Tad Gold is similar to my previous subjects in that he grew up on Cape Cod, but more specifically, he grew up on Martha's Vineyard. The Vineyard is a secluded place, seeing as it is an island, and it is ridiculous to expect college scouts to take the ferry down to the Vineyard. As with a lot of other elite Cape Cod baseball prospects and consequently Massachusetts as well, Gold played hockey, too.
What is so interesting about this begins when Tad Gold left the Vineyard for Division Three Endicott College and began his career at the next level. With no idea of his apparent talents, Tad went off to school and proceeded to bat .429, a remarkable statistic, and win the Division Three Player of the Year Award, a remarkable feat for a New England baseball player and a testament to all of Gold's hard work. His senior season garnered enough positive attention to be drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 35th round, the 14th Division Three ballplayer to go in the 2014 draft.
It is quite special when a small community of people rally around their hero, and Tad is lucky enough to have this and the island of Martha's Vineyard.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Will Toffey
Will Toffey is a stud. His list of team and individual accomplishments are astounding. His is a baseball diamond in the rough and the proverbial Northeast Prep School hockey product.
Toffey was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts to a family with bloodlines thick with baseball experience. Jack, Will's father, pitched in the Pittsburgh Pirates orginization, and his older brother, John pitched and played hockey at Umass-Amherst and was drafted by both the NHL and MLB. He went on to play hockey in the East Coast Hockey League for three years.
Toffey is a Cape Cod outlier, as Toffey got a scholarship to Vanderbilt to play for Head Baseball Coach Tim Corbin, a Wolfeboro, New Hampshire native. It takes quite a talent to play at Vanderbilt, as the Southeastern Conference is regarded as the elite of College Baseball, but it takes a special and truly unique type to break the line that is drawn at the Kentucky-Virginia line.
Toffey left Barnstable High School as a junior to attend Salisbury High School. Salisbury, coached by Will's brother John, is a perennial Prep School and New England that has sent over 30 players to the next level over the past nine years. It is a normal occurrence for a high school athlete that goes to a public school to switch in favor of the greater exposure and competition that a prep school can bring, both academically and athletically.
Toffey was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts to a family with bloodlines thick with baseball experience. Jack, Will's father, pitched in the Pittsburgh Pirates orginization, and his older brother, John pitched and played hockey at Umass-Amherst and was drafted by both the NHL and MLB. He went on to play hockey in the East Coast Hockey League for three years.
Toffey is a Cape Cod outlier, as Toffey got a scholarship to Vanderbilt to play for Head Baseball Coach Tim Corbin, a Wolfeboro, New Hampshire native. It takes quite a talent to play at Vanderbilt, as the Southeastern Conference is regarded as the elite of College Baseball, but it takes a special and truly unique type to break the line that is drawn at the Kentucky-Virginia line.
Toffey left Barnstable High School as a junior to attend Salisbury High School. Salisbury, coached by Will's brother John, is a perennial Prep School and New England that has sent over 30 players to the next level over the past nine years. It is a normal occurrence for a high school athlete that goes to a public school to switch in favor of the greater exposure and competition that a prep school can bring, both academically and athletically.
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