America's Pastime August 21, 1995 University of Oregon Page 9 Oregon Daily F merald Field ■ Dreams bar most, the quest to play Ing le ague hall begins in the minors Being In the minor leagues exposes many players to the media for the first time, and It gives them their first taste of the big-league life Tins batter steps into the cage and taps the far side of home plate with the Louisville Slugger grasped in his right hand. He holds the bat there for a moment tie fore lifting it up and clasping the handle with both hands Thu fiat is held, cocked and ready, at ear level, waiting for the pitch It comes, and he swings, leading the fiat with body cutting up at the ball Lhe hatter grunts after the miss He tried too hard. "You picked your head up again,'' yells the manager u you oott t look ul the ball, how ire you supposed to hit it'" The butter tries again, digging in tin* box with his back foot, ami cocks tile fiat with .1 slight scowl on his face. This time he connects with tint ball on tiie bat's sweat spot, send mg it to deep right field and off the top of the thin plywood wall with o loud I nun i “Nic:b shot," a teammate ( ummmli The man ager says nothing. He was hitting ground halls across the in field with a fungo bat as Ins field ers ran through the motions of a double play for probably the 20th time in the last five minutes Kor a minor league baseball player, practice before the game is not used as a warm-up for the evening's contest, or to entertain the handful of fans who came out to the park early It is work hard work — and nothing less The Eugene Emeralds are a Class A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves in the -to year-old North west latague. Players sent here hv the Braves art young and undisciplined. Some have never played above the high school level, and others are foreign players who don't speak any English Most have never used anything but aluminum Slot's by j / I \ mid I Hutson Htotos by \Lirh \f. 'lyre The daily routine ot running out of the dugout after the national anthem has been played Is some thing that each player has dreamt about all of his life and would never trade for anything fiats fa*fun' Hut every player is here fur the same reason — to learn how to accomplish the dream tif playing in the major leagues Joe Trippy is the team s center fielder, in the middle of his first professional season Trippy played hail on an athletic scholarship at the Uni versity of Washington where he still needs eight credits to graduate — as n pitcher and outfielder Me signed with the Atlanta Braves as a Ire*- agent outfielder two days after the 1 '195 draft had end ed. and reported to Kugene two weeks later to begin workouts ''I've always wanted tu play baseball." Trippy said. "Me and my two brothers used to play whif fleball in the yard all the time when 1 was grow ing up My dad always used to take us to watch the Seattle Mariners The game's always been a huge pari of my 11f«r " Tripp y has (man making the most of Ins oppor tunity tins season with the Kms His (Hitting aver age has r.onsistetiUy remained above 300 and lie is among the top to hitters in the Northwest League. Hut he is aware that baseball is a funny game vou i