A decade ago, Andy Pratt (left) and Jason Olson were teammates at Chino Valley High School. They're back on the same roster, this time as Somerset (N.J.) Patriots
Jason Olson and Andy Pratt couldn't have imagined that after 10 years apart their paths would cross again on a baseball diamond more than 2,000 miles away from their childhood home in Chino Valley.
Teammates on the Chino Valley High School baseball team for two standout seasons in 1995 and 1996, Olson and Pratt have traversed dissimilar routes in hopes of realizing the same dream ‹ becoming major league pitchers.
Although their plans haven't gone the way they had initially hoped, they are still playing the sport they love ‹ only now as teammates on the Somerset Patriots, an elite minor league independent squad in New Jersey.
The Patriots, three-time Atlantic League champions (2001, 2003, 2005), carried a 20-25 second-half record through Friday. Somerset has a shot at making the playoffs but is sitting in the bottom of the four-team South division standings with a 19-24 record, five games behind leader Atlantic City (24-19).
Olson and Pratt, who are best friends and room together when they're on road trips with the Patriots of the eight-team Atlantic League, have known each other for 15 years. They played summer ball at CVHS for two years and cherished that time. In the off-season from September through February, they live in Arizona.
"It's been very interesting (playing together again)," Olson said. "We wanted to do it at some point. We hadn't played on the same field since 1996. ŠThat was a long time ago when I didn't have to shave."
Pratt said the experience has been fun, similar to the self-described roller coaster ride he's had in pro baseball.
"It's kind of weird," Pratt said Saturday from Central Islip, N.Y., where he and Olson were watching college football on TV after Somerset's game against the Long Island Ducks was postponed because of rain from Hurricane Ernesto. "What are the odds of going to a high school with 800 kids in Arizona and ending up on the same minor league team thousands of miles away?"
Pratt was a Class 3A All-State left-handed pitcher for Chino Valley from 1995-98 who garnered immediate attention from pro scouts. Ironically it was the lesser-known Olson, a junior when Pratt was a freshman at CVHS, who helped his old buddy find a spot on the Patriots' roster.
Now a Patriots reliever, Pratt spent brief stints with the Atlanta Braves (2002), Chicago Cubs (2004) and, most recently, with the Milwaukee Brewers organization, which released him in May. When Olson heard the bad news, he told Pratt he would put in a good word for him with the Patriots. Somerset signed Pratt a short time later.
Pratt currently sports a 2-0 record with a 5.87 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 23 innings for the Patriots. Pratt said he still has his sights set on returning to the majors.
"It's just about being consistent with all your pitches and trying to be the same guy on the mound every time out," he said. "In the minor leagues it's all development, but in the majors you have to be ready."
Olson, a right-handed reliever who's a year older than Pratt, inked a contract with the Patriots this past year but has been a professional since 2000. He pitched in the Los Angeles Dodgers' system for five years until last August, when he joined the Los Angeles Angels for a short time. Olson's had severe elbow problems, going through two Tommy John surgeries, the last one in 2003.
The 27-year-old Pratt (6-0, 180) played three seasons of Triple-A ball for the Braves, Cubs and Brewers. He started 2006 in Double-A for the Brewers, pitching in 16 games before coming to the Patriots.
Olson (6-2, 180), 28, spent the end of the 2005 season in Triple-A for the Angels, but seems content in Somerset.
"It's gone real well. It's a good league with a lot of competition," said Olson, who has a 4-3 record with a 4.28 ERA in 48 1/3 innings for the Patriots. "ŠWe've played some really strong teams. I didn't realize how good the talent would be."
