One-time QB takes a swing at baseball
Contributor on UH’s 13-1 team in 2015, Postma tries out for summer league
Even during his football days at the University of Houston, Kyle Postma never closed the door on his baseball dreams.
Every chance he got, Postma would settle into the batting cage and take swings to, if for nothing else, keep his timing sharp. After all, you never know when it might come in handy.
One of those days came Wednesday.
Postma, a former wide receiver and quarterback at UH, stood in the outfield at Constellation Field in Sugar Land. He took fly balls. He scooped up grounders and fired throws to third base. At the plate, Postma sent a few line drives to the deeper part of the outfield.
Nearly four years after last playing football at UH in 2016, Postma is giving baseball another shot with a tryout for a four-team professional league — which includes former major leaguers and recently released minor leaguers — that will begin play July 3.
“All I’m really looking for is an opportunity, so I don’t look back on life and say, ‘Man, I really wish I would have done this,’ ” Postma said.
Presently, Postma has his real estate license and works full-time in construction management building residential homes. His baseball tryout is as much about still having the competitive edge as wanting to “get my foot in (the door for professional baseball)” and chase his dreams.
“I’ve always wanted to
play baseball,” he said. “Obviously, football took me to great places, so I’m very thankful for that. The main goal is, if I could make it a profession, I could play sports. That’s what I love. I love playing sports. I don’t like working.”
Postma, who had a successful run on the select baseball circuit as a kid living in Katy, gave up the sport as a high school freshman to focus on football.
“Baseball, you play so
many games, I just kind of got worn out playing,” he said. “And I obviously love football, so I kind of stuck with football.”
Now 26, Postma has spent his time lately playing slow-pitch softball and, on Sundays, in a fast-pitch league against “legit pitchers.”
For those who followed Postma’s football career, it should come as no surprise he dabbled at a few positions in Wednesday’s tryout. A UH football coach once said jokingly that Postma was “like Jim Thorpe … he’ll do whatever.”
Postma’s primary baseball
position is the outfield, but he also has experience at shortstop and showed his range on ground balls and throws to first Wednesday. He even “messed around” in the bullpen with some tosses off the mound.
“I wasn’t pitching very well, so I quit that pretty quick,” he said with a laugh.
Before the Sugar Land Skeeters announced they would host the summer league, he said, Postma reached out to minor league organizations prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Trying to get my name
out there,” he said. “Maybe get onto an actual minor league organization. It would be awesome if I could work my way up all the way.”
The idea of returning to baseball was present during his senior season at UH. After completing the football season, Postma had one semester of eligibility left and went through tryouts with the baseball team. Even with a lengthy layoff, Postma felt his progress wasn’t that far off. His desire was only confirmed when he would attend games and was “itching to play.”
“I was thinking to my
self, ‘Did I mess up by playing football?’ ” Postma said.
One thing Postma does not miss in comparing the two sports. “I’m good with taking a baseball to the leg,” he said, “rather than getting hit in the head with pretty much a semitruck.”
Regardless how his baseball pursuit ends, Postma has a spot in UH football lore. As an injury replacement for starter Greg Ward Jr., Postma led a 20-point comeback — the thirdlargest in school history — as the Cougars beat Memphis 35-34 in 2015. That same season, Postma again replaced an injured Ward
late in the Peach Bowl against Florida State. With UH clinging to a sevenpoint lead, Postma converted two third-down plays, the last on a 29-yard run to set up a touchdown, as the Cougars beat the Seminoles 38-24 to complete a 13-1 season.
“I was out in Belize and ran into some guy that owned the hotel,” Postma said. “He said he’s only been to one UH game, and it was the Memphis game. He said that was a game he’ll remember for the rest of his life. That was crazy.”