Getting Their Turns at Bat

Two From Howard Make the Most of Chance in Minors to Play Pro Ball

Jason Maxey and Joe Michalski grew up less than eight miles from each other in Howard County, playing baseball for much of their childhood then blossoming into standout catchers at rival high schools. Yet it wasn't until they stepped onto the freshly trimmed grass at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Md., a couple of weeks ago that their lives converged.

Maxey, a Columbia native, graduated from Hammond High School in 2001, and Michalski, who is from Ellicott City, finished at Mount Hebron the same year. Both won baseball scholarships, with Maxey choosing the University of Maryland and later Towson University and Michalski selecting George Washington University. As college underclassmen, both saw their careers derailed by serious injuries. Maxey had a broken bone removed from his right hand and surgery on his right rotator cuff; Michalski had six pins inserted in a damaged knee to hold it together.

Both rebounded for productive senior seasons, only to watch 1,501 other players get selected in last month's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft and to wonder whether they had swung a bat for the final time.

And now they have something else in common: a chance to play baseball professionally. Each was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Baltimore Orioles less than 48 hours after the draft concluded.

"All I ever wanted was a chance to see if I could make it in this game," Maxey said. "That's all any player wants. I feel so fortunate to get that opportunity. I mean, we play baseball for a living. I got up at noon and then came to the ballpark to go to work. Does it get any better than that? Whatever happens, at least I know that I got my chance."

For both, that opportunity begins with the Aberdeen IronBirds, a short-season Class A affiliate of the Orioles that competes in the New York-Penn League. Maxey and Michalski are still four classifications away from playing at Camden Yards, the Orioles' ballpark -- and statistics say their chances of making it to the major leagues are at best remote. Typically, only one or two players from each of the league's 14 teams wind up there per season, said New York-Penn League historian Charlie Wride. But those odds don't discourage Maxey or Michalski.

"After I didn't get drafted, I thought my career might be over," Michalski said. "But now, the way I look at it, I have just as good a shot to get there as the players here who were drafted. I just have to play better than they do."

Waiting for the Call

On June 8, at the Towson townhouse he shares with three friends, Maxey was watching the second day of the 50-round draft unfold on the Internet. Michalski was doing the same thing at a friend's house in the District. Names of players flashed on the screen alphabetically until the last player was taken.

Maxey was frustrated. At Towson, where he transferred after a series of injuries sent him plummeting down the depth chart at Maryland, he had just produced the finest season of his career. He hit .346 with 18 doubles and 23 home runs, which ranked third nationally among Division I players.

"One of the first things Jason said to me that night [after the draft] was, 'What did I need to do, hit 50 home runs?' " recalled Bob Maxey, Jason's dad. "I felt after the season he had, he was going to get drafted. I just wanted to know why he wasn't. What more did he need to do? I looked at some of the players who were selected, and they didn't put up the same numbers as Jason."

It wasn't any easier for the Michalski family. Kathy, Joe's mom, cried. After all, she thought, her son had overcome what one doctor diagnosed as a career-ending knee injury to hit .255 with 10 home runs in his junior year and have 32 RBI as a senior.

"At dinner that night I looked at Joe and said: 'You know what? You're too good of a player to stop playing, so you do whatever you have to do to try and find a team, like in the Independent Leagues,' " Kathy Michalski said. "It was a very emotional night. We all cried our eyes out. But we weren't ready to give up. Joe had his whole life to find another job. We still felt like he could play."