August 24: All Things Being Equal, West Expects To Play Four Or Five More Years

Before the 2009 Northern League season began, Kevin West lost 30 pounds and got into, what he called, the best shape of his career.

For West, it was going to be Year 2 in Winnipeg and he not only wanted to give himself a chance to get back into organized ball, but he wanted to give the Goldeyes the best baseball player he could give them.

“I owed it to this franchise,” West said at the time. “They’ve treated me as well or better than any place I’ve ever played and I owed it to them to have the best season I could this year.”

Heading into this week’s final homestand of 2009, West has played pretty well. He’s hitting .290 with 101 hits, 22 doubles, 19 home runs (third in the Northern League), 66 runs driven in (fourth), 54 runs scored, 41 extra base hits (fourth) and a .517 slugging percentage.

In all, it’s been a solid season for West and one that he thought just might get him a call from a big league organization. But so far, that call hasn’t come and now that he’s nearly 30, he has to wonder if that call will ever come.

“Should my age hurt me?” West responded when the question was put to him Monday afternoon. “Sure. I’m nearly 30, I guess it could hurt me. But there are so many plus-30 guys in Triple A ball. I mean, have you seen how many 30-plus-year-old guys in organized baseball are free agents every year and they get signed at the Triple A level?

“It’s like a big fraternity in Triple A. I’m just not part of that fraternity. It’s not that I played my way out of the fraternity. My numbers were OK. For reasons I don’t know, I’m not in the brotherhood anymore. That’s why I’m playing in Winnipeg, trying to get back.”

West hit .272 with 12 homers and 47 RBIs in 334 at-bats at Triple A Oklahoma City in 2007 when released by the Texas Rangers (he had been released by the Minnesota Twins in 2006). He wound up in Winnipeg in 2008, where he hit .317 with 18 homers and 74 RBIs. His Triple A numbers were always decent (.278 in Rochester in 2004, .271 in 2005 and .246 in 2006), but not decent enough to stay employed at that level.

So now, he’s almost 30, and two years removed from organized baseball and it becomes more and more unlikely – not impossible, but unlikely – that he’ll ever get the big call again.

So does he plan on continuing to play independent ball?

“Sure,” he said. “All things being equal – no injuries, no illness, anything like that – I think I can play four or five more years.

“There is no doubt that I said the first month I was here last year, that if I was going to play independent baseball, it would be in Winnipeg. This is the place I want to play. I get treated so well here. My son loves it. He gets to be in the clubhouse every day and not many kids get to do that.

“My wife understands that I love to play baseball and it’s not out of my system yet. This is what I want to do and she’d rather have me happy doing what I want to do than miserable doing something that I have to do.”

When the season ends, West will head back to Florida, where his family spends the off-season and either find a job in winter ball or else work in the service industry, just as he did last year. The Wests aren’t wealthy, but they own a nice home in Florida and have paid off both their vehicles.

“You know what a player is paid in the Northern League and you know we’re not wealthy, but we do OK,” he said. “There is good money to be made in the restaurant and bar industry in Florida. If my wife (Melissa) needs to work, she can always get a job as a server or a bartender. When I met her, she was a bartender at a place on the beach in Fort Myers and I just happened to be having a drink at her bar.

“We have a great quality of life when we’re in Winnipeg and a great quality of life when we’re in Florida. I’m not too concerned about how much money we make, because I’m also free to play baseball.

“One of the great things about the service industry in Florida is that it’s pretty seasonal. You can take a job and walk away after a few months and nobody gets hurt. I haven’t had any calls from organized baseball yet, but I intend to play next year. If not in a big league organization, then I hope it’s here. Right now I’m just thinking about winning a championship and then going home and getting into even better shape than I was this past year.”