Rogers garners award for Mr. Baseball Ace pitcher signs contract with Brewers

ORONO – Mark Rogers wanted to play in Friday evening’s 13th annual Maine High School Senior All-Star Baseball Classic at Mahaney Diamond.

But if he had, the righthander from Mount Ararat of Topsham would have made everyone else who played ineligible to play in college.

That’s because Rogers signed with the Milwaukee Brewers earlier in the day, making him a professional, and NCAA rules prevent potential collegiate players from playing with pros.

“I’m not going to lie, I wanted to play really bad,” said Rogers, the 2004 Gatorade National High School Player of the Year. “I’m still glad I got to come up here and enjoy the game with some of my friends and meet some of the guys on the other team.”

So instead of playing against his peers, he had to settle for watching – and accepting the Dr. John Winkin Award symbolic of Maine’s Mr. Baseball.

“It’s a really good feeling, a good way to cap things off,” said Rogers of the award. “Baseball in Maine has been unbelieveable to me. The community support and everybody has helped me a lot through the years, and this is an outstanding honor.”

Rogers, who went 9-1 with 164 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings in leading Mount Ararat to its second straight Eastern Maine Class A championship, was one of four finalists for the award. Other finalists were Ryan Reid of Deering of Portland, Ryan Copp of Greely of Cumberland Center, and Adam Vachon of Cony of Augusta.

Rogers, the No. 5 pick in the first round of the June 7 amateur draft, wouldn’t discuss specifics of his contract, but his signing bonus was expected to be between $2.3 million and $2.5 million. He will leave for Milwaukee on Tuesday.

“I’ll get to see the field and get brought around a little bit and meet some of the guys, and from there I’m headed to Arizona, and that’s when the work begins,” Rogers said. “I’ve got to go out there and start a new season and start plugging away.”

Rogers’ appearance at the all-star game marked the end of a hectic week. On Monday he pitched in the Class A state championship game against Deering of Portland before 6,770 fans at Hadlock Field in Portland. Rogers worked into the fifth inning, allowing a pair of earned runs as the Eagles took a 6-1 loss.

Rogers then went to Arizona on Wednesday to make preparations to live there once he is assigned to the Brewers’ rookie league team in Maryvale, Ariz. He returned to Maine late Thursday, and then traveled to Orono on Friday with his father, Mount Ararat coach Craig Rogers.

“It’s been a very hectic week, but I’ve gotten used to that,” Rogers said. “It’s been a hectic couple of months. Going to Arizona was fun, I got to look around and check out the field, and I came back here and we got things done, so I’m just anxious to get out there and play baseball.”

But on this night, perhaps for the last time for many years, Mark Rogers was merely a spectator.