Columnist Dean Juipe: Farmhands find clock is ticking

Dean Juipe

Monday, May 15, 2000 | 10:04 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It may not be every kid's dream yet the notion of leaving home as a young adult to play professional baseball has a romantic quality to it.

The scenario is easy to trace: you get a contract offer, you sign, you pack your bags, you go.

With each major league team supporting six or seven minor league teams that need stocking with some two dozen players apiece, there are countless opportunities for a young man who has exhibited potential or has demonstrated talent in the sport. At any one time, there are some 4,300 minor league players.

Las Vegas continues to provide its share of professional ballplayers and, given the area's strong grass-roots baseball programs, that trend will likely continue well into the foreseeable future.

Yet a note of caution should be stressed to any player fortunate enough to attract the pros' interest. Organized baseball turns players over at an extremely high rate of frequency, and, quite simply, you must produce quickly or you'll find yourself with a return ticket home.

Need evidence? Simply look at the list of local players in the minor leagues that runs weekly in the Sunday paper.

Right now that list -- which includes the players' individual statistics -- is shorter than it has been in some time. While additional names are apt to be added to it as players come out of high school or college and sign to play with short-season minor league teams, the local count is down.

Last year there were 61 players in the minor leagues who either played high school baseball in the Las Vegas area or at UNLV.

Currently there are only 33 such players; three others are injured; only one of the previous year's 61 players -- Pittsburgh's Chad Hermansen -- dropped from the list as the result of reaching the major leagues.

The point is, it's a risky profession. That dream of gliding through the minor leagues toward a career in the majors is, more often than not, short-circuited at some point.

Ask the 24 young men with ties to this area who were playing in the minors last season but who now find themselves out of organized baseball. It's fun to play ball but it's a fragile existence.

Eventually even those who have been touted as especially gifted are released if they disappoint. Having written a story three years ago about former Las Vegas High outfielder Jewell Williams, who was then a Cleveland farm hand, let's use him as an example.

At the time, Williams' agent likened him to Albert Belle, a fearsome slugger who routinely hits 35 or more home runs a season, and the Indians' director of minor league operations, Mark Shapiro, referred to Williams as having "the potential to be an outstanding player. He has the tools. Now we have to unlock that potential."

Well, Williams couldn't get past the Class-A level and last season hit only .273 with eight homers and 42 RBIs for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the New York-Penn League. Four years after signing this would-be superstar, the Indians cut him adrift and Williams is hoping to play for an independent team yet this summer.

At the age of 24 the "real" world is beckoning. Baseball lost its patience.