By Justin Lada
NILES, OH – New York State is making itself comfortable in the college baseball spotlight. Thanks to Stonybrook’s run to the College World Series and the St. John’s Red Storm finishing a magical season in the Super-Regionals, the Empire State boasted two teams in college baseball’s grand showcase.
New York Collegiate Baseball League alum Chris Bostick is doing his part of keeping that spotlight on his home state.
The 19-year old is now coming off his first of what he hopes is many All-Star appearances in professional baseball, his first coming as a shortstop for the Oakland Athletics, Short Season Class A affiliate, Lake Vermont Monsters of the New York-Penn League.
After playing 37 games with the Webster Yankees of the NYCBL during the 2011 season, Bostick, a 44th round draft pick in the MLB Draft, signed with the Athletics thus forgoing a baseball scholarship with those same St. John’s Red Storm.
Bostick was one of the first players in NYCBL history to take advantage of a relatively new rule, allowing teams to sign players out of high school who were either listed on a college team’s roster in the fall or drafted by an MLB franchise. That rule wound up giving the A’s a longer look at their draft pick and a chance for Bostick to weigh his options.
“The A’s made it clear they wanted to take a look at me and evaluate me against better competition, closer to what I would face if they signed me,” Bostick said of the opportunity.
Armed with every intention of going to college and playing baseball, Bostick found a spot on the 2011 Webster Yankees roster in the NYCBL and wound up making that All-Star team en route to earning Player-of-the-Year honors.
During his summer in Webster, Bostick played his customary shortstop and hit .418 with five home runs, seven doubles and seven triples leading Dave Brust’s Yankees to a West division title.
“My experience in the NYCBL was great. It was definitely baseball like I had never experienced before. I ended up playing on Webster because my brother played for the team, and I really enjoyed myself”, Bostick says of his 37 game stint in the NYCBL.
In the midst of that All-Star campaign, Bostick knew the Athletics were a team who was looking at him and wanted to see him against college players. As an 18 year old Bostick held his own against players who had already had as many as three college seasons of baseball behind them.
As the season went on, that maturity and ability Bostick showed what got him picked in the 44th round by Oakland.
“It was a long three day process. It was so tough and strenuous. I honestly had no clue if I was going to get drafted. I was sitting at home listening, then right before I had a game that night, I got a call from the A’s telling me the drafted me. Then my phone just started going off the hook,” Bostick said of the day he learned he could play pro baseball.
After being drafted, Bostick signed with Webster and went on to play in the 2011 NYCBL All-Star game at Oneonta, he continued to think over about signing a pro contract, or going to St. Johns.
“It’s something I always wanted to do and I felt like I was ready to play pro baseball”, Bostick said about taking the A’s up on their offer.
While the Webster Yankees went on to play in the 2011 NYCBL championship, Bostick headed to Arizona.
His first foray into pro baseball wound up being a good one. In 57 plate appearances in the Arizona Rookie League he hit .442 with a home run and six doubles, including going 4-4 in stolen base attempts.
“The A’s got a deal when they signed Chris,” Brust said. “He competes at a level that everyone hooked their wagons to.”
At 19 now, Bostick is one of the younger players, even in the Short Season Class-A League. Bostick wound up as a reserve in the New York-Penn League All Star game and went 0-2 in his two plate appearances while playing shortstop.
His Arizona League campaign in 2011 put him on a few of baseball circles and blogs “Who to watch lists” and his .260 average and 16 extra base hits in a league where he is facing players who were just drafted out of college, has bumped him up on a few prospect lists as well.
Of his second straight summer playing in a baseball All-Star game, Bostick said “It’s such a privilege; I didn’t expect any of this. Last summer I didn’t know where I’d be. You just hope you can keep moving up and progressing.”
After the season NY-P season ends in two weeks, Bostick will head back home to Rochester, where he said he still keeps in touch with some of his NYBCL Webster teammates as well as some friends he made on the St. John’s team with whom he was recruited. Bostick also said he had a chance to watch those friends play in the College World Series while out in Arizona preparing for the season.
After visiting family and friends, Bostick will then report to Phoenix, Arizona for ‘instructional league’ action. He hopes to keep New York baseball in the spot light.
Justin Lada writes for the Lake County-Sentinel. You can follow him on Twitter @nextyearinCLE
Leave a Reply