College football

A bit short of the big leagues

Urban Meyer's minor-league stint with the Braves took him nowhere near Atlanta or the major-league spotlight.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published August 14, 2005

GAINESVILLE - Urban Meyer came to Florida in 1982 in search of sunshine, a great baseball career and good-looking women. Twenty-three years later, only the women stand out in his memory.

Meyer was a 17-year-old shortstop, fresh out of high school, when he became a 13th-round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves.

His assignment was at Bradenton in the Gulf Coast League.

"Pirate City," Meyer said. "I didn't think too much of that place. It was hot. The thing I remember about minor-league baseball is the way they treat you. In the major leagues, you're a star. My high school actually believed that I was going to go play on the Superstation with Bob Horner, Dale Murphy and all that."

Not exactly.

Meyer struggled, hitting under .200, adding to his misery and ending any big-league dreams he may have had.

"I thought I was really a big player and found out I was just an average guy," Meyer said. "It was stiff competition, as you can imagine."

The conditions didn't resemble any you'd think of when you think of the big leagues.

"Here's what they did," he said, "you had a doubleheader and they gave you these awful uniforms, they just soaked the heat in - polyester. And then you went out there and played and then you came in and they gave you a bowl of soup and a fruit punch and maybe a sandwich sometimes, sometimes not. Then you went back out and played another game. If they say that's not true, they're lying. ... So much for big time."

And those road trips?

"They got you on a bus with no air conditioning," Meyer said. "And it broke down one time. True story, we had to get off the bus and push the bus back. A bunch of big shots, right?

"So much for Superstation and playing with Dale Murphy."

[Last modified August 14, 2005, 00:55:04]