Some guys leave professional baseball — the Charleston, S.C. River Dogs, in this case — lamenting they didn't get an opportunity, a chance to play, saying whatever comforted their bruised egos.
Not Larry Day of Amesbury, a graduate of St. John's Prep and the University of Connecticut, who retired from the Yankees system, a 23-year-old catcher who had enough self pride to call it quits and look in another direction, coaching in college or on the high-school stage.
Day looked in the mirror and didn't like what he saw, a young guy who had a deep passion for the game, was hardly active, and came to the conclusion that making it behind the plate at Yankee Stadium one day was an unachievable accomplishment.
It's called a voluntary retirement. He packed up and left June 19. He was a bullpen catcher for the River Dogs of the South Atlantic League (SAL). He had a run-scoring double in his first SAL at bat and was batting .067, 1-for-15. He had struck out three times and notched another RBI on a sacrifice fly.
He couldn't praise the Yankees enough for treating him so well.
"I don't have a single complaint," Day said. "I went to the personnel director here, and he was totally honest and up-front with me. He even thought I had coaching ability and perhaps could return some day as a coach. But it was what it was. They had better players than (me).
"The Yankees," Day went on, "are a class organization, and I'll be forever grateful to them for making my (pro baseball) dream come true."
As Day said, he saw the writing on the wall.
"In the role I was serving, bullpen catcher, I wasn't in a position to portray the love and passion that I have for baseball just being in the bullpen every night. Going to the field every day and knowing I was not getting a chance to compete was hard. I wasn't able to portray any energy for the game," Day said.
He was a pretty good hitter at UConn and was All-East (preseason as well) in his junior year, but slumped to .260 as a senior.
Nor did he light it up with the bat for the Yankees' Gulf Coast Rookie League championship team after the Yankees picked him in the 50th round. He was Mr. Irrelevant, the final choice in the 2007 draft.
"I was No. 1,453. The odds of a final draft choice making it? God, I don't know. Hopefully one will some day," he said.
Day never put much stock in that Mr. Irrelevant situation. It's a big deal in the NFL. It's a wire story that goes nationally after the NFL draft. "I never got a call about it," he said.
He knew in his heart and stomach that it was in his best interest to try another baseball vocation, and that's coaching. That's what he's doing for the Orleans Cardinals in the Cape Cod League this summer.
"I'm lucky. There's no better place to start. I coach the catchers and serve as bench coach for Kelly Nicholson, who coaches a high school in Los Angeles. I played for the Cardinals here, but I was behind a first rounder. I played once every five days."
He is job-searching for the minute. He called St. John's Prep headmaster Skip Shannon about any possible teacher positions. He'd love to work with Pat Yanchus, his former baseball coach whom he greatly respects. They talk often. He is open to school or college openings, and hopes to retain his position in the Cape League and gain more experience at that level.
For that he'd need to be a teacher-coach in the high school ranks or a college coach.
"I'm still wearing a uniform and I'll always have a uniform, hopefully. God willing, I will continue to have a uniform on my back. Who knows?" he said.
"I do know I have more to give baseball than being a bullpen catcher," Day said.
He never had an agent.
"My father (Larry, a Nahant native and Amesbury postmaster) said sign for nothing, go, and give it your best. I hope I made him proud," the son said.
Never was he more psyched than in spring training, when the Yanks called him up to be the bullpen catcher. He almost felt like pinching himself.
He met Joe Girardi, the Yankees manager; warmed up Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina and Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen and shared the lockerroom for two days.
"Memorable stuff," he said. "I even got a chance to talk catching with Jorge Posada."
Day said he "loves this game more than anything" and owes much to Yanchus, his UConn coach, Jim Penders, and the guys at Extra Innings (Rob Nash, Joe Lewis, Mike Moroney, and Peter Feeley), as well as Matt Hyde, the Yankees' coach who drafted him.
You just know Larry Day will be a Yankees' fan hereafter.
