A journey to the pros…and back again.
by Michael Mankoff
For Taylor Hargrove, who has been there and back, there is no place like home.
“It was the spring of 1997 and our baseball team just beat Pueblo East in the State Semifinals. We then went up against a Pueblo South team for the 4A State Championship and lost 8 to 5,” recalled 1999 Thomas Jefferson Graduate Taylor Hargrove. As a sophomore in high school he dedicated most of his time to playing the game he loved, baseball; and many of his teammates did the same. The 1997 team composed of mostly sophomores had given up playing other sports to pursue the dream of a State Championship. Among these young men was Roger Ross, older brother of 2001 TJ grad and current Baltimore Raven Cory Ross.
It was a series of unfortunate events that cost TJ the State Championship; however, it was the turning point in Hargrove’s young life. “It was the most devastating thing because my whole identity was placed into this sport,” he said. Baseball had defined him all his life; if he was doing well on the diamond then he was happy, if he was doing bad then he wasn’t happy. This holds true for the majority of student athletes, although Hargrove describes his infatuation as something greater. “We let our performance on the field dictate who we were as people. I received all my satisfaction from my success on the baseball diamond,” he said.
However, Hargrove evolved with the help of his pastor Eric Hause and a Christian Evangelism conference he attended in the summer of 1997 in Washington D.C. It was an emotional ride as he committed himself to being a servant of God with the belief that he must give up his dream of playing professional baseball to do so. To Hargrove’s benefit, this was not the case. “Instead of using the gift God gave me to play for myself, for the first time in my life, I wasn’t playing for me but for God,” he explained. Now that he wasn’t playing for his own fame, stats didn’t matter to him, and the reason why he played was because it was God’s gift to him as well as his love for the game.
This transformation proved to be the deciding factor when he was picking a college to attend. With offers to play at multiple schools in California, Hargrove opted to continue his playing career at Nyack College, a small Christian school in New York, where he would study pastoral ministry. “It wasn’t the best baseball school, but it helped prepare me for life,” explained Hargrove. At Nyack Hargrove excelled on the baseball diamond, and going into his senior season the Philadelphia Phillies had an interest in the fleet-of-foot senior from Denver, Colorado. Hargrove led his league in batting average, hitting a formidable .476, and RBIs with one and a half per game average; as well as nine other offensive categories out of a possible 11. It appeared like he would definitely be a part of the upcoming MLB Draft. However, late in the season he got taken out during a play and tore his MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament). Due to the injury, Hargrove was not drafted, and with nowhere else to go he found his way back home, to Denver.
However, the relentless Hargrove wasn’t down and out just yet. He began rehabilitation and training at Phisio Pro, a small private physical therapy practice that helped him get back on his feet. After uniting with some of his 1997 State Runner-Up teammates to play on a few summer ball teams, he began trying out for pro scouts. His first endeavor was for the Cincinnati Reds, but it did not go nearly as well as he had hoped. As Hargrove summed it up, “I just didn’t have it that day.”
But Hargrove’s journey had just begun: he was in pursuit of his dreams and there was no looking back. After the Red’s try-out, he went on a rampage auditioning wherever and whenever he could. This expedition led Hargrove to more than 25 states, 2 Canadian provinces, and covered over five thousand miles.
Thomas Jefferson’s current Head Baseball Coach Tory Humphrey had a connection that landed Hargrove at what would be the biggest try-out of his life. Former TJ Spartan and New York Mets scout John Stearns was the one who gave him his shot. Stearns has had his fair share of sports experience, as he was an All-American in both football and baseball at the University of Colorado. His connection with TJ and Humphrey set Hargrove up with a private try-out for the Mets organization. “If everyone used their connections like Coach Humphrey did, a lot more people’s dreams would be coming true,” reflected Taylor Hargrove. At 22 years old, Hargrove’s life had just really begun; however, in a league full of talented 18-year-old young men, it seemed this was his last shot. According to Stearns, Hargrove had what it took to make it to the next level, and after a short waiting period Hargrove got the call.
Hargrove was invited to extended spring training for the New York Mets and his dream had officially come true. It was a long hard journey where he had seen many ups and downs, but Hargrove is living proof that if you can dream it, you can do it. He describes his joy of putting on that professional uniform as one of the most happy and relieving feelings of his life. “I really appreciated it more than a lot of the other guys, because I had worked a lot harder to get there,” he reminisced. Hargrove spent that early spring living his dream of being a professional baseball player. But as spring training was coming to a close, so was his dream. “In the business of professional sports you stick with your investments,” noted Hargrove. "They had invested in guys of the same talent level as me, just three years younger." Sadly, Hargrove’s bid for the majors fell just short of paydirt.
Most people’s dreams only stay dreams because they refuse to act on them. Hargrove was the opposite. He lived his dream, and although it came to a close for him, he says that he realized God had other plans for him. He is now content letting the professional baseball door close as a whole new journey opens up for him. Now Hargrove wishes to empower others to follow their dreams, as he did, because there is nothing sweeter than living the dream. You can ask him all about it next time you see him in a TJ classroom, or coaching on the TJ baseball diamond, where it all began for him.
