Aquebogue man is Long Island Ducks’ new right fielder
The last time Bryan Sabatella played baseball on Long Island with any regularity was in 2002. Then a 17-year-old senior at Shoreham-Wading River High School, he was a key player on a county championship-winning team.
In the 13 years since, the young outfielder’s playing career has taken him many places. There were the three seasons he spent at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., followed by stints playing for the Seattle Mariners organization in Washington State and Wisconsin.
Measuring the distance between him and his family in at-bats, the young outfielder continued his decade-long professional career playing independent league baseball in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and New Jersey before finally realizing after one season in Kansas that it might be time to retire.
He had logged more than 4,100 plate appearances in his career and was just one line drive shy of reaching 1,100 hits, but had never advanced past Class A ball. After a decade of being paid modestly to play the game he loved, Sabatella thought it might finally be time to put his college degree to use and embark on the next chapter of his professional life.
Then he received a phone call from the one place where he’d never gotten a chance to play: home.
A County Champion
Driving in his car on a Sunday afternoon 13 years after Sabatella’s high school graduation, former Shoreham-Wading River baseball coach Sal Mignano had no trouble recalling his former player’s signature moment.
“It’s right up there,” Mignano said, knowing full well the rich history of the program he oversaw for more than 30 years and all the incredible feats he was measuring it against.
It was May 25, 2002, and Sabatella, the ace of the Wildcats’ rotation that year, was pitching the Suffolk County Class B championship game against Half Hollow Hills West on just two days’ rest.
It didn’t take long for the 6-foot-5-inch righthander to realize he was in command on the mound at St. Joseph’s College that afternoon. He threw his first 10 pitches for strikes and would go on to strike out nine batters and walk just one in the contest.
When Sabatella took the mound in the bottom of the ninth inning, he did so with a 1-0 shutout and no-hit bid intact. Shoreham-Wading River’s only run had come on a dropped third strike.
Hills West catcher Jason Klein ended any chance of Sabatella hurling a no-hitter when he hit a ground ball up the middle and managed to beat the throw of Wildcats shortstop Joe Sorrentino, who made a diving stop.
After Klein stole second, Sabatella had to find a second gear to preserve the shutout and the county title. He also caught a break when the following batter, Dan Hans, was called for interference on a swinging strike three as he fell over the catcher, who was attempting to throw out Klein stealing third.
SWR left fielder Shawn Hough caught a fly ball for the final out and it was official: Sabatella had hurled a one-hit shutout for the team’s first championship since 1990.
While it might have stung for a while that he came up just shy of the no-no, he’s certainly grown more proud of the accomplishment over time.
“The reporter who was covering the game went up to me afterward and said, ‘You just ruined my story,’ ” Sabatella recalled with a smile. “I think I was just happy we won a county championship game, 1-0. And I’m not a pitcher, so looking back on it, it’s still pretty cool.”
A three-year starter and an All-County and All-Long Island player his senior year at Shoreham-Wading River, Sabatella batted over .400 in his high school career.
Mignano said that while he was always an above -average player for his age group, he really blossomed in his junior and senior seasons. Big and athletic, he also had other intangibles that set him apart.
“He was an extremely hard-working and positive kid,” Mignano said. “And he had a great passion for the game. He’s certainly one of our premier all-time players.”
That was solidified last summer when, in his final days running the program, Mignano retired Sabatella’s number, 17.
Playing at the time for the Kansas City T-Bones of the independent American Association and having already used up leave time for a wedding, Sabatella couldn’t attend the ceremony, where his father gave a speech on his behalf.
Seeing his number hang alongside those of former Major Leaguer Keith Osik and other Wildcat legends like Erik Strovink on the fence at his former high school is an honor Sabatella appreciates deeply.
“It’s probably the most proud I’ve ever been in my career, because of who’s up there with me,” he said. “It’s nice to be a part of something like that.”
An Independent Ballplayer
Continuing on a trajectory he established in high school, Sabatella showed improvement in each of his three seasons at Quinnipiac University. Statistically, his numbers jumped each year in virtually every category.
His freshman season batting average of .299 climbed to .355 in his sophomore campaign and .406 in his junior year. After slugging just eight extra base hits as a freshman, he clubbed 26 as a junior, a season that saw his Bobcats team win the Northeast Conference and reach the regionals of the College World Series.
If there was an area where Sabatella could get better, he did — and the scouts took notice.
The Seattle Mariners selected the 20-year-old in the ninth round — 263rd out of 1,501 draftees — of the 2005 MLB Draft. That’s three rounds earlier that year than future major leaguers Craig Stammen of the Washington Nationals and Matt Joyce of the Los Angeles Angels, and three rounds after the Mariners took future All-Star starting pitcher Lance Lynn. It’s the second highest draft pick ever used on a Shoreham-Wading River graduate, behind only the San Francisco Giants’ fifth-round selection of Julio Vega in 1990.
Shortly after he was drafted, Sabatella was assigned to the Mariners lowest Class A affiliate, the Everett Aqua Sox of the Northwest League. He played 53 games that season, batting .249 with four home runs and seven stolen bases, while playing alongside future big leaguers Luis Valbuena of the Houston Astros and Michael Saunders of the Toronto Blue Jays.
It was a whole new world for the young ballplayer and, for the first time in his baseball life, he found himself struggling on the ballfield.
“When you play for a Major League club they’re going to tinker with you,” he said, saying the Mariners wanted him to adjust his swing. “They see you as a certain type of player and they want to mold you into that player.”
In 63 games the following season, Sabatella raised his average to .263 in Everett before being promoted to the Mariners’ Class A team in Wisconsin. He struggled with the Timber Rattlers, batting just .199 with 36 strikeouts in 176 at-bats at the higher level.
He was among a handful of players and coaches released by the organization at the end of the 2006 season.
“It just didn’t work out,” he said. “There’s a reason only a small amount of guys get to play in the Major Leagues.”
Coach Mignano says more than a dozen of his former players have gone on to play professionally in the minor leagues. A reason many of them are able to have longer careers is through the expansion of independent baseball leagues. These teams, with no affiliation to any major league ballclub, are free to sign any available free agent. Some of them are players who had a taste of Major League Baseball — or got very close — and are looking to make their way back. Then there are those like Sabatella, who never experienced life in “The Show,” but aren’t quite ready to stop playing the game they love.
Sabatella has since played for six different independent teams in nine years, batting .315 in an indy career that’s seen him step up to the plate nearly 3,500 times in cities like Shreveport, La., and Kansas City, Kan. He’s stolen 40 or more bases three times in independent baseball and won two championships.
His first taste of independent baseball came with the Alexandria (La.)Aces of the United League, where he hoped maybe he could work his way back into an organization, but didn’t know exactly what to expect. What he found was a new type of challenge.
“It’s a different kind of grind, but it’s still a grind,” Sabatella said.
One advantage to playing with Alexandria was that suddenly he could absorb knowledge from veteran players. He was no longer just playing with people his own age.
As a 21-year-old in the Mariners system, his oldest teammate was 24 and none had ever played at the big league level.
The following season with the Aces, he was playing with eight players who had reached AAA and five in their 30s.
“These guys taught me things I couldn’t learn from playing with players my own age,” he said.
In 10 seasons of independent league baseball, Sabatella has played with nearly a dozen one-time big league players, including former prospects Matt LeCroy, D’Angelo Jimenez, Joey Gathright, Angel Berroa and current teammates Lew Ford and Prentice Redman.
Sabatella’s most recent stop was with the Kansas City T-Bones. At the end of the 2014 season, his manager asked about his future. Sabatella told him it was time to put his college degree to use and the team granted his release.
Having given lessons to young ballplayers throughout his minor league career, he figured he might get into coaching, most likely at the college level. He currently coaches at All Pro Sports Fieldhouse in East Setauket. If coaching didn’t pan out, he might consider working in business, maybe in New York City.
Then that all got put on hold.
A Long Island Duck
Long Island Ducks manager Kevin Baez remembers first seeing Sabatella play as a member of the Atlantic League rival Lancaster Barnstormers. A tall, athletic outfielder, Baez said he was quickly impressed with the kid. Then he looked at the roster and saw the words Wading River, New York.
“I said, this is a Long Island guy, what the heck is he doing in Lancaster?” Baez joked.
The manager knows firsthand about the type of opportunity the Atlantic League gives players as their careers move into the later stages.
A dozen years after Baez made his Major League debut with the 1990 New York Mets, he was playing for his former manager, Bud Harrelson, on the Ducks.
“I’m a kid from Brooklyn, so this gave me a chance to play at home, too,” he said of Long Island’s only minor league team. “I wasn’t ready to give it up and this team gave me a shot to keep playing.
“As long as you still want to compete and have that passion you should keep playing ball,” he said. “Once you lose that, it’s time to get a real job.”
Sabatella said he had spoken with the Ducks in the past, but, describing himself as an extremely loyal person, never wanted to break a contract with another ballclub.
While he knows his chances of ever playing in the major leagues are minuscule, Sabatella does have a goal for his time on Long Island. He wants to win a third independent league championship in this, his 11th season of minor league ball.
“Every player hopes to get their contract picked up [by a Major League franchise] and, of course, that would be nice,” he said. “But there’s nothing you show from being picked up other than being able to tell people, ‘I once got signed.’ One thing I can’t get taken away from me is a championship. That’s something you can physically show someone, a big ring on your finger.”
The Ducks have started the season strong with a 6-4 record through their first 10 games and Sabatella, who is batting leadoff and starting in right field, was red hot to start the team’s first homestand. Heading into Sunday’s game against the Sugarland Skeeters, he was batting .500 over his past four games, with three doubles, a home run, four RBIs and five runs scored.
That first home run, a long blast beyond the left-center field fence off former big leaguer Andrew Carpenter, came during a 2-for-3 performance Saturday in a 10-2 Ducks win.
“There’s nothing like being home,” Sabatella said. “This is a top-notch organization and they make it so you can get comfortable playing here.”
His parents, who now live in Aquebogue, have attended each game during his first homestand, as has his girlfriend.
His travel ball coach from when he was 12 years old was also in attendance when he hit his first shot out of Bethpage Ballpark Saturday.
“I had no idea he was here,” he said. “It’s great to see someone that you haven’t necessarily lost touch with, but haven’t been able to see for a while.”
The following morning, a large group of kids lined up along the dugout and met with each of the Ducks’ coaches and players for autographs. Amid the pack of children was a group from Wading River Elementary School, who were there for a school “fun day” fundraiser.
After meeting Sabatella, Wading River mom Colette Grosso returned to the stands with a message for the local kids.
“I said, ‘If you’re getting autographs, make sure you get one from number 44; he went to your school,’” she recalled during the game that afternoon. “They looked at me and said, ‘He did?’ This is great for them to see someone who came from where they come from and to see what he’s accomplished.”