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On the A’s current homestand, I took my kids over to the Stomper Area. If you haven’t been up there you need to, if only to say hi to the guy wearing the “A” costume
Who would've thought people from Wisconsin are upset at fans in green and gold making noise
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) August 1, 2019
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/ePGbtRSSsP
When my kids and I arrived at the stadium speed pitch area of the Stomper Area we found a group of adult males in their 30’s testing their fastball skills. The best guy in the group hit 64 mph on the radar gun much to the joy of his buddies.
That makes this story about Nathan Patterson all the more remarkable. Nathan was recently at a Colorado Rockies game and stepped up to the speed pitch area and promptly did this
Guys, we were just chillin at a @rockies baseball game, and my brother decided to step into a speed pitch challenge...he hit 96 mph @MLB Let’s get him signed! pic.twitter.com/g0fKrvUxzt
— Christian Patterson (@cpatterson_7) July 15, 2019
The social media buzz of Nathan’s performance caused the A’s brass to take notice, and yesterday they signed him to a real-life minor league contract.
“How can you not be romantic about baseball” -Billy Beane
— Nathan Patterson (@npatterson_12) August 1, 2019
Words cannot describe this feeling and I cannot thank everyone enough who has been part of this journey so far! pic.twitter.com/E4eSMUDmU5
How cool is this?!!
Adrian Garro of MLB’s official site wrote a great story about Patterson’s journey.
His journey began last August at a Nashville Sounds game (they were the A’s Triple-A affiliate at the time). He hit 96 on the radar gun at a speed pitch, which surprised him because he hadn’t thrown “for a few years before that.”
Inspired by that outing, he began training a couple months later, but was then hit by a car and had surgery on his non-throwing wrist in December (hence the cast mentioned above).
He began talking with the A’s in February 2019, kept training, throwing and joined a men’s league to stay fresh. Then that trip to the Rockies game came about and, “a few days later the A’s gave me a call.”
As for Patterson’s background, he played competitively up until senior year of high school, but says, “I didn’t really have a good arm then.”
Here’s more from NBCS, who talked to Patterson after his signing.
Can you imagine if Patterson somehow mows through minor league hitters this month and then against all odds receives a September call-up to the big league club and ends up leading the A’s to the World Series??? That would be the single most A’s thing of all time. It’s not the most likely result, but you never know!
Let’s go Nathan Patterson and Let’s go A’s!
I can’t thank @PitchingNinja and @FlatgroundApp enough for help on getting me exposure and on the map! Rob is changing the way players can be seen and get opportunities!
— Nathan Patterson (@npatterson_12) August 2, 2019
