Affeldt keeps pitching kids to always dream big

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

One common thread weaves its way through Jeremy Affeldt.

Always have a dream, no matter how big it might be. And Affeldt knows all about dreams, whether it's having them, or living them.

Affeldt recently took time to speak to high school students across the area – and specifically in Medical Lake where he did a lot of his growing up – encouraging them to always dream big.

Affeldt's not just someone blowing smoke. He throws heat as a big league pitcher.

The 28-year-old Affeldt first beat the already longest of odds when he realized a dream he had when he was 11 years old to some- day play major league baseball.

Then he sweetened that dream by pitching in the just-completed World Series as a member of the Colorado Rockies.

His story about having teammates play a rookie prank on him when he visited Seattle for the first time as a member of the Kansas City Royals had the students at Medical Lake rolling with laughter.

Suffice to say, Affeldt's vivid reenactment of dumping an industrial-size container of baby powder down his pants prior to a game against the Mariners, could have doubled as a great stand-up comedy routine.

Neatly entwined, however, was a more serious message for his young audience. “I grew up here in Medical Lake,” Affeldt said. “I went to grade school here, walked the same streets. I understand the difficulties (you have).”

Affeldt's dad David was in the United States Air Force and among his numerous tours of duty was a stop at Fairchild. Between grade school and high school Affeldt spent time in Guam before returning here to graduate from Northwest Christian in 1997.

Sought after by baseball scouts, Affeldt also pondered college. It was a trip to visit a school in Texas that galvanized his resolve to never let anyone tell him he couldn't chase his dreams.

The coach said to Affeldt, “You're good enough to play for me but not professionally.” At 17 Affeldt said he had to be respectful. “I looked at him and told him, thanks for your time, I'll get back to you.”

Affeldt never did, instead telling his mom Shar on the flight home, “He'd never play for a man who says he didn't believe in me.”

“From that day I've surrounded myself with people who know my dreams and want to achieve,” Affeldt told the students that packed the school's theater for the first of two sessions of a presentation by Generation Alive.

Instead of college, the lanky left-handed pitcher was drafted by the Royals. Affeldt played his first season in minor league baseball at 18 and was in the majors at just 22, realizing a dream he once shared with his dad.

“I remember when I was 11 years old, I sat in the Oakland Coliseum and watched Mark McGuire hit three home runs that day,” Affeldt said.

“I told my dad I'm going to be here one day. I'm going to pitch here. You know he tapped me on the head like every good dad does,” hearing his young son, but likely not believing his dream could ever come true. “That's where I actually started to dream,” Affeldt said.

“I remember when I walked in the Oakland Coliseum and when I played there for the first time,” Affeldt said. He called his father to remind him where he was standing.

While David Affeldt knew very well where his son was calling from, he had perhaps forgotten the significance, but only for a moment.

“I said, but dad, I was 11 years old and I'm looking at the exact spot where I told you I was going to pitch here one day,” Affeldt said. “He stopped and didn't say much to me and choked up a bit and said ‘that's awesome son.'”

The odds, Affeldt said, are that just 1-percent of baseball players sign a pro contract. Out of that, only about 10-percent of players in the minors make it to the big leagues. And to get to the World Series?

“You gotta' be on the right team and the right time,” he said.

The right team and the right time turned out to be Colorado, the team that acquired Affeldt at the 2006 trade deadline in July.

He was plucked from a team that gave him an opportunity to pitch in the big leagues, something he might never have had the opportunity to do elsewhere.

“They had to rush me,” Affeldt said. “But now I'm happy they did.”

Kansas City had one of the lowest payrolls in baseball – generally the recipe for disaster in today's world of high-priced free agency in sports – and routinely languished in last place.

Ironically, Affeldt said, “We had the same payroll in Kansas City as we did in Colorado. In fact it might have been a little lower this year.”

What distanced Colorado's success and another basement finish for the Royals was a slight edge in experience, Affeldt explained.

And that was what sent the Rockies on a tear through the National League to reach the World Series.

This year we weren't expected to compete,” Affeldt said.

“The (Los Angeles) Dodgers spent a lot of money and Arizona had a good, young team. But you win 21 of 22 at the stretch and you're going to go to the playoffs,” he said. “That's the greatest run in baseball history,” Affeldt reminded.

Where K.C. had a lot of 21-and 22-year-olds in the line-up, Colorado was young too, but a different type of young.

“We had a lot of young guys at the big league level in the sense of big league years, but they were 26 (years old),” Affeldt said.

In Kansas City it was, “how are we going to lose today?” Affeldt said, but the Colorado mindset was, “I feel bad for that team (we're playing) because we are not losing today.”

“It was unbelieveable,” Affledt said.

“I watched a 22 year-old kid, Troy Tulowitzki transform a city – the chants they were doing for him, how they fell in love. I never saw anybody do that.”

And then you go to the World Series. “We put on our hats for a workout,” Affeldt said.

“It (the cap) had the World Series on the side and we just looked at each other and laughed.”

So what helped the Rockies turn the corner? “We lost [a] road trip and we just got angry,” Affeldt said.

Affeldt remembers Colorado first baseman Todd Helton doing a team meeting and saying this is the best team he'd ever been a part of. “And we actually got that mindset of grasping that we were good,” Affeldt said.

Everybody was against the Rockies. They had no shot, said the so-called experts crowed.

“We didn't listen to them,” Affeldt said as the Rockies kept winning and winning. Then they all said the Red Sox are going to win. “Great risk,” Affeldt said incredulously!

“I played with guys who had 17 years in the big leagues and never went to a world series, ever,” Affeldt said. Playing in the World Series is a dream come true that many players never, ever obviously realize. But Affeldt did.

So when it comes to goals and dreams, Affeldt really does know what it's all about.

“I've got a passion for kids to dream big,” Affeldt said.

“I want them to accomplish dreams. I know how fun it is to be doing what I dreamed about doing.”

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected]