MESA, Ariz. - Most professional baseball players had a pretty good idea that they’d play somewhere after high school or college.
Tucker Healy, in the A’s camp as a non-roster reliever, is not among them. He was astonished when his college coach, Ithaca’s George Valesente, told him that if he moved from the outfield to pitching he might have a chance to play professionally.
“I was upset, I loved hitting, but what he told me was ‘You could probably hit here, but I think you could pitch at the next level.’ That had never even gone through my mind,” Healy said.