Volleyball Cover Plate

Faded Prospect Keeps Hope Alive To Be A 30-Something MLB Rookie

Wearing a red Philadelphia Phillies jersey and cap, Tagg Bozied trots out to first base to take his position for the start of a spring training game during one of the last days of winter. As the starting pitcher warms up by firing fastballs into the catcher's mitt, Bozied tosses ground balls to the infielders, each one flicking the ball back to him with a laze to match the hot Florida sun. Once the game starts, those lazy throws turn professional, as the infielders field balls off the bats of hitters in Detroit Tigers uniforms and zip the ball toward Bozied.

A week earlier, Bozied was with the major leaguers. But now he is playing with the minor leaguers at the Phillies' spring training complex in Clearwater, Fla., trying to prove he deserves a spot on the Phillies roster. It's a scenario he is all too familiar with.

In the 12 years since he led all of college baseball in home runs and appeared on the cover of Baseball America, Bozied has had brushes with glory. In 1999, he beat out a big, left-handed batter from Missouri State University named Ryan Howard as the starting first baseman for the collegiate national team that summer. Seven years ago he was a top prospect in the San Diego Padres minor league system, and he appeared to be on the verge of being called up to the major leagues when he hit a game-winning grand slam in a minor league game. But while Howard is now the starting first baseman for the Phillies, making $25 million a year, Bozied is a decade into his professional career, and still playing on the backfields in front of a smattering of mothers and girlfriends of his 20-something-year-old teammates.

Along the way there was a knee injury that set him back more than a year. Then the Padres traded for Adrian Gonzalez, a younger and more talented first baseman who made Bozied and his suspect knee expendable. So the Padres released him. That was followed by five years of drifting between six minor league teams, two stints playing in the Dominican Republic and a stop in Taiwan before signing a minor league contract with the Phillies in 2010. All the while, he has never played in a major league game.

"Making the major leagues is like entering the Earth's atmosphere," Bozied says. "If you don't hit it at the exact right angle, you're going to bounce off and go back out to space."

Bozied hit at the wrong angle, but hasn't floated back out to space. At least not yet.

***

The story of Bozied's purgatory is telling. In the real world, Bozied would appear to be a young man with his whole life ahead of him. But baseball operates on a more condensed time scale, where playing at 40 is akin to living to 100. At 31, Bozied is nearing the seventh inning stretch of his career. But he continues playing, doing what he loves doing most, even if it is in the minor leagues -- and with no guarantee that he will ever reach that next level. "If I played another sport, I couldn't do it," Bozied says. "If I was going through the same emotion or the same situation in another sport, I couldn't do it. Baseball just keeps coming at you.

Stackhouse VTFC3S 3″ Stainless Steel Floor Plate & Sleeve

Stackhouse VTFC3S 3" Stainless Steel Floor Plate & Sleeve Model: VTFC3S

Manufacturer: Stackhouse

Product Features

VTFC3S - 3" Stainless Steel Floor Plate & Sleeve

Made of stainless steel with a brushed finish, this floor plate is the perfect compliment to any volleyball system. Cover has a 5" opening for the pole and a lid that simply unlocks with a coin and lifts out of the way. Attached with a safety cable that keeps lid from being lost or misplaced. Lid attached to 3" ID x 9" deep steel sleeve for easy installation.

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