Andrew Medeiros goes deep during a game last year at Westfield State.
By BRENDAN KURIE
New Bedford Standard-Times
Andrew Medeiros will move to a city he’d never heard of, in a state he’s never been to, in order to play for a coach he’s never met and who has never seen him play.
Yet, the Acushnet native and New Bedford High graduate couldn’t be more excited.
He’s about to get paid. To play baseball. As he’ll note, it doesn’t get much better.
The pay won’t be much, between $50-110 a week in addition to room and board, but the 2013 Westfield State University grad can now look in a mirror and stare back at a professional baseball player.
“It’s a little surreal,” he said during a phone call from Dalton, where he’s interning in the athletic department at Wahconah Regional High School and serving as an assistant hockey and baseball coach. “It’s something I’ve been trying to do for a long time. Granted, it’s a small contract and an entry thing, but it’s a pro contract nonetheless.”
Medeiros’ journey to Alpine, Texas, where he will head in May to suit up for the Alpine Cowboys of the Pecos League, doesn’t begin in Texas, or at Westfield State University, or even at New Bedford High. It starts, of all places, in Syracuse, New York.
In the summer of 2012 Medeiros joined the Syracuse Salt Cats of the New York Collegiate Baseball League, quickly bonding with manager Mike Martinez. Medeiros returned to play this summer, and Martinez suggested he attend a pair of baseball tryouts, one in Pittsburgh and one in Boston.
After a lackluster Pittsburgh audition (“I didn’t play well in the scrimmage,” Medeiros admitted), he regrouped and did better at the Boston tryout, which featured a half-dozen scouts for the Pecos League.
One of the coaches who wasn’t there? Cowboys manager Ryan Stevens.
But he had plans for Medeiros.
“He came very highly recommended,” said Stevens, who’s from central New York and had one of his best friends watch Medeiros play with the Salt Cats. “I wanted to snag him up because other teams in the league were after him.”
In fact, Medeiros had already been offered a contract by the Taos Blizzard, another Pecos League squad. It was a phone call from Stevens, plus the guarantee of a host family and the security of a more-established team that pushed Medeiros toward the Cowboys. It also helped that one of Medeiros’ Salt Cats teammates, Conor Thompson, had already spent a season in Alpine.
Soon, Medeiros received an e-mail. He printed it out, signed it and mailed it back in. Then he sat back, a professional ballplayer.
“It was a little surreal,” he said. “My name was signed on it.”
Now arrives the next hurdle, preparing this Northeast product, who has never lived farther away than Syracuse, for life in the sweltering heat and unrelenting sun of West Texas’ plains. He’ll arrive for spring training at the beginning of May before the 74-game schedule kicks off May 12.
“It will be very different,” said Medeiros, who has family outside Dallas, which is still a seven-hour drive away. “It’s going to be a change, but I’m not one to be intimidated by it.”
When he arrives, Medeiros will be playing with the hopes of garnering attention from higher levels of pro ball, either independent or affiliated minor leagues. While the Cowboys have enjoyed success in the Alpine League (winning crowns in 2010 and 2012), there’s no denying why the players are there.
“The sky’s the limit,” Stevens said. “I have guys who are in affiliated ball now who have played for me and moved on. The experience is what you make of it. You have a high level of standards coming in, but if you put up the numbers, people will start listening.”
Medeiros has done nothing but put up numbers so far in his career. He finished fourth in program history with 154 career hits at Westfield State, batting .360 in his four-year career, including a team-best .389 average as a senior while also leading the team in home runs (three) and finishing second in RBIs (28), runs (29) and doubles (eight). He was a first-team Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference pick and ECAC New England Division First Team as a senior and a second-team MASCAC pick in 2011. For the Salt Cats, he hit .347 with three homers and 25 RBIs in 2012.
All those numbers were put up while he was shuffling around the field, finding himself bouncing between several positions. A catcher in high school, he moved to the outfield as a sophomore, stuck there as a junior, then split time behind the plate and in the outfield as a senior (17 games at each). For the Salt Cats, he played catcher, outfield and first base.
In Alpine? Who knows. However, he is listed as one of six outfielders on the 2014 roster.
“I may play six different positions down there,” Medeiros said.
Stevens isn’t sure where he’ll wind up either, but he knows Medeiros’ talents will force him into the lineup somewhere.
“He’s very versatile, he can do a lot of things,” Stevens said. “He’s got a good arm, good bat, can run, brings a certain athleticism to the team.”
Stevens adds he always values maturity when making his contract offers. It’s important when folks are moving halfway across the country and staying with unknown host families.
“Every report I’ve gotten on him has been he’s a real high character guy, and that’s why I moved on him,” Stevens said. “I just heard he’s a real impact ballplayer and hard-nosed. That’s the type of guy we want to get in our system. Our expectations are high for him. The rest is up to him.”
That maturity? It’s evident in the last thing he says before hanging up the phone in Dalton, a town about 15 minutes from Pittsfield.
“I’d like to thank my parents and family members for all they’ve done over the years and the hard work and miles they put in,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to get here without them.”
You know, exactly how all the pro ballplayers talk.
THE ALPINE COWBOYS
League champions in 2010 and 2012.
• Manager Ryan Stevens named Pecos Manager of the Year in 2012.
• Has sent three players to affiliated minor league system (Pirates, Rangers, Nationals).
• Home field, Kokernot Field, was built in 1947 and dubbed “the Yankee Stadium of Texas” by Texas Monthly magazine.
THE PECOS LEAGUE
An independent professional baseball league which operates in cities in desert mountain regions throughout New Mexico, Texas and Colorado.
• League was formed in 2010 and is based out of Houston.
• Home to high-altitude baseball. The average elevation is 4,870 feet above sea level.
• Has seen 19 players signed by major league teams over the last three years, including the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres. – Courtesy of Westfield State College
