The word ‘resilient’ gets thrown around far too frequently in pro sports – but let’s not undersell it in this situation. Westbury-native Matt Seelinger made his big league debut on Wednesday for the New York Mets at the age of 31, after being a four-year Division-III player drafted in the 28th round in 2017 and grinding through the minor leagues for a decade with 5 organizations.
That is resiliency. Seelinger, who also pitched for the Long Island Ducks, is a 2013 graduate of Clarke HS. In fact, he precedes the Axcess Baseball era. When he was dominating for Clarke HS, I had just started Baseball on the Island in my web journalism class at Adelphi University.
His collegiate career coincided with Baseball on the Island covering local college baseball in-depth, so there was plenty of digital ink about him in 2015 and 2016. In fact, one of our first YouTube videos was an interview with him at a restaurant in Carle Place. It has since been deleted, or at least I couldn’t find it in our archives. He also was on our podcast in 2018 which was recorded at The Turning Point in Farmingdale, NY – which is also not around anymore.
Podcast with special guest Tampa Bay Rays prospect Matt Seelinger will be posted on iTunes tonight pic.twitter.com/VdefULo67F
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 20, 2018
That was a long-winded way of saying this was a long time ago and it’s hard to fathom the level of commitment and determination it takes to stay driven for that long to make your dream become a reality. Regardless of the result in last night’s game, Seelinger became the fourth player in Clarke history and first in Farmingdale State history to become a big league player.
Now if we zoom out for a moment, the class of 2013 on Long Island is historic. Below are the following players that have played Major League Baseball and how many innings they’ve compiled:
- Jason Foley (199.2)
- Greg Weissert (196.2)
- Anthony Kay (169.1)
- *Justin Dunn (133.2)*
- Joe Palumbo (19)
- Stephen Ridings (5)
- Matt Seelinger (2)
*: Born in Freeport, went to a private school in Connecticut.
Just a remarkable amount of talent. And the incredible thing is that, with the exception of Anthony Kay, all of these players flew under-the-radar in high school. While I will admit that 2010-2013 is a bit of a blind spot for me as I was in college, but the most high-profile players were Jack Piekos, Matt Vogel, Stephen Woods and Matt Crohan. Any or all of those could have joined this list as well and made it a truly powerhouse list.
This was also the year that Bayport-Blue Point went undefeated and captured the Class A New York State Championship. So it was a memorable year for a few reasons.
Is it the most successful class in Long Island history? I’m not sure, but it has a strong case. My year was pretty good as well with Marcus Stroman and Steven Matz in addition to a handful of others that played pro ball like Kyle Hansen, Cam Maron, Willie Carmona, James Lomangino.
Tweet at us or email if you think we are forgetting about a year that has been more successful than these.