Broadcast by Josh Conner
Story by Brittany McGee
WILMINGTON, North Carolina — Ashton McGee was excited as he drove through Goldsboro’s streets late that March evening. His bags were packed, and his plane ticket was set for him to leave for Glendale, Arizona, the next day for baseball spring training.
But his excitement was tempered by concern about the news reports saying the COVID-19 virus was spreading faster and infecting more people across the country.
The 18th round draft pick for the Milwaukee Brewers organization worried about what that might mean for his first season in minor league baseball. Another major professional sports league, the NBA, had just cancelled its season the day before. And state and local governments were beginning to issue social distance orders.
He was right to be worried.
Before completing his drive, he received a call from the Brewers organization informing him that training would be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. McGee’s dreams were put on hold.
The Wolf You Feed
Five months later, Run DMC’s song “It’s Tricky” blares through the Wilmington gym as McGee warms up, preparing for a work-out with his trainer, Hudson Rose. The season is cancelled, but McGee wants to be sure he is ready when minor league baseball begins again.
Jerseys from other athletes trained by Rose fill one wall of the practically empty facility, and the inspirational line, “The wolf you feed is the wolf who wins,” hangs above them in large, black letters on the back wall. The only people in the gym are McGee, Rose and one other athlete.
Rose jokes about how McGee is causing trouble, which is an outlandish accusation about the mild-mannered athlete. His entire life, his shy demeanor has caused people who don’t know him very well to think that he is stuck-up. But for those who know him, they understand McGee tends to be quiet and keeps to himself.
McGee and Rose are here together three days a week for just over an hour. Rose and the other athlete who is in the gym keep up an almost constant chatter, as they talk sports. McGee focuses on what he is doing, only occasionally chiming in.
Workout over, he grabs a quick lunch from Chick-fil-A, and heads to Fletcher Bates Coastal Athletics for batting practice. McGee bats there for free because he found work at Coastal Athletics coaching 9-year-olds after following his longtime girlfriend, Ivey Wade, to Wilmington, where she attends UNC Wilmington.
“Some people don’t even have cages to hit at,” McGee says. “I’m just lucky I have somewhere to hit.”
Temperatures approach the low 90’s, and the indoor building is cooled only by industrial fans. McGee pays no attention. He scrunches his face up and sticks his tongue out in concentration every time he is about to hit the ball.
He slows down his movements when he’s batting, so he can really feel each motion. McGee analyzes everything, so he can continue to improve. He wants to be better than he was when the season was cancelled.
Neon-Orange Hunting Hat
McGee began playing baseball at 4 years old, taking after his older brothers. As he got older, he began to play football too, and his years were split between the two sports he loved. However, this all changed when he was 13.
He was in his hometown, Goldsboro, when McGee and his best friend, Bryce, went riding on Bryce’s four-wheeler. McGee sat on the front of the four-wheeler in front of the handlebars, as Bryce drove them through the neighborhood. The road was typical for the North Carolina town, with houses on both sides of the streets and a ditch that ran parallel to the road.
In a moment, the neon-orange hunting hat McGee was wearing flew off his head. He made a grab for it, lost his balance and fell off the four-wheeler.
He broke his foot, got a concussion, and his knee, foot, and head needed stitches. “I was scarred up from head to toe,” McGee said. “Even with my broken leg, I couldn’t really move.”
He spent most of his time in recovery in bed and playing Call of Duty. The sudden immobility was hard on him.
When his cast was removed, McGee only had a week to recover before the middle school football season began. He decided to take that football season off and make sure his body had recovered. During the time off, he realized injuries like this were more likely to happen in football and decided baseball would be his sole sport.
The dream is starting to take shape
June 5, 2019. Major League Baseball draft day.
McGee was at baseball practice at UNC-Chapel Hill. Many players on the team were either waiting to hear good news, or still reeling from their own excitement.
The practice ended around noon, and he grabbed something to eat and went home. The longer the day dragged on, the more nervous McGee began to feel about his own prospects. He understood that the MLB was a business and anything could happen depending on what type of player teams wanted to invest in.
McGee had a .285 career batting average. That season he’d had six home runs and driven in 41 runs. He’s been credited with giving the Tar Heels a strong defense, and in 2017 he was voted the ACC Freshman of the Year. Now that it was time for the draft, he could only hope that he had done enough.
At about 4 p.m., he got the call.
“Hey, will you take this certain amount of money?” McGee remembers the area scout for the Brewers asking him while he stood shocked.
He agreed and hung up after a short conversation, still uncertain if that meant he was being drafted. The scout only told him that the organization would get back with him.
A few minutes later he received another call letting him know that he would be the 18th round pick for the Brewers. When McGee went into the living room, where his roommates and a couple of teammates were waiting to celebrate with him, he couldn’t stop smiling.
McGee had worked his entire life for this one moment, but he knew he had more work to do to get to the major leagues.
Dream on Hold
Wade remembers the first time she met McGee in-person seven years ago. They had previously only spoken on the app Kik, connected through mutual friends. She laughs when she thinks about how he was almost too shy to walk up to her and speak. Nowadays, she thinks about how things have changed as they have grown together. During the MLB draft, she constantly watched the news. She wanted to be the first to celebrate with him.
The day before he was due to leave for training, her feelings were mixed. She was happy for him because his dream was coming true, but he would be leaving their home state, and her, behind.
When they found out he would not be going to training because of the pandemic, her feelings were still mixed, but in the opposite way. However, she knew her role was to support him.
McGee knew he needed to find a job and a way to stay in shape during the pandemic. He remembers the things his family has done for him that allows him to play the game that he loves. He feels that he owes it to them to continue to do his best.
“If that day does come, I think about the amount of joy it would bring to my family to make it to the major leagues,” McGee says.
He also remembers how much he has sacrificed during his youth to work on his game. He remembers in high school, when his friends and Wade would get to go to football games every Friday night, he would go to Raleigh to work out. He has put almost 16 years of his life into baseball, and he can’t allow himself to quit now.
McGee knows the odds are against him. According to a study by Baseball America, only one in five players drafted get to the minor leagues, and the success rate among those drafted is less than 20 percent.
He stays optimistic and continues to work. And he knows even if he doesn’t play in the major leagues, his destiny is to be involved in baseball. Whether that is as a player or a coach on the professional, college or high school level.
“I feel like, as long as a team still wants me to play in their organization, I’m going to give it all I’ve got,” McGee says.
