The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FOR the past decade, Albert Cartwright has been on the pro baseball circuit and, although he has not been able to break into the major league, he admitted that he felt he had a good run at it.

Cartwright, who last played in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league, is now playing in the Canadian-American Association where he has spent the past two seasons with the Ottawa Champions.

Home for the holidays, Cartwright said Tuesday was all about Tahnaj Thomas, the latest Bahamian to sign a professional baseball contract.

“It’s been a long journey. It’s been four years of ups and downs, not knowing if he would sign having converted from an infielder to a pitcher,” Cartwright said.

“That’s how the game goes. So I’m just happy to be able to help another guy fulfil his dream. Today is very special. I know when I got drafted my mother couldn’t hold it together. She was more excited than me. This is his day, another day for the Bahamas to be proud.”

At age 29, Cartwright said he feels he’s getting closer to the end of the line but he wants to continue to assist wherever he can with the younger players coming up the ladder.

“I remember when I was hitting, but now I’m doing more throwing trying to help the other guys make the transition,” Cartwright said.

Drafted in round 36 in 2007 by the Houston Oilers out of Polk State Junior College in Florida, Cartwright has been a journeyman in the minor league before he moved to Canada. He’s expected to return there in January, although he’s not sure how much longer he will continue to play.

“It’s been a long journey. But the journey won’t stop. I will continue to be involved in baseball,” he insisted. “I want to try to continue helping people out and try to represent the Bahamas and make this thing global.

“We have a lot of guys trying to turn things around. I know when I was growing up it was basically just Antoan Richardson and me. We laugh everyday. Now we have so many other guys following us.”

During his second sting with Ottawa, Cartwright played in 91 games where he went 110-for-377 with a batting average of .292. He posted 23 doubles, two triples and three home runs with 34 runs batted in. He also had 26 stolen bases and 32 walks (base on balls) after getting struck out 68 times.

Playing second base in 81 games, Cartwright recorded 169 put outs in 441 chances, making 253 assists, 19 errors and 47 double plays for a fielding average of .957.

While he has enjoyed his tenure so far in both the Minor League and the Canadian-American Association, Cartwright said he would have liked to had an opportunity to crack the major league, but he’s not disappointed at all that he didn’t.

“There’s a lot of things that take place to get to the big league,” he said. “In baseball, there are a lot of politics on the side because you have at least 300 players trying to do the same thing that you are doing.

“So it’s definitely a gift to get up there and it’s a luxury to stay there. I am disappointed, but I understand how the game goes. Those things you try not to think about. I just try to go out there and play baseball everyday.”

In September, Cartwright and Richardson played for Great Britain at the World Baseball Classic in New York, but this time they had an additional seven other Bahamians on the team.

Like many, Cartwright said he’s longing for the day when the Bahamas will be able to field its own team to play in the tournament.

“It was just a pleasure to come out there with seven Bahamians in the line-up,” he said. “That could have been a Bahamian team. But it was a pleasure and every day we cherished it.

“Every morning me and Antoan got the guys up for breakfast so we could keep it tight knot. In the clubhouse, it was so nice to see all of us connecting. We had Chavez Young playing some Bahamian music and dancing to the Ronnie Butler songs in the clubhouse.”

Cartwright called it the highlight of his year and he enjoyed every moment of it with the camaraderie displayed by the younger Bahamian players.

With the Bahamas Government rebuilding the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium, Cartwright said he’s looking forward to some big teams coming to the Bahamas to play or at least practice here.

“We have the talent and we have the guys,” he said. “We just have to bring the teams down so that we can take the game to another level.”

To the younger players in the pipeline here in the Bahamas, Cartwright said he just want to encourage them to remain focused and committed to the cause.

“I just want them to lean on each other. That’s the only way you can get through,” he insisted. “When we get out there, I’m just trying to teach these guys the right way to play the game because that’s the only way they will get to the big leagues.”

And even though it’s an off season for him now, Cartwright said he’s as busy as a bee, getting up at 5 am to get his workout in before he head to the Pinewood field to work with the Max D programme from noon until.

“It’s a journey. We just had Tahnaj Thomas signed his contract today, but a lot of people don’t know what he went through,” Cartwright revealed. “It was as time when some people didn’t let him plsy.

“Sometimes he came to the park and they say he was too small, not strong enough and there was one time that he went in the stands and sit down weith us. That’s the journey that people wouyldn’t underatand our know. That’s all through the minor league.

“When you sign that paper, that’s a good day, but tomorrow is when the battle start. I know I went through it, others went through and now he has to go through it. But I’m sure that with all of us pushing each other, he can make it too.”

So it doesn’t matter how much longer he play professionally, Cartwright said he will always have a role to play because he want to see as many Bahamian players get the chance that he got to realize his dream of playing professional baseball.