Echoes

When mechanical engineering graduate Eric Tryon walked across the stage during last year’s commencement, he was probably one of the few “unplaced” graduates who was hoping he wouldn’t land a high-paying engineering position right away.

Tryon, a two-time GTE Academic All-American and an NCAA Division III All-American as a pitcher, was awaiting major league baseball’s annual amateur draft. The draft came and went, and the lefthanded pitcher received no call. Not wanting to give up on his dream that easily, Tryon picked up the phone and called former major-league catcher and Terre Haute native, Brian Dorsett. A former Cincinnati Reds’ catcher, Dorsett made a call to the Reds’ organization to land Tryon a workout with the club’s top minor league affiliate (triple-A) in Indianapolis.

The Engineers’ record-holder in almost every pitching category threw for Indianapolis Indians’ pitching coach Grant Jackson, and then for the Reds’ chief scout, Chief Bender. Bender soon informed Tryon that the Reds wanted to sign him and send him to the team’s single-A affiliate in Charleston, W.Va. A day later the Reds called back to tell Tryon that in two days he was going to make his debut at a higher level, double-A Chattanooga.

Tryon packed his bags for Chattanooga before even inking a contract, and made the almost unheard of move from undrafted prospect to double-A baseball — just two steps away from the Cincinnati Reds. “As long as I don’t pitch, I keep moving up,” Tryon joked at the time. “If I pitch, they might send me back down.”

Rose-Hulman’s first professional athlete in recent decades made an impressive debut on June 17. The southpaw allowed just four hits in five innings, and was lifted for a reliever trailing, 3-2, to Memphis. Chattanooga Lookouts’ manager Mark Berry liked what he saw from Tryon. “He wasn’t in awe or overwhelmed with the situation,” Berry said. “It was a good outing. He threw strikes and got groundballs. That’s what you want.”

The 3.6 G.P.A.student in mechanical engineering admits that experimenting with a new pitching style, learning about big-league baseball and trying to adjust to facing major-league caliber talent wasn’t easy.

“It was tough to do some major overhauls to my pitching mechanics, and have to go out and pitch games at the same time,” said Tryon. “Especially when I was facing the caliber of baseball players that are competing in double-A.”

Tryon began to struggle at Chattanooga as the season wore on, and he was sent to single-A Burlington, Iowa, for more seasoning. In seven outings at Burlington, Tryon posted an impressive 2-0 record with a 3.53 earned run average. When the season ended, Tryon had worked his way into the No. 3 spot in the Burlington Bees’ starting pitching rotation.

Following his rookie season, Tryon returned to Terre Haute where he began his engineering career with Applied Extrusion Technologies (AET). Although Tryon’s number-one goal is to reach the major leagues, he doesn’t underestimate the value of his engineering degree.

“It gives you some peace of mind knowing that you have an excellent engineering degree if things don’t work out here. I guarantee I could be making a lot better living right now being an engineer,” he laughed. “A couple of my teammates made the comment when they found out I had an engineering degree, `Well geez, you’re set!’ — and they are right.”

“I don’t look at engineering as just something for me to fall back on, but a career to look forward to pursuing.”

When March rolled around this spring, the left-handed mechanical engineer said his goodbyes at AET and packed his bags for Sarasota, Fla., to join the Reds’ minor-league spring training camp. But Tryon’s baseball career took an unexpected turn when he was released by the Reds just as the big- league team broke camp. The resilient Tryon kept on trying, and, thanks to the efforts of Dorsett and Tryon’s cousin Dale Fell, he was able to remain in Florida and land a tryout with the Atlanta Braves.

On April 3, Tryon’s dream was “magically” reborn when he signed a minor league contract with the Braves. Tryon began the 1998 season with the club’s single-A affiliate in Danville, Va., and has been told he will be used as a middle reliever.
After notching nearly half a season of professional experience in 1997, and coming face-to-face with the volatility of the business — Tryon is much more confident heading into his first full season of professional baseball.

“I plan to be aggressive this year, and go right after the batters. I was intimidated a little bit at double-A last year, and quite honestly was overmatched in many instances. I was a little timid and got caught trying to make the perfect pitch all the time. I’ll be much better prepared this time around.”

Tryon’s head coach at Rose-Hulman, Jeff Jenkins said: “Eric obviously has excellent potential and has a great head on his shoulders, but he doesn’t have much experience facing the kind of talent he is seeing at the professional level.”

“He should benefit from working as part of a first-class organization like the Braves, and the experience he will get at single-A. Then he will be able to advance through the system as he is ready.”

As Tryon pursues careers in both baseball and engineering, he is confident that his education at Rose-Hulman — in and out of the classroom — will be a catalyst for him.

“At Rose you were always challenged and had to find a way through it. You were given the information needed to excel, but you had to push yourself to be among the best,” Tryon explained.

“I’m finding out that the same is true with baseball and professional engineering. You are forced to excel under constant challenges, which is parallel to getting through Rose-Hulman.”

“When [the Reds] told me I’d start in Chattanooga to see if I could do it, I was obviously very surprised. I thought, ` Man, what a great opportunity.’ You look at my stats [at Rose-Hulman] and the fact that I pitched at a Division III school, and they don’t warrant me doing something like this. I’m not throwing 95 [mph] and blowing people away. The Lord continues to open doors for me, and I’m going to make the best of it.”