Working back through the bushes

Landon Hessler's baseball career has taken him on quite a trip; these days he's pitching 'independently' in Texas.

By BRANT JAMES

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 19, 2000

The seating arrangements in the bullpen were less than comfortable. Borderline murderous. But after 14 hours and a half-million contortions in his seat aboard the San Angelo Colts team bus, Landon Hessler was content with a hard chair.

He'd bide his time. He's used to that.

Seven years after his pitching career seemed poised for lift-off at Hernando High, Hessler is probably farther far from the big leagues than he was then. Playing in the Texas-Louisiana League can give that impression.

San Angelo, deep, deep in the heart of Texas, and a rough mid-point between Dallas and Chihuahua, Mexico, never will be confused with Elysian Fields. Playing in the independent "bush" leagues certainly is no guarantee of making it to the majors. The players are paid, but the teams are not affiliated with big league clubs. Players in shoestring circuits such as the T-L and Frontier League hope to impress big-league scouts -- or just to get the chance -- to earn a minor-league contract with an "affiliated" minor league club.

The wait can be arduous, and often is fruitless. Most players milk their playing dreams dry in these textile towns and crossroads.

For now, Hessler is content to wait his turn, but he knows the end is coming.

"I'm 25, I don't know how many years I have left," said Hessler, a right-handed pitcher who is 7-4, with a 3.27 ERA for the Colts. "You get to that age -- 21, 22 -- and you start thinking about things, what you're going to do with you life. Like everyone else I want to play in affiliated ball, but you never know."

Hessler seemingly had his chances to play in affiliated ball, but even then he was asked to wait. He was selected by Houston in the 23rd round of the 1993 amateur draft, but the Astros had wanted to treat him as a "draft-and-follow" rather than sign him immediately.

When a club drafts a player, it retains his rights until the day before the next amateur draft. So by employing the draft-and-follow, it can evaluate him without risk of losing him for a year before deciding to sign him or letting his rights expire. It also retains his rights without pay.

"They didn't want to sign me," Hessler said.

Hessler's high school resume had been impressive. As a junior he was one of five Floridians, with future big-leaguers Alex Rodriguez and Johnny Damon, to be named to the national High School All-America team. He had been a second-team All-America in 1993, but his physical numbers -- barely 6 feet, 175 pounds -- seemed to trump his pitching statistics. He opted to attend Pasco-Hernando Community College with fellow 1993 Hernando alum Brent Stentz. Hessler was named an all-conference pitcher in 1994 and 1995, and was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 43rd round in '94, but elected to stay with Pasco-Hernando. Stentz was selected in the 33rd round by Detroit and signed. He's now playing for Triple-A Salt Lake in the Minnesota Twins organization.

Again disappointed with where he was selected, Hessler accepted a scholarship to Tennessee, where he pitched and played outfield in 1996.

Hessler does not like to discuss why he left Knoxville. He says only he "lost heart for some reason."

Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico said Hessler lost his heart, but in another way.

"I know when he came up here he had met an exchange student from Germany," he said. "After she left he packed it in and went over to see her for a year because he got kind of homesick for her."

Delmonico said an arm injury was a mitigating factor.

"He had tendinitis when he got here," Delmonico said. "I could tell that because he didn't have that real good slider. I was sorry to see him go. He really could have helped us if he was healthy."

Friends and acquaintances acknowledge it's tough to learn all the answers with the private Hessler.

"Even if you know him you don't really know him," said Mike Walker, a Hernando alum and former major leaguer. "That's just him. If you walk by him, he'll say, 'Hello,' but it's not like him to say much."

Hessler took two seasons off after leaving Tennessee -- which helped alleviate the tendinitis in his right elbow -- and started barnstorming last year when he went 7-5 with a 3.72 ERA in 41 appearances for the Frontier League's Johnstown Johnnies.

"I like it I have another chance to play some ball," he said. "It's cool because everybody wants to be here. If you didn't, you wouldn't do this.

"Everybody knows the chances of making a career out of this league are slim."

Hessler had signed to play for the Johnnies again this season, but, as his Colts' biography states, "some draft day wrangling by Colts manager Dan Madsen landed him in San Angelo."

The Texas-Louisiana League has given Hessler a new circuit to experience and a little more cash in his pocket. A little is noticeable on an indy leaguer's wages. Hessler does not discuss his salary, but he said his San Angelo wage is slightly more than the $600 a month he made in Johnstown.

"You could probably make more waiting tables," he said.

He won't get rich by stashing away meal money either. It's tough to get wealthy on a $12 per diem, but its fairly easy to get fat.

"How do you make $12 stretch? Very carefully," he said. "That's a lot of 99-cent value meals. The diet kind of goes to crap."

Last winter he contemplated this spring's path, whether the cascade of bus rides and cheap hotels and bad burgers would begin anew.

"We were sitting around a fire at Walker's house and he was debating whether or not to play," said Hernando High coach Tim Sims, who had Hessler on a 1993 state champion Dixie League team. "I told him, if you still have that fire, don't let anyone tell you you can't go out and play. Put it to use."

Hessler began another season as an independent, as friends and former teammates have percolated closer to the majors. Bronson Arroyo, who was a sophomore on the Hernando baseball team Hessler's senior year, is pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Stentz creeps closer to the Twins' roster with each save, and Bert Snow, in the same graduating class as Arroyo, is pitching for Double-A Midland in the Oakland organization.

Hessler said envy doesn't bother him, however.

"All those guys have a legitimate shot," he said. "They're their own men. They did what they did on their own. I chose my path and they chose theirs.

"They're good. If I was that good I'd be there too."

Sims said the entire group knew the pecking order back in their Dixie days.

"He commanded the respect and confidence of his teammates," Sims said. "If we had to (win) it was going to be Landon out there."

Those days are long gone, and tonight it's Lafayette, La., and a four-game set against the Bullfrogs. It's not a life Hessler will complain about.

"I definitely feel a lot better about waking up every day," he said. "For a while there I was pretty low not knowing what was going on.

"I'm glad to get another chance to make it. I know my chances are slim, but there's always hope, though."

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