By Paul Gotham
ROCHESTER, NY – Last summer Clifton Davis traveled the roads of Upstate New York calling balls and strikes in the New York Collegiate Baseball League. This summer, the Hermitage, Tennessee native will be doing the same thing except he will switch states and make the jump from amateur to the professional ranks.
“I’ve been through a lot just to get to this point,” Davis said recently by phone. “I am humbled that I’ve got this opportunity.”
This season, Davis will wear the blue and umpire games in the rookie Gulf Coast League of minor league baseball.
Since the end of last season Davis attended a series of camps and clinics and earned a spot in the 2013 Umpire School in Vero Beach, Florida. It was there that he received a spot in the Gulf Coast League.
Just like the players of the NYCBL, Davis has his sights set on making it to Major League Baseball. Like the challenges facing players, Davis knows this dream will not come easily.
“I look at it as a competition within yourself,” Davis explained. “It’s how much work you want to put into it and how dedicated you are. The average time they usually say is about ten years (to get to the majors), but you’ll never actually know until you put your front foot forward.”
Davis attended the 2012 Wendlestedt Umpire School in Daytona Beach. There he received his recommendation to work in the NYCBL. He eventually called the league championship.
“It was a great experience,” Davis said of his time in the NYCBL. “There were a few things I needed to get polished on where I definitely didn’t know it until I experienced it in some of the game situations especially applying the rules and getting used to the speed of the game itself.”
The Gulf Coast league consists of 16 farm teams of MLB playing 60 games. Opening Day is June 21st, and the season runs through August 29th.
The NYCBL opens on Monday, June 3rd when 2012 league champion, the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs host a doubleheader against the Sherrill Silversmiths at Alliance Bank Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
The NYCBL is a summer wood-bat league which provides eligible student-athletes the opportunity to develop skills over the course of two months in Upstate New York. Current major league players Tim Hudson, Hunter Pence and Jason Motte all spent a summer playing in the NYCBL. Twenty-one former NYCBL players heard their names called during the 2012 MLB draft.
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