My journey in baseball has been interesting to say the least. I have been playing this game since i was 5 years old. My sister (who is two years older than me) was playing tee-ball at the local little league (Deleware Valley Little League), when I told my dad that I want to play and ran out on the field. 21 years later, here I am. I attended Neumann-Goretti Highschool, where we won 3 championships out of the 4 years I was there, and they still continue to be a powerhouse. As a freshman I was 5 feet 3 inches and played most of my games on JV. My sophomore year i grew 8 inches and injuries happened left and right. I broke my foot, hand, and elbow in a matter of 6 months. However, I just used it as fuel to get better and stayed healthy the next two years and was able to be a part of two more championship teams.
After highschool, I recieved one college offer to continue my career and it was at Temple University. I took that offer and was happy that I did. Unfortunately, in December of my sophomore year, we were told that the baseball program was being cut after the season. We had 6 of our better players leave within weeks of the announcement and those who stayed it was pretty much like an open tryout for all other colleges. Throughout the season I reached out to numerous schools and recieved three offers from VCU, St. Josephs, and Radford. After discussing with my family, i chose VCU, where I had two of the best years of my life and was part of an Atlantic 10 Championship, Regional Championship, and Super Regional appearance. However, things did not come so easy for me at VCU. I spent most of my junior year platooning and playing when starters were injured. It was not until the last week of the season that I became an every day player, and that carried into my senior year. After my senior year, I believed I was good enough to play professionally, but I did not recieve a single phone call/email/text from a professional team. So for about a month after draft day, I traveled to Illinois twice for Independent League workouts, went to two open workouts for the Phillies, and still did not receive anything interest.
About 6 months later, a man I met at the gym I was working at started making some calls and got me a spring training offer with the River City Rascals in the Frontier League. I made the team out of spring training and became the everyday left fielder within the first week. In late July, while we were in Ohio, playing the Lake Erie Crushers, my coach came in after batting practice, took the lineup off the wall and said “hey boys, sorry I have to make some changes to the lineup. Jimmy, the Minnesota Twins just purchased your contract”.
To this day, that was the happiest moment of my life. I then went to Cedar Rapids to play for the Kernels (Low A) and that is where I finished the year. The next year, I started with the Fort Myers Miracle (Advanced A), where I was selected to the All-Star Team and selected to be in the Homerun Derby, both of which I was unable to attend, because I was promoted to the Cattanooga Lookouts (Double A) before the All-Star Break, after a brief stint with the Rochester Redwings (Triple A). In 2019, I broke camp with our new Double A team, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. I played most of the year in Pensacola, but also played 18 games with the Rochester Redwings. I am currently still with the Minnesota Twins, waiting for my chance to get back on the field. I am grateful for all of the opportunities I have gotten, and could not have done it without the help of my family, friends, coaches, teammates and anyone else I met along the way. The journey is far from over. Stay hungry.
