They play because they want one more shot at the big leagues. They play because they love baseball.
Gwinnett Braves pitcher Eric Junge and catcher J.C. Boscan have combined to play professional baseball for 30 years.
Some of the time has been spent in what fans like to think of as baseball’s romantic spots: the small towns such as Yakima, Wash.; Lancaster, Pa.; Macon and Greenville, where major-league dreams are furthered one single or strikeout at a time in front of small but enthusiastic crowds.
But they’ve spent some of their career, a fraction just big enough to keep the dream alive, in the big leagues.
Junge has logged 1,200 1/3 innings in the minors, and 20 1/3 innings in the bigs with the Phillies, none since 2003.
“I just want to get back,” said the 35-year-old Junge, who is 3-3 with a 3.09 ERA this season.
Boscan has played in 1,059 games in the minors, and five in the bigs, including four last season with the Braves.
“I want to be in the big leagues again,” said the 32-year-old Boscan, who is batting .205 with two home runs and 11 RBIs this year. “I hope I can go there for good and stay there.”
They remember every detail about their first game in The Show.
Junge, who is from and still lives in New York, got the call on Sept. 10, 2002. He was told to join the team on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
He lost friends on Sept. 11, so he considered taking the mound as a special tribute.
He came in as a reliever in the ninth inning and just wanted to throw a strike with his first pitch. The Marlins’ Ramon Castro smashed it for a double off the top of the Veterans Stadium wall. Junge said he spoke to Castro later, who told him that he knew he was going to try to throw a strike, so he was up there hacking.
It got better.
Junge started his first game and earned his first win in a 4-1 victory over the Pirates three days later. His second win came at the expense of Tom Glavine and the Braves in a 5-3 victory at Veterans Stadium. Junge allowed one hit and one earned run in 4 2/3 innings of long relief. He finished the year 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA.
He started the next year in Triple-A Scranton, earning another call-up, in which he posted a 3.52 ERA in six appearances.
Just 26 years old, things looked promising. He’s still waiting on the next call.
“It’s been nine years now,” he said. “I remember it being fun. It was a culmination of a lot of hard work. The journey’s not over yet. I’m going to keep going forward and keep trying to get back.”
Boscan earned his first call-up with the Braves in 2010 on Sept. 1 after 13-plus years in the minors.
He remembers sitting in the Turner Field bullpen on Oct. 1, soaking in the experience, when the phone rang. He was told to head to the dugout. He was going to pinch-hit and catch the ninth.
He walked in his first at-bat and eventually scored in an 11-5 loss to the Phillies.
It was his only appearance, but he earned nine more at-bats last season, finishing with three singles.
“It was a dream, what I worked for my whole career,” he said.
But their dreams aren’t over, and they know what they are supposed to do to get back there.
After starting his career as a flamethrower, Junge said he’s an innings-eater now. He doesn’t care how he gets batters out; he just wants to get them out as quickly as possible.
Boscan is there to help develop the pitchers. He worked with Julio Teheran last year and is working with Yohan Flande this year.
“They know their roles, they understand their roles,” manager Dave Brundage said. “They aren’t trying to coach. They know they have a pitching coach and a hitting coach, but at the same time it’s nice out there because they get to relay their experiences to their teammates.”
Junge said in the past he has considered quitting. He recognizes that he’s an aging commodity in a brutal game driven mostly by results. But all it takes is one good start, or one good appearance, to build that belief again.
There’s an admiration to the pursuit. The Braves are stacked with pitchers, making it that much more difficult to get a call-up. He doesn’t want to be the one to let his team down or not do enough to be considered for a call-up. But Junge said every appearance is an audition for every major league team.
Boscan is in a similar situation. The Braves are loaded at catcher, but he doesn’t let himself think about that. He said he goes out every day to do his job as well as he can.
Because they are in a locker room with 21- and 22-year-olds fighting for the same dream, they don’t spend much time thinking about what’s next. Boscan said he just wants to stay in the game, perhaps becoming a coach like former Braves catcher Eddie Perez. Junge is interested in a front-office role, where he would apply some of the best practices, such as treating the players as positively as possible, that he’s picked up in his travels.
All they want right now is one more chance.
“You should never give up on your dream,” Boscan said. “You’ve always got to work for something. It’s not always going to be easy, no matter the profession. You have to bring the best you can every day because you never know what can happen. You can never give up.”
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