By Paul Gotham
Jesse Bosnik may have retired from professional baseball, but the Brockport Riverbats alum still has a competitive fire. After three years in the minor leagues, the St. Mary’s, PA native decided to move on to the next phase of his life. For now that includes playing Division II basketball at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Looking back Bosnik understands what he gained from his experience in the New York Collegiate Baseball League.
Bosnik came to the NYCBL looking for experience, and he got it. He led the Riverbats in hitting (.333), runs scored (32), hits (52), home runs (2) and RBI (28).
Having started all 53 games of his freshman season at St. Bonaventure University, Bosnik hit .259 for the Atlantic 10 school. He scored 37 runs, drove in 30 and rapped 12 doubles.
“My freshman year at Bonaventure I struggled,” Bosnik said recently by phone. “I hadn’t played enough baseball against good competition. I didn’t have enough repetitions. I had the skills. I had the talent… The NYCBL basically gave me more reps on top of what I got in college.”
Bosnik and Jake Dennstedt’s Riverbats reached the playoffs where they swept through the Western Division before defeating Glens Falls two games to one in the 2008 NYCBL championship. Bosnik went 2-4 with a home run in Brockport’s 5-0 win in game one of the title series.
Click here to see the 2014 NYCBL schedule.
“The NYCBL was my coming-out party,” Bosnik noted. “You can take all the BPs in the world at 70 miles per hour. But until you get in there against a guy throwing 92 with movement and knows how to pitch with a good change-up you just don’t know.”
Bosnik represented the Western Division in the NYCBL All-Star Game and earned first team All-League at shortstop.
His sophomore season Bosnik hit .321 for the Bonnies and led the team in runs (43), hits (60) and stolen bases (26).
Bosnik pointed to the confidence he gained playing with Brockport.
“That’s what it’s all about being in the box, being comfortable not worrying about where your hands are, what your feet are doing just mano a mano, me against the pitcher. Let’s go play. That’s what summer baseball gives you a chance to do… It was really a springboard for me to keep improving and building.”
Two years later the Los Angeles Dodgers picked Bosnik in the 13th round of the MLB Draft. He played with the Ogden Bears of the Rookie Pioneer League in 2010. Bosnik spent a pair of seasons with the Great Lakes Loons of the Class A Midwest league. He collected 116 hits during his minor league career including 48 doubles and 20 home runs to go with 117 RBI.
Following the 2012 season Bosnik decided to leave professional baseball behind.
“You have to produce every day,” Bosnik stated. “It doesn’t matter if you’re good in June. You still got to be good in July. There is so much competition. Everybody is good, or they wouldn’t be there. You have to try and find a way to set yourself apart.”
“You play every day, and when you are at the stage, you are in charge of your own career. If you don’t make it, the guy next to you doesn’t care. He just has to figure out how he’s going to make it.”
Bosnik worked for a year as a logistics analyst before returning to school. Having played just three seasons at St. Bonaventure, he had one year of athletic eligibility remaining, and he spent the past year playing for the IUP Crimson Hawks of the Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC).
Click here to see the 2014 NYCBL schedule.
Bosnik played all 27 games for the Crimson Hawks coming off the bench to provide experience for a team which finished the season 23-4.
“College athletics is neat. This is not a knock on pro sports. For college in the most part everybody cares about how you’re doing, and everybody will pull for you. It’s all about the team. You can still have personal success and still have team success… You can always perform better when you have a bunch of people pulling for you.”
Bosnik and IUP played the nationally-ranked Michigan State Spartans in a pre-season exhibition. Despite being on the short end of a lopsided score, Bosnik enjoyed his chance to take the court at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan.
“That was something I will probably never forget.”
Bosnik returned to Elk County Catholic High School and served as an assistant baseball coach last spring. He knows coaching is in his future.
“For me it would be selfish if I didn’t get into coaching of some sort,” Bosnik explained. “With all my experiences, all the time I put in and not sharing with other people and keeping it to myself wouldn’t be right.”
Some of the experience Bosnik shares comes from his time spent in the NYCBL.
The NYCBL opens the 2014 season with five games on June first. The Cortland Crush and Genesee Rapids will join the league for their inaugural season.
The Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex will be the site of the 2014 NYCBL All-Star Game. The NYCBL’s best will converge on the campus of Houghton College on July eighth for the annual event which includes the Major League Baseball Scout Day and Home Run Derby culminating with the Mid-Summer Classic.
The NYCBL is part of the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball (NACSB) which oversees the rules and policies of ten different summer leagues: the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League, Cape Cod Baseball League, Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League, Florida Collegiate Summer League, Great Lakes Collegiate Summer League, New England Collegiate Baseball League, Southern Collegiate Baseball League, Sunbelt Baseball League, and the Valley League Baseball. These ten leagues provide a variety of competition levels that help prepare young players for life in professional baseball.
More than 100 NYCBL alums dotted rosters of Major and Minor League Baseball in 2013.
Current major league players Tim Hudson, Hunter Pence and Mike Fiers all spent a summer playing in the NYCBL.
Paul Gotham is the founder, owner, editor and lead writer at Pickin’ Splinters. Paul is the Communications and Media Director of the New York Collegiate Baseball League. He is a contributor at USA Today and member of the USBWA. You can follow Paul on Twitter @PickinSplinters.
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