Baseball star Justin Huber visited his old primary school stomping ground on Monday to teach Grade 4 students Tealiah and Zac the tricks of the T-ball trade. Picture: RUSSELL BENNETT
By RUSSELL BENNETT
FROM his first T-ball swing as an Emerald Primary School Prep to hitting future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson out of the park for his first Major League Baseball homerun, Justin Huber has had a dream run.
The 30-year-old first baseman came back to where his amazing journey started on Monday as he visited his old primary school to preach the good baseball word.
“It all began here as a Prep in 1988 with Mr King, my PE teacher,” Huber said.
“He lent me my first T-ball glove.
“I was just fortunate enough to have such a sporting visionary in him.
“He always looked outside the box, sporting-wise.”
Huber, whose parents still live in Emerald, came back to the school in his role as Baseball Victoria’s participation manager – looking to grow the sport in his home community.
Drafted by the New York Mets in 2000 as the 20th all-time Australian MLB player, Huber’s career is one millions of kids the world over could only dream of. He has played in all the major markets – from the United States, to Japan, to Latin America.
He is currently a free agent, and with many baseballers playing well into their late thirties or even early forties, he has far from given up hope of returning to the MLB.
But if that call never comes, he’s still thrilled in his current role.
“Seeing kids laughing, giggling, carrying on and playing T-ball or baseball is pretty fulfilling for me,” he said.
“My heart was really in the Major League and there wasn’t a real opportunity there this year.
“There were opportunities to keep playing but I thought my time was better spent at home with family and putting energy back into the sport at the grassroots level here.”
Huber is still playing domestically, with the Australian Baseball League’s Melbourne Aces franchise. Next March he will play for his national team at the World Baseball Classic – a showcase keenly watched by countless MLB scouts.
“Anything could happen,” Huber said.
“You can go from sitting behind a desk to lining up in front of 50,000 people just like that.
“The opportunities are real.
“We’ve got some local examples, like Peter Moylan who was a pharmaceutical sales representative and now he’s a star MLB pitcher with the Atlanta Braves. “That stuff happens in baseball and it’s very dissimilar to other sports like that.”
Huber said baseball was regarded as “the average man’s sport” because “you don’t need to be six-foot-five to play it”.
“You don’t need to be the tallest, the fastest, the strongest or the best athlete.”
Huber still marvels at having played against the Yankees’ Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.
“They’re just superstars,” he said.
“They’re like Elvis Presley.
“They’re as big of an athlete superstar as you can get in any sport anywhere in the world and they dwarf anything we’ve got here.”
For more information about T-ball competitions, visit: www.aussietball.com.au.
