Closer Greg Lane and other members of the Binghamton University baseball team were huddled around a table at an airport on March 5. There was no TV nearby, so the Bearcats, waiting to board a flight for a weekend series, had to follow the play-by-play of an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and Team Canada on Lane’s cellphone.
The reaction was not subdued when a strikeout of Mark Teixeira, the Yankees new first baseman and the highest paid free agent this offseason, flashed across the screen. Scott Diamond, a former Bearcats pitcher, caught him looking with a fastball, low and away.
“All of a sudden it said, ‘Teixeira down on strikes.’ The whole table couldn’t believe it,” said Lane, a close friend and former housemate of Diamond’s. “We were yelling across the terminal, ‘Hey coach! Diamond just struck out Teixeira!’ It was unbelievable.”
Diamond, a 22-year-old southpaw who’s a part of the Atlanta Braves organization, went on to earn the win against the Yankees with two innings of no-hit ball. He walked two and struck out one more batter, Angel Berroa. But before the game, warming up in the bullpen in Tampa, Fla., Diamond was nervous.
“It was a little nerve-wracking at first,” he said. “I was struggling to locate and show any signs of command. Then they started reading the lineup. But once I got out there, I felt like whatever happens happens.”
Four days later, Diamond pitched in the 16-team World Baseball Classic, an international tournament held every four years. He made one appearance, allowing one run in three innings in Canada’s last game, a 6-2 elimination loss on March 9.
“The game itself was a heartbreaker. I think we came out a little anxious and, you know, played a little on our heels,” Diamond said. “But at the same time I threw all right and it was definitely a learning experience.”
More than a learning experience, pitching in front of 12,411 fans at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays, was a homecoming. Diamond grew up in Guelph, Ontario, and for the first time was able to share the same uniform as fellow Canadians Jason Bay and Justin Morneau, who are major league mainstays. For a time, Diamond wasn’t even sure if he would make the roster. And just two years ago in late March, Diamond was pitching for the Bearcats, gearing up for America East play as some of his former teammates still at BU are now.
“We all met at our first practice,” Diamond said. “We had a big tradition of playing a hockey game right before we really started practicing. That was kind of fun; it was kind of like road hockey. Growing up in Canada, it was like second nature to all of us.”
During the tournament WBC, Diamond learned the most from coach Paul Quantrill, a former major league pitcher. Off the field, the highlight was a pickup hockey game between the players.
Diamond spent three seasons with Binghamton, from 2005 to 2007. He went undrafted after his junior year in 2007, his first year of eligibility after high school, but signed with the Braves in August.
In his first professional season in 2008, Diamond posted a 2.89 ERA in 24 starts between Low-A and High-A, and was named by the organization as its High-A pitcher of the year. At the Braves training complex now in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Diamond says he’s fully healthy and working on little things, like holding base runners on and his pickoff move.
“I look at it like, a year and a half ago, I was pitching for Binghamton, I had gone undrafted,” Diamond said. “Now I look at it. I had a pretty good year with the Braves last year, which gave me the opportunity to pitch in the WBC and now I’m on the Triple-A roster for spring training. It’s unreal.”
Diamond said he likely will be sent to Double-A Mississippi to start the year. The jump from Single-A to Double-A, it is often said, is the most difficult in professional baseball, but it comes with an imminent reward — Double-A players have legitimate potential for receiving a major league call-up.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility, either. Diamond has started to make a name for himself. He was ranked in the top 30 prospects in the Braves’ organization by Baseball America in the offseason, and Atlanta manager Bobby Cox knows his name. Tim Schum, a former BU athletics administrator, visited Braves camp and mentioned Diamond to Cox.
“I mentioned pridefully that he had a promising BU pitcher, Scott Diamond, in his ranks,” Schum said by e-mail. “He said he had heard good things about him and was looking forward to seeing him in action.”
Diamond stays in touch with his former Bearcats teammates as much as he can, checking in on weekends with Lane and pitcher Jeff Dennis, who was drafted last season and likely will be again this year.
Diamond has already gone further in the pro ranks than any Bearcats player in recent history. For Tim Sinicki’s baseball program, Diamond’s climb has provided invaluable exposure. Greg Lane called the lefty “an ambassador.”
“I think we’ve seen some feedback from recruits, people who are obviously interested in our program,” Sinicki said. “They check out our Web site and things that have been posted in there about Scotty and his success. We do see some positive results this year and the effects of it on our program.”
The effect Sinicki isn’t sure of, however, is the one watching Diamond’s major league debut would have on him.
“I’m not sure that I’m smart enough to express in words what I’d be feeling,” said Sinicki, who’s in his 17th year as Binghamton’s head coach. A former player of his has yet to make the big leagues. “I’m not sure what the right word is. If that moment ever comes, I’ll have to wait until it happens to be able to really describe what I’m feeling personally and professionally.”