 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| | | | | | | | |
Baseball America: 'Josh Sale Joins "From Phenom To The Farm:" Episode 37'
By Kyle Bandujo on August 24, 2021
“From Phenom to the Farm” releases new episodes every other Tuesday featuring players whose experiences vary across the professional baseball spectrum. Players will discuss their personal experiences going from high school graduation to the life of a professional baseball player.
In 2010, Josh Sale entered professional ball as a first-round pick with a powerful lefthanded swing. By 2015, he was out of baseball, cast aside as a pariah—undone by his own actions.
The outfielder from the Seattle high school ranks entered the 2010 draft lauded for a tenacious work ethic in the weight room (something inherited from his father, a former competitive powerlifter), and outstanding makeup. Well-spoken and intelligent, the Rays were sold on Sale as a player and a person, and made him the No. 17 pick—signing for a $1.62 million bonus.
The scouts might have been sold on Sale’s work ethic, but when he himself looks back, indications of his future struggles were under-the-radar, but present.
“Hindsight being 20/20, there was a lot of stuff that I hadn’t quite figured out off the field,” said Sale. “When it came to relationships, human interaction, knowing when and where to be—and even if I did know when and where to be, not getting myself in trouble by knowing where I should be, (but) being somewhere else.”
Even before he signed, Sale had a life off the field that detracted from his aspirations as a professional baseball player. In what would become a theme of his professional career, from the get-go Sale would attempt to outwork his personal demons.
“In terms of putting in the work to better myself as a baseball player, I doubled down on myself—I grew up living in a cage,” said Sale. “Unfortunately on the flip side, there was some of the stuff I was doing off the field, I’d come into a bunch of money straight out of high school (…) I’d party just as hard as I would train.”
Sale struggled during his professional debut at short-season Princeton, and his second season at Bowling Green ended prematurely with a suspension for a banned stimulant. Slowly but surely his career began to nosedive.
He’d be suspended by the Rays for the entire 2013 season for an off-the-field incident, and his 2014 season in High-A would end with a suspension for a drug of abuse. The following spring the Rays cut ties with their former first round pick.
“The main focus of that conversation was, ‘Baseball should not be your number one priority right now, you need to get yourself right,’” said Sale. “When I got the call for my release, I was in a position where I couldn’t stop doing something if you paid me (…) it was bad.”
Sale began a life without baseball—he didn’t pick up a bat for over two years, and continued his fight with addiction and self-destructive tendencies.
Motivated by steadfast support from his girlfriend and a desire to be a present father to his young son, in 2018 Sale began to emerge from his hole. He began to coach baseball worked to take back control of his life. .
“That’s where I found my understanding of the fact—let’s forget baseball for a second, if I’m going to have any chance at being able to maintain the relationship that I’m in, if I’m going to have any chance of being able to be there for my son, and if there’s going to be any chance to right some wrongs with mainly my parents through all that I did, I’m going to have to do something drastic.”
Putting in the work with baseball had always come naturally, but Sale began to finally put that work ethic into his lifestyle—focusing on fatherhood, his relationship with his longtime girlfriend, and getting sober.
With his life in order for the first time in nearly a decade, Sale got back in the batting cage to make another run at his big league dreams. Over six years after the Rays had cut him loose, Sale found himself once again taking his powerful left-handed swing to a professional baseball lineup with Gastonia of the Atlantic League—this time able to take it all in with a clear mind.
“It was therapy, to be honest,” said Sale.
As of Aug. 23, Sale is leading the Atlantic League in home runs, living in Gastonia with his girlfriend and son, and relishing his second chance at life and baseball.
On the latest episode of ‘From Phenom to the Farm,’ former first-round pick and current Gastonia Honey Hunter Josh Sale joins to discuss his career, struggles with addiction, journey to sobriety, and comeback in professional baseball.
|
Browse by Month »
May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 |
