Ben Petrick

Benjamin Wayne Petrick (born April 7, 1977) is a former Major League Baseball player. A native of Oregon, he grew-up in Hillsboro, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area. After reaching the Majors, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and retired in 2004 and returned to Hillsboro to coach at his old high school. As of 2013 he has been a consultant for the Hillsboro Hops, a minor-league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, helping the team's young players acclimatize to life as a professional baseball player.

Early life

Petrick, who was born in Salem, Oregon, was a highly accomplished athlete while attending Glencoe High School^[1] in Hillsboro, Oregon. He was recruited heavily to play both football and baseball, and ended up going straight into the Colorado Rockies' farm system when they drafted him in the second round (38th overall) of the 1995 amateur entry draft.^[2]

Minor leagues

His first season in the minors was for the single-A Asheville Tourists of the South Atlantic League in 1996.^[3] The next season he spent with the high-A Salem Avalanche, and for the 1998 season he was promoted to the AA New Haven Ravens.^[3] Petrick then played for the AA Carolina Mudcats to start the 1999 season before being promoted to the Rockies' AAA affiliate, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox after 20 games.^[3]

Major Leagues

He was called up to the Colorado Rockies for the first time in 1999 and hit .323 with 4 home runs in only 62 at-bats.^[2] In 2000, he hit .322 in 52 games for the major league club.^[2] However, he soon experienced a dramatic drop off in production, hitting only .238 in 85 games in 2001. On July 13, 2003, Petrick was acquired by the Detroit Tigers from Colorado in exchange for pitcher Adam Bernero.^[2] After an unsuccessful stint with the Tigers, Petrick was released. He attempted a brief comeback with the AAA Portland Beavers and the Toledo Mud Hens, and then retired.^[3]

Later life

In May 2004, when Petrick announced his retirement from baseball, he disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease after the 1999 season.^[4] He revealed that as time went on, it had become clear that despite the medication and treatment he was receiving, the effects of Parkinson's would no longer allow him to play baseball at a high level. Even though he received the diagnosis, he later found out it was late stage chronic lyme disease.

Petrick did numerous interviews and spoke publicly about his story at various events and fundraisers in order to raise awareness of Parkinson's disease. His father Vern (former athletic director at Glencoe) also suffers from Parkinson's. Ben Petrick now coaches baseball and football at Glencoe.

Petrick is married to Kellie Starkey; they have two daughters.^[5] Petrick's aunt is Connie Ballmer, wife of Microsoft CEO and billionaire Steve Ballmer.

Petrick and Scott Brown have written a book called 40,000 to One (ISBN 0615583458), a collection of short stories from his life; they also have a blog at tumblr called Faith In the Game.

In January 2013, the Hillsboro Hops announced that Petrick would join the Hops coaching staff as a consultant, assisting team "acclimating to life as a professional baseball player."^[6]

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Faith In The Game at Tumblr
• "Petrick's battles are off the field now" by Norm Maves Jr., from The Oregonian
• "Under Our Skin" a film from Andy Wilson and Open Eye Pictures
• Strength From Weakness - ESPN E:60