The Captain: Jason Barnes

[Jamee999]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 12 1988

CARDINALS SIGN FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICK
Jason Barnes snapped up before deadline

The Cardinals announced today that they had signed their first round selection in the amateur draft, high school prospect Jason Barnes out of Broad Ripple High School in Indianapolis. Barnes, 18, is highly touted as a gap hitter, and lead all Indiana high school players in doubles and triples. He doesn't have blazing speed, but is quick out of the box, and is a very smart base runner, leading his team in stolen bases. He was selected as the best high school third baseman in the country by USA Today.

Barnes played three sports at Broad Ripple, starring as a point guard and an inside linebacker for the Rockets. He was believed to have verbally committed to Butler University to play both basketball and baseball, but decided to go pro on the diamond after being offered a bonus believed to be around a quarter of a million dollars. Barnes was well known to Indianapolis High School sports fans, coaches and players for being a vocal leader in all three sports that he played, and was the first player in Broad Ripple's history to be nominated as a team in captain in three sports. He is known at Broad Ripple simply as "The Captain". Jason is expected to report to the Kansas Cardinals of the Mid West League.

The Cardinals had three picks in the supplemental first round of the draft, where picks are awarded as compensation for lost free agents. The Cardinals selected Kenny Lofton, an outfielder out of the University of Arizona, who also started on the Wildcat basketball team with the 26th overall pick, shortstop Pat Listach out of Arizona State with the 28th pick and outfielder Billy Masse out of Davidson College with the 37th pick. All four players signed with the Cardinals before the deadline.

The top pick in the draft, hard throwing Dominican teenager Pedro Martinez signed with the Phoenix Firebirds, but the next man taken, Charles Nagy, failed to come to an agreement with the Brewers and will return to the Huskies of UConn.

Other notable draft picks:

#3 C Mike Piazza - Toronto Grizzlies
#4 SP Andy Benes - Miami Marlins
#5 LF Albert Belle - Denver Dragons (signs with Denver after returning to college after being selected by Denver with the fourth pick last year)
#8 SP Hideki Irabu - Brooklyn Dodgers (one of the highest selections for a Japanese player in recent years)
#16 C Ivan Rodriguez - San Francisco Giants (is reported to have the best throwing arm ever seen in a high schooler by many scouts)
#39 LF Deion Sanders - Los Angeles Braves (is expected to also play professional football)

[Jamee999]

Comfort Inn
2920 South 13th Street
Omaha, NE

Mrs. Nina Barnes
6130 N Park Avenue
Indianapolis, IN

April 15 1988

Dear Mom,

You wanted a letter from your professional son, and here it is! I started last night, on Opening Day in Omaha. While it's clearly not like being the away team in Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park, it was certainly the loudest crowd I had ever played baseball in front of (we'll leave Hoosier Hysteria to the side). I was selected as the starting third baseman, and was told I was hitting in the five hole by Coach Burda.

The first pitch was at 7:05, and I was very excited all afternoon, I was totally buzzing - you know how I get - I was jumping up and down, totally at a loss as to what to do. I never realised how I used to get rid of all my nervous energy by psyching up the guys before high school games, but I wasn't able to do that. The leader of the team here really is Jeff Schaefer, the shortstop. He's been playing in the minors since 1981, and really knows his way around and what to do. I guess it's easier to be relaxed on your eighth opening day than your first. This is the fifth season in a row he's started on the Kansas roster. He's been up to AA (and back down to rookie ball) in that time, but has played nearly five hundred games at A ball. He seems like a good guy, but I don't want that to be me in five years. Jeff calmed me down, and tried to get me to focus on the game, and my fundamentals.

As the home team we batted first, and Jeff drew a walk to lead-off the game. I guess that's what veterans do. Fundamentals. The second hitter struck out, the third hitter, Okubo, walked, and the fourth hitter popped out, so I came to the plate, two on, two out.

I tried to remember what the coaches had told me about the pitcher, Charlie Hicks. Rightie. High 80s fastball. Also throws a change-up and splitter. That was OK, I'd hit against guys who threw harder than that, and nothing I'd seen looked particularly dangerous. I didn't get any sort of sign for a hit and run, so I decided to take the first pitch, just to get a feel for it, and because he had already walked two guys. It was a bit inside, out of the zone, and I watched it come past. 1-0. The next pitch was much the same, and the pinstripes of my uniform flapped as I moved my body away. 2-0.

I missed the next pitch, a strike down the middle, and was immediately annoyed at myself. I just missed the timing, I was too late on it, but as a pitch it was right in my wheelhouse. I asked for time, and stepped out of the box. I looked up into the air, smacked myself on the top of the helmet (sorry. I know you don't like it when I do that, but it's a force of habit) and stepped back in. Ball three, just out and away. I was happier with that, it was good plate discipline, as I could have got excited and tried to hit it the other way, but I recognised it as being a bit outside, and let it go.

The fifth pitch was a fastball, toward the edge of the plate, waist-high. I swung, and got reasonable wood on it, but it didn't go very far, as I grounded out to the second baseman. I was disappointed, especially as that meant that the inning was over, and I hadn't been able to get it done.

I saw my first piece of action in the field, rushing in to field a sacrifice bunt, and throw out the batter. I also had a two-out ball driven along the ground into the hole, but I wasn't quite able to get to it, and Jeff couldn't pick it up behind me, and a run scored, to make it 2-0 to the Jacks.

I came up in the fourth as the lead-off hitter to try to change that. Hicks had walked three by this point, but also struck out three Cardinals, and had only allowed one hit. With the count at 1-2, he gave me a fastball in almost the same place as one before, and I waited just a millisecond more, and was able to line drive it between the first and second basemen for a base hit! I hustled to first to make sure I couldn't be thrown out, and then pumped my fist. My first pro hit! I tried to act like I'd been there before, spoke briefly to the first base coach, and stood on first. The next batter popped out, but the guy behind him was able to get a walk, so I jogged down to second. Edgar Caceres, the second baseman muttered "Nice hit, kid" to me, but I was too zoned in to notice. I took my lead off second.

After taking a strike on the corner, the right fielder Sammy Smith drove a ball deep to right, and I put everything into it as I sprinted to 3rd. I looked up as I got to third, and saw the umpire waving his hand above his head, I heard the crowd sigh, and pulled up to a jog as Sammy trotted round the bases. Sammy is a big guy, and can hit a ball really far, the PA guy thought it had gone 410 feet!

I struck up the next time up, on a third called strike. I wasn't convinced that it had been a strike, but I decided that it wasn't in my interest to argue it, and turned back to the dugout. I came up for the fourth time in the top of the seventh, leading 6-4. There was a new pitcher, Mike James. James was a fireballer, topping out at 98mph. I'd never faced anyone so fast in a game that mattered, although I think that a guy in an All-Star game I played in last year was up there. Hiromoto Okubo was on first, but he is honestly one of the slowest ball players I've ever seen, so I didn't have to think about anything to do with stealing, and just focussed on trying to do something against James, maybe a second hit. I worked the count to 3-0, but he brought it back with 2 strikes on the corners. I fouled off the next two pitches, but was lucky to get anything at all on them, if I'm truthful. He (or his catcher) must have noticed that though, as he threw a changeup with the next pitch, and I swung about twenty minutes before the ball got to the plate. I walked back to the dugout, for the second time. It turns out that professional baseball is harder than playing against high school kids. Who'd have thought.

I fielded another couple of groundballs in the seventh but Edgar Caceres hit a two-run homer for the Jacks in the bottom of the ninth, to send the game to extra innings. I was due to leadoff the top of the tenth, but I was pulled for a pinch hitter, Hector Villanueva, our Puerto Rican catcher. I was disappointed, but I accepted it. Being pinch-hit for in key situations isn't something I'm used to, and I hope it's never something that I become used to - I know I'll always want to be there when the game's on the line. Hector is a good player though, and much more experienced than I am, so I guess I can understand where the coach was coming from. Hector hit the ball deep into left, but he was robbed of the chance of an extra-base hit by a nice diving play by the left fielder.

We lost the game in the end, in an exciting finish - we scored twice in the top of the eleventh, but then Omaha scored three on a sequence of walks (2), errors (2), a wild pitch, a sac fly and a walk-off single.

It was a disappointing end, and a disappointing game as a team, you don't do work in spring to commit four errors on opening day. Thankfully none of them were mine, and I made the right play on all six balls I had to field. Maybe it is all about fundamentals after all - if we make the plays we are supposed to make, we get the W last night, and we don't have to do extra grounders in practice today.

I'm sorry for how long this letter got, but I don't have to be at the ballpark until 4.30, and I don't really know what to do in Omaha on a Tuesday morning. I'm almost completely unpacked in Topeka, and the club say that I will probably get a room-mate from the team soon, they just don't know who it will be yet. I'm glad that they take care of it, I was nervous about having to find a place to live in a new town, especially as I wasn't sure if I was going to be starting the season here or at extended spring training in Florida.

Thank you for letting me get my thoughts out of my head, and on to paper. I'm really excited about playing pro ball, but two strikeouts in my first game might not be the best start!

Send my love to Becky, and tell her I miss her,

Love,

Jason.

(1 professional baseball hit)

[Jamee999]

Topeka Capital-News, April 27 1988

BARNES TO MOVE DOWN TO ROOKIE LEAGUE

Jason Barnes, the Cardinals' first round selection in last year's draft has been demoted to Gainesville of the Florida Rookie League, after playing just 10 games with the Kansas Cardinals. Hitting just .189 (7 for 37) with one double, one RBI, no walks and ten strikeouts over the period, Kansas' veteran hitting coach Hank Schmulbach recommended that Barnes move to the lower level of play.

Barnes left spring training as the only member of the Cardinals team still in their teenage years, and so will benefit from the challenge of players his own age; Barnes turns 19 next month. It would be no surprise to see Jason back in the Midwest League before the year is out, it is just a matter of gaining experience at a level he is able to compete at for Jason, who turned down the chance to play both basketball and baseball for his hometown Butler Bulldogs in order to play pro baseball.

[Left-handed Badger]

Well, I do have to admit I find it a little funny to see Mike PIazza going 3rd. Given we know how late he actually went.

[Jamee999]

June 23 1988

2101 West New Haven Avenue
Melbourne, FL

Miss Rebecca Barnes
6130 N Park Avenue
Indianapolis, IN

Hey sis,

Writing to you after a day game in Melbourne, we beat the Reds 7-4 on the campus of Florida Tech, thanks to four errors by the home team. Rookie baseball indeed. I didn't do so well myself (0 for 5). I scored though, and had 2 RBIs, as I benefited from one of the errors. I'm still struggling a bit, if I'm honest. I'm hitting .227 through 50 games in Florida. I have six homers, and 32 RBIs, and they both lead my team, but I'm really not hitting like I should be.

I think it's in part down to the heat. Playing in Florida in the middle of summer is hard, especially for Indy kids like us. I'm just glad that the team is based in Gainesville and not Miami (at least when it comes to baseball. The Miami beaches are another matter). The games down south take so much out of me, but you just have to get back on the horse and play the next day. I guess this is why they have Rookie league down here, to challenge us physically as well as with harder levels of competition. You know there used to be a Rookie League in Puerto Rico? They scrapped it twenty or so years ago and moved all the teams to Florida, but that would have been even harder. I'll just have to get used to playing baseball every day in the heat. After all, when I get up to play in St. Louis, I'll have to play games in Miami, Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles - so I better get used to the heat!

I'm still not really used to Florida - the beaches are really nice, (really really nice.) and the people are friendly, but it still seems like a completely different place to Indy. I'm trying to become accustomed to it, but, on some level, I don't want to - I want to get back to Kansas as quickly as possible.

I know it might sound like I'm complaining, and I suppose I am, to some degree, but I really shouldn't - today I have been paid to play a game, I was done by 4pm, and I spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. It makes a bit of heat and being a bit tired seem insignificant really, doesn't it.

Please write back as soon as you can, or call me when I am back in Gainesville (we have a home series against Clearwater Saturday-Sunday-Monday). I miss you and Mom back in Indy loads, and I really hope that you can come down to visit during vacation.

Take care Becky,

All my love,

Jason

PS. It was 73 degrees on Tuesday, and some of the ball boys were complaining about it being cold! I'm certainly not in Kansas any more.

[Jamee999]

Gainesville Sun, June 29 1988

...Gainesville's professional baseball team, the Gainesville Pro Gators, won last night, defeating the Fort Myers Cubbies by 9 runs to 6. The Cardinals' first round draft pick in '87, infielder Jason Barnes was the star. Jason had a single with two outs in the first inning, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a single. In the seventh inning, Barnes hit a two-out two-RBI go-ahead triple, and scored for a second time. He picked up his third RBI with a sacrifice fly in the next inning, to round off the best display of his young professional career.

(rest of the article lost)

[Jamee999]

Wednesday July 27 1988

Interview on WRUF-850 Gator Rock AM

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Rob Davis: Hello, and welcome back to WRUF Gator Rock, I am Rob Davis, and you were just listening to Dirty Diana by the King of Pop. We'll have the news in ten to fifteen minutes, but first we have an interview with one of Gainesville's sports stars. They may not be the Orange and Blue, but Jason Barnes' Gainesville Pro Gators haven't gone unnoticed in this town - they are currently tied for 2nd in the Florida Rookie League - not a bad effort out of 24 teams - and Jason, just 19 years of age, and in his first professional season, leads the league in RBIs. Jason, how are you today?

Jason Barnes: I'm good thank you Rob, good to be on the show, good to have a day off - they sure feel good after only having two others in July!

RD: You guys have been on a very nice run recently.

JB: Yes we have - we've won nine of our last ten games, we've swept Daytona and Sarasota in the past couple of weeks, and we are just four games behind the Yankees for first place. It's all good in Gatorville.

RD: And how have you been going?

JB: I've been playing well recently - being a team's first round pick is pressure, and I wasn't ready for single-A baseball in Kansas, and I was able to keep up here at first, but now the game is really slowing down for me, I'm getting the hits I should be getting, and I'm getting way more of the three hit games than I was back in May.

RD: And how are you liking Florida?

JB: It's really nice - I mean - it's about as different from Indy as you can get-

RD: Indianapolis, where you grew up.

JB: Yes sir, it's very different from Indy, especially in terms of the climate, and that's something I struggled to deal with at first - I played three sports in high school, but I don't think I've ever been as hot as I am playing 'ball down here. It's tough for a Mid-West kid to get used to, but I think I'm managing.

RD: It's something that we hear a lot - kids who play for UF talk about that during their first semester, especially when you have baseball guys who have been recruited from the North-east.

JB: The guys from the South, or California, and especially the Latin players, don't really get what I'm fussing about. I guess I'll get used to it though. St. Louis isn't too chilly during the summer, after all!

RD: Does the big club feel like it's a long way away?

JB: It can. It can - especially after those 0-5 days, and games where we get shut out - but that happens - I had 0-5 days in high school, or basketball games where I felt like I couldn't make a bucket - but it's how you come back from games like that which really matters - I think so, anyway.

RD: As a fan of sports at every level, I completely agree. I went to a game of yours a couple of weeks back, a few rows behind the home dugout, and I could hear you chirping away - the main voice from your team. Is that something you try to do?

JB: It's something I like to do, but it's something that comes naturally to me in sports - I'm naturally the guy who wants to be there at the front, wants to boost the guys he's playing with - and that extends to what being a leader and being a captain is about really - I always want to be there for the last at-bat, when the game is on the line - and if I can't be up - I want to be helping and encouraging the guy who is at the plate. Coach Magrini likes me being that vocal leader type, so I just do what comes naturally to me.

RD: That's great to hear, and sounds like a good sign for the Gainesville Pro Gators the rest of the year, and for the St. Louis Cardinals organisation in years to come. Remind when we can see the Gators next?

JB: We play three games in Orlando next up, but we're back in Gainesville on Sunday night - July 31st, for a series against the Port Saint Lucie Brewers, who are tied for fifth in the league. First pitch is at just after 7pm, at Perry Baseball Field, which is right next to the Swamp. I hope to see your listeners there!

RD: Thank you Jason, it's been great chatting with you. Next up on Gator Rock, the latest single by Rick Astley, and then the news, sport and weather. This is WRUF-850 Gator Rock!

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Jason is hitting .286 in July - well up from his .255 marks of May and June. His more consistent hitting shows up in his wOBA - a lack of power pushed him down from .290 in May to .276 in June, but he's up to .346 in July. Jason's 51 RBIs lead the league - he has two more than Angel Salazar in the Brooklyn system.

[Jamee999]

Gainesville Sun, Tuesday August 16 1988

...Jason Barnes, the first round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals last year, was the outstanding player in last night's Florida Rookie League action. Barnes went four for five with two home runs as his Gainesville Pro Gators defeated the Jacksonville Padres by nine runs to three. Barnes, batting third, singled in the first and the fourth (scoring on the latter occasion on a sacrifice fly) before homering in the fifth. He struck out in the sixth, but then hit a second solo home run in the eighth. Barnes also stole a base in the game, which put the Gators two games clear at the top of the FRL. Barnes now has 13 homers and 64 RBIs on the year.

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With just 12 games left in the season, Jason looks like he could win a title in his first pro season (the FRL doesn't have playoffs).

[Jamee999]

Monday August 22 1988

Florida Rookie League
26 SE 2nd Avenue
Miami, FL

3712 SW 4th Place
Gainesville, FL

Mr. Barnes,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as this week's Gatorade Florida Rookie League Player of the Week. Congratulations, and good luck with the rest of the 1988 season.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Ken Johnson,
Commissioner,
Florida Rookie League

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Jason batted .478 (11-23) over the week, with 4 homers (coming two at a time), 5 RBIs and 9 runs scored. He also stole 2 bases and earned five free passes.