Minor Leagues
Backe was selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 18th round of the 1998 Major League Baseball Draft. During his first three seasons in the minor leagues, he played every infield and outfield position. In fact, the two innings that he pitched for the rookie league Princeton Devil Rays in 1998 were the only time he spent on the mound during that time. In spite of his steady glove and versatility, it was clear that a light-hitting utility player had a very small chance of making the major leagues. In 2001, he changed positions to pitcher and found immediate success. He rose through the ranks of the pitching-depleted Tampa Bay system climbing from Single-A to the major leagues in just a season and a half.
Read more about this topic: Brandon Backe
Famous quotes containing the words minor and/or leagues:
“To minor authors is left the ornamentation of the commonplace: these do not bother about any reinventing of the world; they merely try to squeeze the best they can out of a given order of things, out of traditional patterns of fiction.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Only be admonished by what you already see, not to strike leagues of friendship with cheap persons, where no friendship can be. Our impatience betrays us into rash and foolish alliances which no God attends.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)