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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Gemberling Continuing Baseball Career in Pacific Northwest
August 17, 2009 | Baseball
VANCOUVER, Canada (8/6/09) - In some ways, what Brad Gemberling does these days isn't all that different from playing Ivy League baseball.
There are seven other teams vying for the league title, some in outposts and some in big cities. His team and every other team are filled with guys exiting their teen years and entering their twenties. They were all hand-picked from somewhere else to be to where they are now and play baseball.
Beyond that, what Gemberling does these days is nothing like playing Ivy League baseball. He's a professional now, and what was a game is now a way of life. The three-digit number that used to matter is GPA. Now, it's ERA.
Instead of taking buses to Philadelphia or Hanover for a weekend, Gemberling and his Yakima Bears teammates are sent all over Oregon, Idaho, Washington and into Canada to play out the Northwest League season as property of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Gemberling has been a professional for two months now, after being selected by the D-Backs in the 24th round of the Major League Baseball draft in early June. Two days later, he was flown to Arizona along with the rest of the team's draftees for the club to assess and assign their newest hires to affiliate teams from Montana to Washington and Indiana.
Forgive a native East Coaster for generalizing about the climate of Washington state. Instead of getting the pine trees and cool temperatures buffeted by mountains and ocean breezes, Gemberling found his new home on the arid eastern side of the Cascades in Yakima.
"Yakima is a desert atmosphere," Gemberling said. "It's spread out, there are nice people and it's a laid-back place."
Though it may not be part of the Boston-Washington megalopolis in which Gemberling was raised and went to college, Yakima is far from a one-stoplight town. It counts 73,040 citizens, its Web site says, and over the past five years, it has welcomed at least two brand-new Princeton baseball alums.
Ross Ohlendorf, a pitcher like Gemberling, started his professional career in Yakima after being drafted by Arizona in 2004. Those two are among the very few Princeton alumni who went to central Washington and for whom bigger and better opportunities lie ahead in South Bend, Ind., the next rung on the Diamondbacks' minor-league ladder.
That is the path Gemberling chose, and just as the Princeton alumni network has offered sage advice for many of his fellow 2009 graduates, the 22-year-old righthander has benefitted from the counsel of Ohlendorf, who completed the path from Yakima up through the minor leagues and into a big league uniform.
"I've talked with him about not overanalyzing and worrying about results," Gemberling said, explaining how Ohlendorf's advice has allowed him to feel more comfortable adjusting to baseball as a pro.
Just within the six weeks since Yakima's season started, Gemberling said he has seen his role change from a starter to a middle-reliever. In his first nine appearances, Gemberling had a 5.47 ERA over 26 2/3 innings but just one decision, a rough outing against the San Francisco Giants' farmhands from Keizer, Ore., on July 9.
Gemberling said he and Princeton coach Scott Bradley didn't think he'd be a starter as a pro despite doing so in college, and the former big-league catcher was eventually proven right.
"(He) always thought I would be geared toward relief, so I was surprised," Gemberling said of his spot in the rotation.
In his last two outings on July 30 and Aug. 4, however, Gemberling has given up just one hit over four innings, striking out six. He's received some advice from the Diamondbacks' minor league personnel and has begun working on a changeup to complement his fastball and slider.
Going by those recent results, Gemberling's on-field development seems to be turning a corner. So has the adjustment from living the life of a college student to that of a professional ballplayer.
Gemberling began living in a hotel in Yakima, but the minor league paycheck stretches much further by boarding the old-fashioned way on the farm.
Along with another 22-year-old pitcher, Gemberling has temporarily filled the former rooms of the grown children of a Yakima woman who has opened her home as a host family. Many of his teammates have college experience, but some have come straight from high school or their native countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Beneath the 58-year-old Nat Bailey Stadium that is part of a city park in British Columbia's biggest town, Gemberling appeared from the Yakima clubhouse in his Princeton baseball dri-fit shirt after a 6-5 loss to the Vancouver Canadians, an Oakland Athletics-affiliated team. Another of his teammates wore a Duke fleece while charting pitches behind home plate, a reminder that college was their lives only a few months ago.
While Gemberling enjoys having the commonality with teammates who have balanced the load of classes and excelling in a varsity sport, he said he appreciates having the flexibility that comes with owning what many of his fellow Bears do not.
"I'm happy I have my degree and I don't have classes to finish," Gemberling said, undoubtedly with teammates who had to choose between signing as juniors and waiting another year to turn professional after completing their college eligibility.
Speaking of choices, while Gemberling was fortunate to have the opportunity to continue his baseball career past college, he said he knows it came at a price, at least for now.
Plenty of Princeton baseball players have been drafted this decade, and three have made it to the majors in Ohlendorf, Will Venable and Chris Young. In that trio, Gemberling sees nothing but inspiration.
"They could have gone and gotten the high-paying job, but they chose to play baseball," Gemberling said.
For those three, baseball is now a high-paying job. For Gemberling, such a reality may be in the future. Wherever the baseball dream may end, it begins, of all places, in Yakima.
-- by Andrew Borders