Skyline student and now formal minor leagues player, Scott Schneider has decided that it is time to hang up the cleats and retire. In 2009, he was drafted in the 20th round of the MLB Amateur draft by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Schneider, who grew up in San Diego, began experiencing all sports while he was young. For a short time, he played shortstop and catcher. He attributes how he got started in baseball and his success to his parents.
“Both my parents fully supported my baseball career and the choices I have made.” said Schneider. “They have just as much a part of it as anyone.”
His dad had bought some books about pitching and mechanics to help his son out. His parents helped him to get the coaching he needed to help him succeed.
Buck Taylor was Schneider’s first competitive baseball coach and is now the head coach down at Palomar Community College.
“He was one of the most knowledgeable people I knew about baseball at the time and gave me a huge head start on most other kids my age on the fundamentals of the game and how to be a smart baseball player.” said Schneider. “…He made it real easy for us to play for him because he had a great sense of humor, everybody played and he didn’t worry about winning. He just tried to make it fun and teach us as much as he could, and as it turned out we had a great team, which I don’t think is any coincidence.”
In college at Saint Mary’s, they would play about three to four times a week and the crowds weren’t that big, but they did get to do some exciting things. Their Saint Mary’s team got to play at Miami when they were ranked number 1, at UCLA when they were ranked number 3, and at Stanford. His freshman year of high school the team traveled to LSU for their opening weekend.
“These are things you don’t get to do very much in college baseball.” said Schneider. LSU was a completely different atmosphere. West coast college baseball does not get very big crowds, but LSU had about 7,000 people. It was the most intimidating place to pitch at Schneider mentioned. After the game they were taken over with fans and LSU’s baseball team where they had a huge tailgate.
After his junior year at Saint Mary’s, Schneider was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals. During his season he wasn’t getting too much attention and was possibly seeing a return to Saint Mary’s for his senior year and to graduate. Then while he was pitching a game at UCSB, there were scouts there to look at the UCSB pitcher, Saint Mary’s ended up losing, but Schneider pitched a pretty good game.
About two days later he received a call from a Yankee scout who said that he was going to see him pitch at Oregon State and e-mailed him a questionnaire. His dad has a childhood friend who is now a scout for the Washington Nationals; so his dad told him to call him and ask him his advice. His dad’s friend basically said that if Schneider wanted to play major league ball he should go for it; tell the scouts from Cardinals and Yankees that it isn’t about the money, it’s about baseball. So he called both scouts from Cardinals and Yankees and they both told him to keep his phone on during draft day.
He hadn’t committed yet or been drafted when he started to receive texts from friends about being drafted. He wasn’t too sure about it because he hadn’t committed to Yankees, so his dad decided to go on the computer and they saw that his name had been announced by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jamaal Strong was his scout and he called immediately after to congratulate him and to say that he would be following up the next day to talk logistics of his contract. Mid–June is when the season for A-Ball starts and he spent about a month there before being promoted to a full season club in Quad Cities, Iowa. When the season finished, he went home and enjoyed his first offseason.
Last season, 2011, he was promoted to Double-A ball in Springfield, MS. His teammates would bike to the park rain or shine.
Then this year, he was playing Double-A ball. Instead of his usual role of being a starting pitcher, he was put into the reliever position.
“For a while I was trying everything I could to get back to what I would call my ‘form.’” said Schneider. “I struggled in Double-A, and they’ll say it’s because you’re playing better competition and older guys. Those are factors, but if you’re good, you’re good everywhere.”
For teammate Dean Kiekhefer, Schneider was someone that he looked up to and respected. “He was a leader, we all looked up to him and he taught us many things.” said Kiekhefer. “Honestly, I can say he was one of the best teammates I ever had and will never lose contact with him.”
After that month and a half he spent in Palm Beach, he was released. He didn’t feel ashamed for being released at the end of his contract because while he was there he gave everything he had. He came back and two days later decided to sign up for school. He has more options for his career in Health and Human Performance.
(this article has been edited to show that Scott Schneider is now a student at Skyline College)
