Eveld chucks pigskin career for baseball
Canadians pitcher was a college quarterback before he decided to give the game one last shot
Considering his collegiate background, Bobby Eveld is a better fit to be throwing spirals for the B.C. Lions at B.C. Place Stadium rather than fastballs for the Vancouver Canadians at Nat Bailey.
Eveld got into 19 games as a quarterback for the University of South Florida Bulls over four years, highlighted by seven starts and coming off the bench in the second half to lead the team to a come-from-behind 23-20 overtime win against the Miami Hurricanes in 2010 as a freshman.
Earlier that year, the native of Tampa, Fla., was drafted by the New York Mets in the 50th round out of high school as a catcher.
Eveld, 25, took some time off after finishing football at USF before deciding to give baseball one more shot. He went to an open Mets tryout two winters ago as a catcher. The scout there, enticed by his arm strength, asked him if he wanted to throw a few from the mound at the end of the session.
Eveld said he hadn’t pitched in a game in “eight or nine years” at that point, but he showed enough to himself that he decided to focus on it instead. He signed with the Toronto Blue Jays after a tryout camp before last season.
Tom House gained notoriety as a pitching coach years ago for having his charges, including Nolan Ryan, throw footballs for training. Eveld knows the story: He’s a Ryan fan, tagging him immediately as a “living legend.”
Eveld doesn’t connect his former position with his current one so easily, though.
“It’s a lot different,” Eveld, a six-foot-five, 200-pound righthander, said. “I know people who like to say that throwing a football is more of a pure throwing motion because it’s a heavier ball. You have to stay more sound mechanically. With a baseball, you get away with more imperfections.
“Pitching is different, too. You want to keep your weight back and work downhill. Throwing a football, you’re on flat ground the whole time.”
He does have someone close at hand to discuss sporting ideals with. His younger brother Tommy, 23, is a right-hander in the Arizona Diamondbacks system. A ninth-round draft pick in 2016 who moved to baseball at USF after starting out with the football squad, Tommy pitched against the C’s last summer for the Hillsboro Hops, and represented the Northwest League against the Pioneer League in the second annual all-star game between the two loops.
He pitched this week in the single-A Midwest League allstar game, representing the Kane County Cougars.
“We talk about pitching a lot,” Bobby said. “All the time.”
Eveld is one of the better stories going on with these C’s. He might wind up the oldest guy in the entire Northwest League. Rosters are ever-changing at this level, but according to baseball-reference.com, the average age for pitchers in the league now is 21 years, seven months.
He’s also probably the least experienced hurler in the circuit. He got into just two games last season with the rookie league Bluefield Blue Jays before they shut him down due to arm trouble. He had already had two appearances with Vancouver going into action Thursday.
His fastball has been clocked at up to 93 miles an hour. You’d think there’s more to give there. He also has a curveball, slider and change-up in his repertoire.
“I hate to sound cliche, but just take it one day at a time,” Eveld said of what he has to do to advance through the minors. “You need to come out every day and try to perform to the best of your ability.”