The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Zobrist’s chance tryout pays off
‘One more day’ leads to being named World Series MVP.
Ben Zobrist climbed into his 1980 Ford pickup and cried. His high school team had just lost in the 2000 Illinois state regionals, but that’s not exactly why he broke down.
“I said: ‘That’s it,’” Zobrist recalled. “‘No more baseball in my life.’”
More than 1,400 names had been called in the MLB draft, but not his. Bob Gold, his high school coach, received one recruiting inquiry, from a junior college. Gold told the coach not to bother; Zobrist was headed to Calvary Bible College, a 350-student school in Kansas City, Missouri, that didn’t field a baseball team. He would study to become a youth minister or pastor, like his dad.
About three months before classes were to start, Zobrist met with Gold and asked: Do you know anywhere I can play for the summer?
Gold told Zobrist he was too old for American Legion ball. But Gold had a flyer on his desk with information about a showcase. Scouts would be there.
“I thought: ‘One more day,’” Zobrist said.
One more day of baseball. One of the quirks in this story is that the principals differ on where in Illinois the tryout took place and what happened in the moments that followed. They all agree, though, on this: “Ben was that close to not playing again,” Gold said. “It’s crazy.”
Here’s how Zobrist, Gold and Elliot Johnson, then the baseball coach at Olivet Nazarene in Bourbonnais, Illinois, remember the tryout that kept Zobrist in baseball, ultimately leading to his MVP award in the Cubs’ 2016 World Series championship:
Gold: I was the varsity baseball coach at Eureka (High School), and I moved Ben up as a freshman. He was a little runt: 5 feet 3, 115 pounds. If he really got a hold of one, it would go over the infield. It stirred some people up because he played ahead of some upperclassmen. But I wanted competitors on the field, kids with some grit . ... After his senior season ended, he said: “Coach, can we look for a summer league?” I happened to have a flyer on my desk for a tryout day in Bushnell, the middle of nowhere.
Johnson: I was pretty much done recruiting in the summer of 2000 but had a little (scholarship) money left. So I went to a coaches tryout in Brimfield. Driving early in the morning, I remember thinking I wouldn’t find anyone there; I recruited mostly junior college players anyway. There were 85 kids, and they were put through a prostyle camp. I thought Ben was the best player there.
Zobrist: I was going to a church conference that week in Indiana. It was a Monday around 10 a.m. The tryout was in Brimfield, on the west side of Peoria, Illinois, the opposite direction. I registered and paid my $50. I ran a 60 (yard dash). I got on the mound and made like 10 pitches. The fastest was 84, I think. I took ground balls, and we got 12 swings as a hitter. I remember thinking: “Do I want to bat right-handed?” I took six from each side. We were finished by noon. Coach Johnson from Olivet came up and said: “I want to introduce myself. We have a school up near Chicago.” He said it’s a Christian school. “I heard you’re planning to go to Calvary Bible College. If that’s what you feel is God’s will for your life, great.” But he said: “I’ve watched you, and I think you’d fit in well with our program.”
Johnson: At the tryout I told Ben: “I’d like to talk to you about playing for us. I have some money for you.” He said: “You mean I could get some money from a school by playing baseball?”
Gold: The story I got is that ( Johnson) followed Ben to his car, and Ben practically blew the guy off and said: “I just came because I wanted to play baseball one more time.” The coach ( Johnson) called me and asked me about his grades. He said: “I think I can get him in here for free.” I said: “That might turn his head a little.” We visited campus, took the tour. The coach sat him down in the office. Gave him (scholarship) money for grades, a couple thousand because his dad was a pastor and wrote off the last $12,000 for baseball.
Zobrist: The next week I went to this conference, and the theme was being open to whatever God’s will is for your life. I got home and there was a message from the Eastern (Illinois) coach. He said: “I can offer you a half-scholarship to play ball.” My family didn’t have any money. I could only afford to be a couple thousand dollars in debt (after graduation). Olivet was a private school that would have cost $20,000 a year or whatever. Elliot checked on my academics, and he said: “With the academic scholarship and athletic scholarship available, I think we can get you a full ride.”
Coach Gold and I drove up to look at Olivet. It was a beautiful campus, wide open with a nice field. I felt a sense of belonging and peace there. My parents were apprehensive, but they said: “If this is what you feel like is God’s will for your life, then you need to do it.”
Zobrist helped lead Olivet to three conference championships and the program’s first two NAIA World Series appearances in 2002 and 2003. He pitched and played mainly second base and shortstop, earning All-America honors. Zobrist and Johnson conflicted on one aspect of his game.
Johnson: I was really blessed to have him on our team. He was as valuable to us as a pitcher — especially a relief pitcher — as he was as a position player. I always felt shortstop was his best position, but in one of the years we had a second baseman who couldn’t turn it, so I put Ben at second for some games and saved his arm. He was such a “team” guy.
I wouldn’t let him hit lefthanded until his junior year. He was terrible initially, but he made himself into a good left-handed hitter. He wanted to switch-hit, but I was not going to sacrifice games. He had a bad uppercut, and his bat was not in the zone very long. But he spent extra time in the cage and made himself into a better hitter.
We were playing St. Xavier, a real rival, in 2003, and he came up in a critical spot. He called timeout and came to me in the third base coach’s box. He said: “I’d feel more comfortable left-handed.” You would, huh? I trusted him. He’s a character guy who worked hard. I said: “OK, go ahead.” He pulled a ball into right field and drove in a run, and forever after I let him hit left-handed.
Zobrist, with a different recollection: We were at Trinity International University up in Deerfield, Illinois, for a doubleheader. I had been struggling against sliders from right-handers. I can’t remember the conversation, but I said: “Coach, we know this is a team we can beat. Just let me try it. I think you’ll see I’m ready.” I ended up hitting a home run left-handed that first game. I think I hit two, actually, one in each game. After that he was like: “Well, I guess you can do it.”
Zobrist transferred to Dallas Baptist for his senior season but remains linked to Olivet Nazarene, which retired his No. 12 jersey in 2014 and inducted him into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Zobrist: Dallas Baptist was Division I. That was the kicker for me. I was All-America at Olivet but didn’t get drafted. I had one more year of baseball in my life, and I love a good challenge. I said to myself: “If I fail at the D1 level, then I know it wasn’t meant to be.” But I always would have wondered. Thankfully Coach Johnson gave me my release. That’s the kind of people they are. They want what’s best for you even if it, at times, is not what’s best for them. That’s why it’s a place I still care about.
Todd Reid, Olivet’s baseball coach since 2007: Ben stayed connected to us — and he didn’t have to. After our program won the conference championship in 2016, I sent him a text, a picture of the celebration, the dog pile: “Hey your guys won the CCAC (Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference).” He texted back: “Hey, I’d like to have the whole team up to Wrigley.” He talked to our guys, took pictures. He was so gracious. He didn’t want to talk about himself.
Zobrist: They have treated me like their own, as if I graduated from there. It’s been special to go back and speak at chapel. I remember sitting in those chapels as a kid thinking: “Maybe someday I’ll have a message for people they’ll want to hear.” And that dream came through in regards to that.
Zobrist and former Olivet teammates Dan Heefner, now the coach at Dallas Baptist, and Chip Maxson, general manager of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, contributed lead gifts for Olivet’s renovated Turf Room, which contains batting cages with HitTrax computerized analysis. A wall in the Turf Room, where Zobrist worked tirelessly on his left-handed swing, contains Fathead posters of Zobrist, injured Yankees pitcher Ben Heller and Rangers minor league infielder Josh Altmann.
Zobrist: I spent many a Friday and Saturday night in the Turf Room, which was why I wanted to help. Olivet was a great environment for a college kid to try to figure himself out and get better at a sport. If I was at a D1 (school), I probably would have gotten lost in the shuffle. Olivet gave me a chance to fight my way into the starting lineup and have success. I was still growing into my body and skill set.
Reid: I took my youngest daughter, Montana, to the Cubs game (Aug. 14). Zo got ejected for the first time in his career. We waited out the crowd after the game. Ben is the only one who signs after every game, but we figured: He won’t come out. He got tossed. Sure enough, still in uniform, we see him down the right-field line, signing autographs.
Zobrist: They can keep me from going back out on the field. They can’t keep me from signing after the game.