea a year later, like, ‘Hey, we’re still taking the major league step.’ ”
Guthrie may not have had the opportunity to explore the entire world because of his ability to stay in the majors, but he still found a way to suit up for the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League and the Acereros de Monclova of the Mexican League. i got you. Now he saw what baseball is like around the world from a very unique perspective: on the mound.
“When my career was coming to an end, Australia was motivated by a certain intention,” Guthrie said. “First of all, I always wanted to go to Australia when I was younger. It’s one of the places I always tell people, like, ‘Hey, if you were to go anywhere, where did you go?’ was. So I just said ‘Australia’ for no particular reason other than maybe I wanted to see a koala or a kangaroo. ”
Guthrie then represented himself to Mexico.
“I called Mexico myself and said I would love to come to the pitch. Can I come to the pitch?”
An arm injury ended Guthrie’s playing career in 2017, but he wasn’t far away from the game. When he’s not behind the microphone at a Royals game, Guthrie travels the world finding baseball wherever it’s being played. He dreams of becoming Anthony Bourdain on the international circuit.
He worked with his own videographer, believing that making something tangible has far more impact than simply writing a script or sending a pitch deck to a studio head. He hires an editor to accompany him and shoot the video.
“When I have an idea, I don’t just put it out there and say, ‘Oh, I hope that works,'” Guthrie said. “I’m pursuing it. So I’ve been pursuing it the best I can for the last eight years.”
That prompted Gasly to return to Spain and help coach the 15-a-side team, sleeping with other coaches and players at a nearby campsite.
“I went to five games with my kids every day,” he said. “We were just getting to know the kids, playing and sleeping with them at a small campground on the outskirts of Gijón, another great city in northern Spain. It was more personal than, ‘I’m going to come and teach baseball and try to make this big splash within two days, and then I’m going to leave and never see you again. ” But this was a friendship, a relationship. ”
I took him to Bulgaria. Baseball was born there in the 1980s when a few college students became interested in the game, and it soon grew to include 20 teams and a nascent ball game community. He has in his hands the “Bible” of Bulgarian baseball, a rulebook written by a Japanese gentleman who still lives in Bulgaria, and that “almost every kid who has ever pitched in Bulgaria has probably read one over the years.” You either have it or have read it.”
Mr. Guthrie became amazed at how easily baseball can grow when people are exposed to it. Far from requiring millions of dollars and tons of infrastructure, it simply requires an opportunity and a trigger.
“If we can introduce them to this sport, if they can see it, if they can witness it, if they can play it, that says it all,” Guthrie said. said. “It’s going to grow organically and it doesn’t necessarily have to be backed by millions of dollars. It’s like Bulgaria didn’t have anything backed by it except for a few players who liked it.”
Guthrie’s work has made a difference, and it’s not just the kids and coaches who have learned from the former big leaguer. MLB Deputy Commissioner Dan Hallem has seen up close the impact of Guthrie’s actions.
“Jeremy has worked tirelessly to grow baseball internationally, especially in countries where baseball is less established,” Hallem wrote in an email. “As a respected former player, Jeremy’s willingness to take a leadership role in MLB’s international efforts and recruit other former players will pay off in the future. Jeremy’s willingness to roll up his sleeves and My personal passion for introducing baseball and baseball is…
Guthrie’s travels include Peru, France, Italy, Cuba, China, and Japan, just to name a few. His passport may have more stamps than the post office. If baseball is being played, Guthrie hopes to be on the field helping young players get the most out of the game or helping share stories from around the world in front of the cameras. .
“The story is there, the product is there, and I just want to help create it and be a part of it, because that just lights me up and excites me,” Guthrie said. “I think it’s good for baseball. It’s good for people to see how great baseball is and what baseball is like worldwide.”
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