Richard Hyatt: When the baseball dream is over

Ty Kelley can’t remember when he didn’t have the dream.

It was the dream so many little boys have, and for 24 summers he lived that dream.

This one will be different. This summer there will be no baseball. His six-year bus ride through professional baseball is ending.

“I know God has a plan for me. I just have to figure out what it is,” said Kelley, ending a journey that never got him where he wanted to be.

He’s helping boys at the Peach Little League, boys who have the same dream he had. Through them he is rediscovering a game he had almost forgotten.

“I teach baseball, and it is a joy to see them having fun like we used to have,” he said.

He started at Lakebottom Park, won two state championships at Columbus High and pitched for Auburn University. He assumed that one day he’d wear a big league uniform with his name on the back.

That moment never came, unless you count a meaningless spring training game in 2012 when he came out of the bullpen in a Los Angeles Angels uniform and saved a game against the San Diego Padres.

Mostly he played in towns a GPS couldn’t find, pitching for the Kernels, 66ers, Travelers, Jackals and Red Hawks. But when you have that dream, you take what baseball gives you.

He’s 27, and he retires with a 20-14 record. He struck out 279 batters in 302 innings and had an earned run average of 3.25. His most memorable summer was 2012 when he went 6-1 with a 1.66 ERA and 19 saves.

After the Angels dropped him he spent two years in an independent league, reinventing himself as a starting pitcher, hoping MLB would notice. Teams ignored him, and the message grew clearer. On April 1, his name showed up as a transaction. The Fargo-Morehead Red Hawks had released him.

He does not know what’s next, but he’s at peace — though he never got to hit in 189 professional games.

“This pitcher had a no-hitter going and our DH was hurt. I was going to hit. I even had my helmet on in the on-deck circle. But he struck out the side and the game was over.”

And now it’s over for him.

This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Richard Hyatt: When the baseball dream is over."