For St. Marys native Ryan Uhl, playing Major League baseball has been a lifelong dream.
On Tuesday, that dream came one large step closer to becoming a reality as the Seattle Mariners made the Indiana University of Pennsylvania senior slugger their 7th round (215th overall) selection in the 2015 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
“To be a major league baseball player has always been my dream,” Uhl said Tuesday, just hours after being drafted. “I used to wear a Derek Jeter jersey around the house. I wanted to be just like him.”
Uhl will now get to carve his own niche as a professional baseball player, a dream that was made a reality thanks in large part to a record-breaking senior season for the Crimson Hawks.
Standing at 6-6, 230 pounds, Uhl, a first-baseman, shattered the IUP single-season home run record with 29 long balls in 2015, which was also tops in Division II. He ranked first nationally in the Division II ranks in home runs, slugging percentage and RBIs per game, finishing ninth in the country with 74 runs batted in.
It’s those numbers, in part, that led scouts to watch Uhl play, with the Mariners being one of the teams showing interest.
“I actually had a pre-draft workout with the Mariners, so I knew they were interested,” Uhl said. “I didn’t know they were going to take me.”
Uhl found that out when he got a call from the organization after they made their sixth-round pick, informing him that they intended to take him with their seventh round selection, No. 215 overall.
“I got off the phone and I couldn’t even spit it out,” said Uhl, who was monitoring the draft with his parents and younger brother. “I think it took me five minutes before I could actually get the words out of my mouth. Everyone was excited.”
Uhl’s numbers at IUP were very solid his first three seasons, but nothing like what he did in 2015.
He attributes that, in part, to being 100 percent healthy.
“I had arthroscopic knee surgery after my junior year,” he said. “This season, everything just kind of clicked.”
That’s an understatement, as Uhl not only broke the single-season home run record at IUP, but the career one as well, finishing with 42 in his four seasons.
“I think my mental approach to the game has been one of the biggest differences this year,” he said.
It’s more than just his offense, however, that has gotten him to this point.
“I take a lot of pride in my defense,” he said. “That’s one of my favorite things to work on.”
Uhl becomes the eighth Crimson Hawks player to be drafted and the first since the Oakland Athletics drafted Anthony Zambotti in 2003.
He is also the fourth St. Marys Area High School product to be taken in the amateur draft.
The first player to earn that distinction from St. Marys was Joe Beimel, an 18th round pick by the Pirates out of Duquesne University in 1998.
It just so happens that Beimel, at age 38, is still pitching in the big leagues with … the Mariners.
Uhl can trace his roots to Beimel, as he has been a member of Beimel Baseball, which is owned and operated by Michael Beimel and is geared toward the development of baseball and softball players in St. Marys and the surrounding areas.
As such, the current Mariners pitcher and Uhl got to know each other.
Joe learned of Uhl’s selection before the team’s game Tuesday in Cleveland and reached out to him.
“He left me a message on Instagram saying ‘congratulations,’” Uhl said.
Uhl has also gotten help from another St. Marys product — Jesse Bosnik, a former star for Elk County Catholic.
Bosnik played three years at St. Bonaventure University and was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 13th round in 2010.
“I’ve been talking with him a lot and he’s been a great help with everything,” Uhl said. “It’s good to know I have him in my corner because he’s been through all of this.”
Uhl watched the likes of Beimel and Bosnik growing up, and now he now gets to follow their path in to professional baseball.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling,” he said. “I grew up watching them and wanted to be just like them. It’s a great feeling to be following in their footsteps.”
And he can’t wait to get started.
“This whole process has been wonderful,” he said. “It’s a pretty unreal feeling that I get the chance to chase my dream.”
