45 pro hopefuls turn out for Blue Ox open tryout at Colby

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WATERVILLE – They came from Ohio, North Carolina, Vermont, Rhode Island, and, of course Maine. They ranged in age from 18 to 37, but all shared a common desire: to realize a long-held dream of playing professional baseball.

Forty-five of them in all converged Saturday on the baseball diamond at Colby College to throw strikes, shag flies, field grounders, take a few cuts at the plate – whatever it took to get noticed by officials of the Bangor Blue Ox.

Saturday was day one of the Northeast Baseball League team’s first-ever open tryouts and conditions were perfect. Clear blue skies and temperatures in the 70s greeted officials, players, and spectators as players were registered and shepherded to various field locations for drills.

Despite a smaller-than-expected turnout of pro hopefuls and the rain-forced cancellation of the second day of tryouts, officials of the independent team were still happy with the weekend’s results.

“I’m certainly not disappointed with the turnout. It made our jobs easier by getting the numbers down to a manageable amount,” said Dean Gyorgy, Blue Ox president and general manager. “We saw what we needed to see.”

As a result, several players were invited to the club’s spring training camp, which opens Monday morning at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.

Those players are Andy High of Fayetteville, N.C.; Jamie Davis of Barre, Vt.; Mike Taylor of Columbus, Ohio; Neal Boyd of Meridian, Miss.; and former Husson College players Mike McBride, Travis McKinney, and Mark Hreben.

High and Davis just finished their senior seasons at Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C. They heard about the tryouts from CU pitching coach Davey Clark.

Clark knew the league well after playing for the Glens Falls (N.Y.) Bobcats in the NBL last year.

“He told me and Jamie to come up here. It was a long haul. Took us two days to get here,” said High, a lefty pitcher at his first tryout.

It wasn’t a first for Davis. The 21-year-old righthander has attended a few tryouts for the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds.

The 18-hour drive was well worth it, as they impressed team manager Dick Phillips and team player-coach Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd, Neal Boyd’s brother.

Boyd, 37, also will work out with the team as an outfielder, the same position as McBride and Taylor. Taylor was on the Chicago White Sox replacement squad with “Oil Can” Boyd last year.

Both Hreben and McKinney are angling for spots on the team as pitchers. Hreben recently concluded his final season with Husson and hopes to make the next step. McKinney didn’t get his hopes up.

“I didn’t come expecting too much. I just came to have fun and throw the ball,” McKinney said. “But you always want a chance to play for money, even if it’s not very much. I feel like I threw the ball pretty well. Who knows?”

The Guilford righthander, who has no left hand or forearm, impressed Phillips.

“He threw the ball well. We’ll have him throw batting practice and see what happens,” he said.

McKinney wasn’t the only player there who hasn’t let a handicap get in the way of playing baseball.

Joe Brancato of Topsham was born deaf, but can hear normally with the use of two hearing aids and has learned to read lips.

A friend of Brancato’s, Renee Lopez of Bath, encouraged him to try out for the team.

“He’s been helping me out. He brought me down here just to get some experience out there with other guys. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of months,” Brancato explained.

Lopez, an associate scout for the Atlanta Braves, is trying to encourage good athletes in other sports to give baseball a try.

“We’re not saying, `Don’t play basketball.’ We’re saying, `Why not play baseball too?’ ” said Lopez. “We’re trying to get kids back into baseball and see about them playing high school and college ball.”

Brankato, 18, said he thought his tryout could have been better, but was satisfied nonetheless.

“When I was on the mound, I was wicked nervous. I was shaking. It was kind of hard,” he said. “It’s tough when you’ve got all these coaches and stuff watching you from right behind the catcher.”

Both Boyd and Phillips were intrigued by Brancato’s ability.

“This kid I think is going to be a good pitcher. But he’s a project and I think he needs to go to college,” said Phillips. “I told his father he had some talent, but we’re not in the developmental stage and he needs to develop himself.”

Brankato isn’t playing high school ball this year because “something happened with the coach,” but has been working out regularly with a local Pine Tree League team and plans to play at Central Maine Technical College in Auburn next year.