Michael Baun

ORAi HISory PROJECT
BASEBALL
I IN PENNSYLVANIA

11-22-94

ORAL HI STORY PROJECT
BASEBALL IN PENNSYLVANIA

1. Student's Name
2. Subject's Name
3. Subject 's Background
J

a. date and place of
b. Present address
c . Present Occupation
II

4. Date of Interview

I

/98

5. General Comments:

experience
I in

baseb

Till

Thi s

time

all.

DO NOT WRITE BELOW TH I S LINE

Oral Baseball Interview with Brian Malone
Q=Interviewer
A=Response

Q:

Ok, my first question is, how long have your been playing baseball?

A:

Oh, I've been playing for about five years.

Q:

Where did you go to high school at?

A:

I went to Lakeview High School.

Q:

So, you started playing basically 1n high school?

A:

Yes, 8th grade.

Q:

8th grade, did your team ever make it to the playoffs or go beyond?

A: · My junior year we made it to the playoffs, got knocked out in the first
round but my senior year we made it to the States, the State Tournament.
District ten runner up, so we had a pretty good year.
Q:

Were you one of the better people on the team?

A:

Yeah, one of the better people.
from the rest.

Q:

Are you playing baseball anywhere now?

A:

Yeah, I'm playing over at Thiel College.

Q:

Did you get a scholarship?

A:

No, they don;t offer scholarships at division III schools.

Q:

Did you get any scholarship offers at all?

A:

Um, no not really.

There was a few of us that stood out

I talked to quite a few coaches, but no scholarship offers.

Q:

When you were in high school did you play any baseball during the summer,
summer leaques or anything like that?

A:

Yeah, I played for the Mercer American Legion team.

Q:

OK, so that gave you a little more practice.

A:

Yeah, a little more practice.

Q:

Now that you are in college, will you be able to play in any type of
summer leaque there or any other, like you know independant leaques?

A:

Yeah, I'm playing double A ball over at Jamestown.

Q:

What kind of Leaque is that?

A:

It's in between American Legion and Minor Leaques.

Q:

Ok, any chance of going on beyond college to the Pros or Minor Leaque
ball? Have you given any thought of that?

A:

I'd like to, it's a long shot. A couple of years ago I made a
Florida Marlins tryout camp. It's a longshot if anything.

Q:

How old were you when you did that?

A:

17

Q:

So, what were the results of that:

A:

Ah, they took 25 out of 130 kids, and they put you on a list for the
minor leaques, and you know if anybody or anything happened or anything
they call you.

Q:

So, did you get put on this list?

A:

Yeah

Q:

So, if you were to get called you might get called up to what; like
one of their farm teams or something like that?

A:

Yeah

Q:

And you were only 17?

A:

Yeah

Q:

So, maybe once you got done with college you have a pretty good shot
at least a minor leaque try?

A:

Hopefully

Q:

Ok, how much more compet1t1ve do you think college baseball will be
compared to high school? Like even more competitive than the summer
ball you played?

A:

It should be pretty much alot more, cause you'll be seeing a good
pitcher every day instead of maybe once a week or so. And the guys
will be bigger and faster.

Q:

How many people from your high school team went on to play college
ball?

A:

Ah, I'm the only one. There was another one who was supposed to,
but he never went to school.

Q:

Ok, what do they look for when they are recruiting? I mean what is
your hitting percentage, or what position do you play and what do you
have to be at that position?

A:

I'm a catcher, basically they look for speed and mobility,
basically.

Q:

And what was your batting average?
that ?

A:

My senior year it was around 490 or 500.

Q:

Thats pretty impressive, maybe you'll be slugging them out at
Thiel.

A:

Hopefully!

Do you think they look at