An unexpected surprise was too good to be true for Erik Sabrowski.
The St. Albert Minor Baseball Association product is coming to grips over the San Diego Padres selecting the six-foot-six southpaw pitcher in the 14th round (411th overall) in the Major League Baseball draft Wednesday.
“Everyone tries to have big dreams when they are a kid but for a long time I was playing baseball just to have fun and then it transitioned to playing baseball to hopefully get my school paid for but until the last couple of months here that wasn’t anything I’ve thought of,” said Sabrowski, 20, of being drafted.
“It was an experience that was hard to describe. It made me really look back on just baseball through the years, just the steps I’ve taken as a player to get better to get to this place, this spot, in my career,” said the former midget AAA and bantam AAA St. Albert Cardinal. “One of my coaches, Taylor Burns, said it best. He thought I was a guy that even when doors would shut I would persevere and eventually a pretty big one opened up for me and it just happened to be the draft.”
Sabrowski was cooking breakfast Wednesday morning while girlfriend, Renee Ouellet was monitoring a draft website when his name popped up on the screen.
“She said, ‘Oh my God, it’s you.’ I came over, just looked at it and then it hadn’t been more than 30 seconds when the Padres’ scout was on the phone with me telling me that I had been selected.”
So much for breakfast.
“It was an awesome moment. We just kind of hugged,” Sabrowski said. ”When I got off the phone I called my dad (Tom) and that was emotional and then I called my mom (Krista). She didn’t end up answering. She had an impromptu meeting at work so I thought that was funny.
“And then I called a couple of coaches I’ve had throughout the years, just let them know I’ve been drafted and just kind of thanked them.”
Sabrowski leaves Sunday for Arizona to meet with officials at the team’s spring training complex.
“Not sure of all the details about that. I’m going to call the guy and get the logistics,” he said. “He had told me he would be booking a flight soon and at dinner (Wednesday) night I got a confirmation email for a flight Sunday morning.”
And so the adventure begins.
“I can’t wait.”
The journey towards making the big leagues one day started in St. Albert with two seasons in bantam AAA and three full midget AAA seasons.
“St. Albert was the first AAA baseball I played. I come from a program in Edmonton that was AA and I’m not knocking that kind of ball but when you surround yourself with better players you’re going to get better," Sabrowski said. "I saw an opportunity to go and try out for Dave Maguire’s (bantam AAA) team in St. Albert and I was fortunate enough to be on that team to meet a lifelong friend in Taylor Burns. He was our assistant coach that year. He was back from college because he had a shoulder injury and that’s probably one of those years in my life that I will look back on where I learned the most about not just being a baseball player but just being a person from Taylor and Dave Maguire and that was the start of me thinking that hey maybe one day I can go play baseball in college.”
The highlight of Sabrowski’s midget AAA career was 2014 with the Cardinals winning the Baseball Alberta Tier I provincials and at the U18 nationals in Magog, Quebec the Red Birds were awarded silver after losing the final 16-6 in the rain to an all-star team representing Quebec. It was the first U18 medal for the Cardinals since the 2004 silver-medal team when St. Albert hosted nationals.
“That team was stacked and not only were we a great group of baseball players but we were a great group of people. Our chemistry as a team was phenomenal. Our leaders were amazing leaders, our role guys played great roles, everybody knew their role and it got us to nationals. That was with Cam Houston and Taylor (as coaches),” said Sabrowski, the 2015 Baseball Alberta player of the year in the Norwest midget AAA league as a starting pitcher, first baseman and cleanup hitter.
In 2016 the St. Francis Xavier High School graduate started the season as an over-age player on the Cardinals before joining the Edmonton Prospects in the Western Major Baseball league.
The following season Sabrowski spent a career-altering stint with the Cisco College Wranglers in Cisco, Texas.
“To be honest it wasn’t the place for me. I only got 12 innings (2.25 ERA and struck-out 16) and 30 at-bats and that’s another important year that I will look back on. It was a very humbling experience coming from playing in St. Albert and playing on the Prospects where I was one of the guys on the team, one of the starters day in and day out, and then to go to college and sit on the bench for three and a half months. It was something that I had never experienced before and I didn’t take it too well at first. It wasn’t something that I enjoyed,” said the Prospects Baseball Academy alumnus. “But then I decided that I’m here for a reason so why not use this time to get better as a baseball player and I just started rededicating myself to the sport with more hours in the gym, more hours working on long toss and getting to be a better pitcher really.”
Sabrowski returned to the Prospects and was a double threat on the mound (five starts, 3-2 record, 50 strikeouts and 2.75 ERA) and at the plate (batted .339 with three homers and 20 RBIs in 35 games). The WMBL all-star also contributed mightily in the playoffs as the Prospects reached the league final for the second consecutive year.
Sabrowski continued as a dual threat as a transfer player with the Cloud County Community Thunderbirds in Concordia, Kansas as a First Team All-Conference selection, Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Pitcher of the Year and First Team All-Region VI player.
Sabrowski set a school record with 117 strikeouts in 66 innings, which was fifth best among National Junior College Athletic Association pitchers this season, and was 7-2 in 12 games with a 3.14 ERA, compared to his 1.56 ERA in conference play.
Sabrowski also led all Cloud County players with 11 homers and 58 RBIs while batting .355 as the KJCCC West Honourable Mention as a designated hitter.
“I had an at-bat in every game this spring in school but for awhile there in my career I thought I was going to have to scrap pitching and be a hitter,” Sabrowski said
“I’m kind of a high-energy guy on the mound, kind of in your face, and I take the persona when I’m on the mound – I’m in charge,” he added. “The majority of my strikeouts this year were from the fastball, just well located fastballs.”
Sabrowski was also a promising hockey official who worked his way up to the midget AAA ranks before hanging up the skates in March of 2016.
“I think I made the right choice.”
