And then there were two. Jim Rushford and Ryan Fleming are the last two profiles to get through before the blog moves on to other tasks. I’ve mentioned previously that I prefer to read and post the story behind the stats whenever one’s available - for the most part, I think I was able to accomplish that. Fortunately, there’s a good story behind Jim’s stats. It’s an older story (from 2001), but the fact that Jim’s still around baseball speaks volumes about the man.
““I completely, 100% thought I was done with baseball,” he said. “I was 24 and figured my window of opportunity had shut and that was it. It’s not that I didn’t want to play any more, but that it didn’t make sense to try any more.”
It was a hard adjustment.
“I tried with all my heart for an entire year to forget I had ever even played baseball,” he said. “I didn’t pick up a ball or a bat, didn’t watch a game on TV.”
He worked odd jobs as a mover (”That was the worst job of all,” he said), a bouncer at a local music club called Croce’s (owned by the wife of the late legend Jim Croce), and, of course, a pizza deliveryman to SDSU students for Milo’s.
The lifelong Cubs fan returned to baseball when Sammy Sosa battled it out with Mark McGwire for the home run title in 1998.
“I couldn’t help but watch that,” he said, “and enough time had passed that I figured I could play for fun in the Sunday morning adult leagues.”
One thing led to another, and he joined a semipro team in San Diego that summer. His plan was to finish getting his teaching credentials and certification and then play semipro ball again the next summer.
One night he and Danielle were watching WGN, and the station did a segment on a new team in a higher-level independent league, the Northern League. It was going to be based in Schaumburg, Ill., less than 20 minutes from his boyhood home.
“When I saw that, something came over me and I just knew I had to try out for the club,” he said. “Before I could even start to suggest it to Danielle, she already had all the tryout info off of the Internet for me.”
It was a perfect fit. The Flyers’ manager was former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle. Rushford showed up unannounced at the open tryouts and made one cut after another until he finally found himself at spring training and then in the team’s Opening Day lineup in right field.
Things were going well until he ran into a wall tracking a fly ball, separating his shoulder and fracturing some ribs. That was pretty much it for his 1999 season, and then he was dealt to the Duluth-Superior club at the beginning of 2000. He was surprised by the trade, and a bit disappointed to be leaving the Chicago area, but he ended up thrilled.
“Chicago is very cold and Duluth makes Chicago look like a tropical resort,” he said, “but it turned out to be a great place, a great team, a great city with great fans.”
Looking at his stats alone, I’m wondering if I haven’t sold him a little short with respect to my roster prediction. Judging by his character and determination, I’m certain that we’ll see him in Ottawa before too long.
