DUNEDIN, Fla — Chris Bassitt’s name is announced at TD Ballpark and “Deliverance,” by Bubba Sparxxx begins to blast on the sound system. The right-hander steps out of the first-base dugout, pounds his fist into his glove, hops over the foul line and strolls to the mound.
He’s making his third Grapefruit League appearance for the Toronto Blue Jays after signing with the club in the off-season. He proceeds to toy with Baltimore Orioles hitters throughout the first inning, allowing the pitch clock to count down to zero on occasion before beginning his windup.
He strikes out the side on 17 pitches. The sky is blue and the sun is shining on a warm Saturday afternoon in March. Life is good for him at this particular moment.
As nice as all that is, life could just as well have been different for the starting pitcher. For instance, if things broke differently in his past, Bassitt might have been strolling onto an NBA court instead of a pitching mound.
That’s because basketball is his first, true passion.
“No doubt,” Bassitt said. “I definitely love basketball.”
The six-foot-five right-hander played the sport throughout his childhood, but it wasn’t until senior year of high school that his body suited it. He considers himself a late bloomer, physically.
“I was small for the most part and I was really, really light when it came to weight — I was 135 pounds for the most part and probably five-foot-eight until senior year,” recalls Bassitt. “Then senior year, I grew six or seven inches and all of a sudden I was pretty good at everything.”
He made the varsity team in Grade 11 at Ohio’s Genoa Area High School and by the next year, in 2007, Bassitt was a standout. He averaged 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists that season while providing versatility on the court. He played point guard but filled in elsewhere as needed — he was tall enough to guard the opposition’s post player when needed.
Bassitt, who grew up in Curtice, Ohio, also starred on the baseball team at Genoa Area, a small high school with a little over 400 students. The presence of scouts at the ballpark for his games made it clear that the sport offered him a better future than basketball, so he enrolled at the University of Akron and pitched out of the bullpen for its club.
Even then, the basketball didn’t stop. Bassitt would routinely take part in pickup games against players on the school’s NCAA Division 1 squad. He prefers to keep stories from those contests private, but it’s safe to conclude Bassitt more than held his own.
“I know I was good enough to go D-1,” he says with a straight face.
With that in mind, Bassitt acknowledges his mind often wanders to what could have been.
“No doubt,” he said. “I don’t think I’d be here now because I think I would have taken the basketball path.”
His coach at Genoa Area, Jeff Overmyer, agrees with that assessment.
“I wish we had one more year with him in basketball,” Overmyer said. “He really came into his own in his senior year. If we would have had one more year with Chris Bassitt here, I think he would have had some collegiate looks [from basketball scouts].”
Overmyer, who led the varsity Genoa Area Comets from 2000 to 2012, has known Bassitt since the pitcher was in elementary school and says even then he displayed strong basketball instincts. He was also a fierce competitor.
“Coaches like to have players that like to win, but coaches love players who hate to lose,” said Overmyer. “And Chris was one of those guys who hated to lose. He was the ultimate competitor and found ways for his team to win games because he hated losing so much.
“It’s one of those innate traits that the great ones have.”
Overmyer believes Bassitt’s emergence during his senior year played a large role in changing the Comets’ trajectory. The school’s basketball program had been largely mediocre in previous seasons, but that changed as Bassitt helped the club go a 17-5 in 2007.
One memory from the campaign that stands out to the coach came during a battle against rival Eastwood High School. It was a close, one-possession contest late in the fourth quarter — an Eastwood player had the ball at the three-point line and if he made the shot, it would be a game-winner. Suddenly, Bassitt appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and made a highlight-reel block to secure a victory for the Comets.
“It was one of those plays that, as a coach, you’re thinking most players probably would have would have bumped into that shooter and caused a foul,” said Overmyer. “But Chris had enough athleticism, body control, competitiveness and guts to make the play.
“Chris was part of the movement that got us from a .500 program to a program that would proudly contend for league championships.”
Bassitt believes basketball exposed him to skills he could take with him to the baseball diamond.
“I like basketball so much because you have to rely on a lot of other people,” said Bassitt. “I played point guard in high school, so it was like, ‘How can I make everyone better?’ You can’t really be individual on a basketball team. You really have to bond with all your teammates. ‘Hey, you got my back. I got your back.’”
The 34-year-old has sought to bring that approach to his first spring training with the Blue Jays. He’s made a point to constantly engage in discussions with other pitchers. He’s observed bullpen sessions of his fellow rotation members and has also been in the dugout to watch their Grapefruit League starts.
That’s impressed right-hander Kevin Gausman.
“You talk to him every day and [find out] he wants to get better. He’s always thinking cerebrally,” Gausman said. “He’s been at a ton of games watching guys when he could be home with his kid. And so, I think that’s really cool when you bring in a veteran guy like that who everybody can look at and see how it’s supposed to be done. It just raises everybody’s expectations.”
Bassitt’s cerebral nature was on display with his manipulation of the pitch clock on Saturday against the Orioles, an 8-6 win that included home runs from George Springer and Orelvis Martinez, along with Brandon Belt’s first game action of the spring.
“If you can be aware of the clock and still execute a pitch, it’s going to work to your advantage,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider after the game. “We’re seeing that kind of play out in real time, and he’s really good at it. He starts thinking about that stuff, at eight o’clock in the morning. That’s kind of his thing.”
“I’ll do that all year,” said Bassitt. “So, it’s just pushing the limits a little bit right now, just to get comfortable with it. Obviously, there’s situations that are going to be new to everyone, umpires included. It’s just figuring out what those are.”
Bassitt allowed three runs on four hits over his three innings of work. He walked one and struck out five while tossing 61 pitches and inducing nine swings and misses.
Of course, Bassitt made the right call choosing baseball. That was obvious a long time ago. Nowadays, he doesn’t even play pickup basketball games anymore. The injury risks — a broken finger or rolled ankle, for example — are just too high.
However, Bassitt’s love for the sport is still there. As are the intangible gifts basketball gave him.
from Sportsnet.ca https://ift.tt/vb5iH6e
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