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Sports

SSHS Grad to Pitch in Pro Baseball League

Mike Roth, a 2005 SSHS graduate, was drafted by the Brockton Rox of the Can-Am league.

Most little leaguers aspire for glory. They want to hit homeruns at the plate and strike out batters from the mound.  They want to be Reggie Jackson and Doc Gooden. They don’t usually dream of being Jeff Nelson.

Nine year olds don’t typically aim to be a middle reliever that pitches everyday and gets groundball outs, but that's exactly the route that South Side High School alum Mike Roth took to get to the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball. Roth, 23, was recently drafted by the Brockton Rox.

Roth, New York Institute of Technology's all-time saves leader, uses a funky, sidearm delivery that keeps batters off-balance, he said, making it hard for them to locate the ball and get a read on its movement. He conceived his throwing motion one day while watching his favorite player: former Yankees middle reliever Jeff Nelson.

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“I’ve thrown sidearm since I was nine years old," Roth said. "I was watching Nelson throw with a three-quarter delivery, and I thought to myself, ‘that’s pretty cool.' The higher up you get in baseball, the more creative you can be with it, and it’s the only way you can survive if you can’t throw very hard, so my delivery went down. I always was a Jeff Nelson guy, not a Derek Jeter guy.”

Roth was never one to overpower hitters with his fastball, he said, but instead he changes speed and pitches to contact. He throws a sinker, cut fastball, slider and a changeup. He uses the cutter as an out-pitch against lefty batters, Roth said, and the sinker is his best pitch against righties.

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Roth points to his coach at NYIT, Bob Hirschfield, for helping him get to the next level by encouraging him to perfect his sinker – a sidearm pitcher’s best asset, he said.

“My coach in college really helped me develop my sinker, he told me ‘you will never see the field if you don’t get this baseball to sink.’” Roth said. "If you’re a sidearm pitcher and your sinker isn’t your best pitch, you won’t last very long and he taught me that.”

Roth said he never was the best pitcher on the field, but was craftier and more determined to succeed than his opponents. Roth, who graduated from South Side High School in 2005, will turn 24 in June and joked that he never dominated any league — not even RVC Little League.

“I played Rockville Centre baseball for a few years," he said. "I had a regular career, I was by far not the best player, but I think that helped me. The key is to keep playing and trying, even if there are kids better than you. You have to persevere and be able to be coached up. I was also lucky when there was a soccer game, because half the team wouldn’t show up and I got to play. Sometimes you have to get knocked down a few pegs before you can move forward – not just in baseball, but in life.”

Roth said he hopes the lessons he learned in RVC little league, South Side High School and during his tenure at NYIT, will aid him as he begins his professional baseball career.

“I bring a lot to Brockton," he said. "I'm durable, I have longevity, I can pitch everyday, and I recover from appearances quickly. The best thing you can do as a pitcher is to have a short memory, and I have one of those. I look forward to success. I get to do what I love and get paid for it. I collect a check to go out there and throw a ball around.”

 

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