Tri-City ValleyCats outfielder Pat Adams hit a grand slam in his final professional at-bat last Sunday. He had conflicting thoughts as he rounded the bases at Grizzlies Ballpark in Sauget, Ill.
“I kind of chuckled to myself thinking that maybe if this was my last at-bat, how crazy of a story and memory would that be,” Adams recalled this week. “Also, I kind of thought, did I make the right decision if I just hit a home run?”
Tri-City vs. Florence
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, Troy
It was an opposite-field blast to left field in the ninth inning of Tri-City’s 24-12 victory over the Gateway Grizzlies. Adams, 26, returned to a ValleyCats dugout in which no one else knew he had decided to retire during his sixth season in independent baseball.
Adams waited to tell manager Pete Incaviglia when the team returned to Troy. They talked in Incaviglia’s office on Tuesday morning.
“I just told him my thoughts and my feelings,” Adams said. “I’ve been playing independent ball a long, long time and I’ve got a great situation back home. And the crazy thing about retiring as well is, I don’t know if I’m going to regret it or not. It’s just something where I wasn’t playing up to my standards and I just feel like I’ve got to jump two feet into something new.”
The ValleyCats traded for Adams just 10 days earlier, acquiring him from the Lake Country Dockhounds of the American Association. He was batting .257 with no homers and five RBIs in Lake Country. In seven games with Tri-City, Adams hit .263 with one homer and five RBIs.
He already decided before this season it was a “make-or-break year” to get signed by a Major League Baseball organization. When he saw ValleyCats teammate Carson McCusker, who’s hitting .426 with 11 homers, still unsigned, it made Adams wonder what his chances were.
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