The Portland Press Herald
Sunday 28th March 2004

Tim Kester holds a college degree in criminal justice but has yet to find a job in his field.
Then again, he's not looking for one.
Kester, 32, knows his friends are well-established in their jobs.
He knows accountants, lawyers and others.
Kester pitches for minor-league baseball teams.
He has only pitched one game above the Double-A level and never in the major leagues.
He is a long shot to ever get there.
He has had passing thoughts about giving it up.
"I talk to my friends. They have desk jobs and they tell me to just keep playing baseball," Kester said.
"They tell me, 'You only can play baseball for a limited amount of time. You can always get a desk job."
And so he stays.

Kester, who pitched for the Portland Sea Dogs last season, is one of many veterans in the Boston Red Sox minor-league spring-training camp this month.
They hope to someday reach the majors, although they no longer carry the "prospect" label.

The Red Sox are in the midst of revamping their minor-league system.
They encouragingly point to the lower level of the system, where their draft picks are working their way up.
They are the prospects.

But until they mature and get to Double-A and Triple-A, the Red Sox rely on minor-league veterans to fill holes in Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket.

"Players get to that stage in their careers, you find out how much the game means to them," said Ben Cherington, Boston's minor-league director.
"They're willing to stick it out, make sacrifices and make adjustments they need to, to stay in the game."

The players

"It's constantly a fight, this game," said McGowan, who was a third-round draft pick by the San Francisco Giants out of Boston College, in 1999.
He looked like a future big leaguer, reaching Triple-A in 2001.
But McGowan would move up no further.
The Giants were set at first base in the major leagues.
They also had some new prospects, so they released McGowan last March.
The Red Sox signed him.
He played 79 games for Portland, batting .311.
He became a free agent and after a brief look around, re-signed with Boston.
"I know Boston's lineup is so tough to crack," McGowan said, "but I learned not to worry about who is in front of you, but take care of your own game.
You're marketing yourself (to Boston and to scouts from other teams)."
McGowan sees life clearly now from the other side of the tracks.
"I think the younger guys don't get it until they're put in my situation," McGowan said as he walked to the minor-league complex, two miles and seemingly forever away from the major-league training grounds.
"You see how many people are out here and you see how many new guys get signed every year."

Infielder Trace Coquillette, 29 (30 in June), has seen guys come and go in his 12 pro seasons.
Coquillette has played parts of two seasons in the major leagues, 51 games for Montreal in 1999 and 2000.
He looked like a sure bet back then.
"I had that prospect label and I knew I was going to play," Coquillette said.
He began 2000 with Montreal, but bounced back and forth with Triple-A Ottawa.
After the season, he sought a better opportunity and signed as a free agent with the Cubs.
On the last day of spring training, the Cubs traded him to the Indians.
Since then, Coquillette has been traded to or signed with the Tigers, the Expos again, the Pirates, the Marlins (with the Sea Dogs in 2002), back to the Expos and finally to the Red Sox in mid-April last year.
"It's hard to go to another organization and start fresh. The grass is never greener on the other side," said Coquillette, which is why he re-signed with the Red Sox this season.
He bounced between Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket last year.
Coquillette batted .305 for Pawtucket last year, the first time he's been above .300 since 1999.
He knows his age is becoming a deterrent, but still battles for a return to the majors.
"I'll keep playing as long as I feel good and feel I have a chance," he said.
"I don't want to look back and say I quit the game too early.
Yes, I am older. But my body still feels great, and I feel like I have my best years ahead of me."

Jeff Bailey is only 25, but is already into his eighth pro season, his third with a different organization.
Bailey came into the pros as a prospect, the Florida Marlins' second-round pick in 1997 out of Kelso (Wash.) High.
He worked his way to the Sea Dogs in 2001.
Late in spring training in 2002, Bailey was traded to the Expos.
Bailey stayed in Double-A the past two seasons with Harrisburg.
He signed as a free agent with Boston, even though he likely will go back to Double-A, in Portland.
"You go with who wants you," Bailey said.
He knows he is years from his status as a second-round draft pick.
"Now the pressure is on to put up numbers," Bailey said.
"You don't put up numbers, you don't play for very long. That's just the way it is.
"The young guys are considered prospects and they get all the chances for the first few years."

Bailey will be joined in Portland by former a Sea Dogs teammate, utilityman Brett Roneberg, 25, who is entering his ninth pro season.
Roneberg also was traded to the Expos, and he and Bailey were teammates in Harrisburg in 2001.
Roneberg signed with the Pirates last season and played at Double-A Altoona.

Boston signed other minor-league free agents this year, including a former Marlins prospect (and Sea Dogs infielder) Jesus Medrano, and outfielder Mike Curry, who has played in Double-A or Triple-A the past four years.

'Guys who want to play'

"The quality of their character - their ability to be teammates - is really a key factor," Cherington said.
"There are those who have been around and it's natural for some bitterness to set in.
They may feel like 'I didn't get a fair shot here. I didn't get a fair shot there. I'm better than this guy. I'm better than that guy.'
"Whether it's true or not, whether it's fair or not, the guys who can leave that behind and continue to be positive influences day in and day out, those are the guys we want in this organization."

Having veterans who still have desire and don't take the game for granted make a manager's job easy.
"I don't have to deal with issues," Sea Dogs Manager Ron Johnson said.
"I don't have to go down and tell someone to run the ball out. These guys want to play."

Johnson said his job is to make sure they play well and get recognized for it.
"The thing is, these guys have something to offer," Johnson said.
"You see guys in the big leagues who may not have the skills these guys have.
Or maybe they have the same amount of skills but those guys are in the big leagues, because they are able to make a manager feel like he can win with them around.
"The Coquillettes, the Kesters, the McGowans, these type of guys.
I don't look at it like these guys are retreads.
I look at it like we are trying to position these guys to where, if they can't surface with the Boston Red Sox, then maybe they can surface somewhere else."