Jamison's Improvement Got Him to All-Star Game
by Joe Naiman, Valley News
July 2, 2005 Ever since Neil Jamison was promoted to the Lake Elsinore Storm earlier this season, Tom and Kathy Jamison have been making the trip from Ramona to Lake Elsinore to see their son pitch approximately three times a week. During the last week of June the Ramona couple — and their son — will be traveling to Virginia for the Class A All-Star Game which will be played June 27 in Salem.
"It's still a good thing," Neil Jamison said of the flight to Virginia along with the time off for the All-Star break.
Jamison, who was selected by the San Diego Padres in last year's professional baseball draft, began the 2006 season with the Padres' Midwest League affiliate in Fort Wayne.
"I was a little disappointed to go to Fort Wayne out of spring training," Jamison said, "but at the time that was where I fit in."
Jamison began his professional career last June with the Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League. In 25 appearances for the Emeralds he had a 1.32 earned run average with eight saves. In 27 1/3 innings he struck out 31 batters while walking only eight. In late August he was promoted to Fort Wayne, where in seven games he struck out 12 batters in 10 innings and had a 2.70 ERA.
Starting 2006 at Fort Wayne wasn't the first time Jamison had been placed below expectations. After his junior year at Cal State Long Beach, Jamison was selected in the eighth round of the 2004 draft by the New York Mets. He felt that he could be picked higher if he returned to Long Beach State for his senior year. The return to the Dirtbags (the school's official nickname is the 49ers, but the baseball team's unofficial name is the Dirtbags) paid off for Jamison when he had a 4-0 won-loss record and 11 saves in 2005 and earned first-team All-American honors as a relief pitcher.
Jamison was drafted in the sixth round by the Padres in 2005 and signed with the team three days later. He concluded his college career with 26 saves in 104 appearances, a 13-8 won-loss record, a 2.73 earned run average with a .236 opponent batting average, and 126 strikeouts with only 35 walks in 135 1/3 innings.
Jamison was with Fort Wayne for about 1 1/2 weeks in 2006 before his promotion to the Storm. "I ended up here a lot sooner than I expected," he said. "Definitely happy to be here."
Depending on traffic the Jamison family travels between 75 and 90 minutes along State Route 78 and Interstate 15 to see Storm home games. The trip is considerably shorter than the distance between Ramona and Fort Wayne, and the way Jamison has played this season if he doesn't stay in Lake Elsinore it will likely be because of a promotion to Mobile rather than a demotion to Fort Wayne.
"I was struggling a little bit at the beginning of the season as far as my execution," he said.
His statistics didn't reflect such a deficiency, but his mentality did. "I thought I could throw the ball better," he said.
"I got that fixed and things have picked up a little bit," Jamison said. "It's worked out."
The results have worked out well enough to earn him a spot on the California League's All-Star team. "It's exciting. It's definitely an honor," he said of being selected to the All-Star Game. "It's a good thing. I'm excited to go out there and meet all those guys."
Since 1996 the California League and the Carolina League have engaged in a Class A All-Star Game featuring all-stars from the California League against all-stars from the Carolina League. The site rotates between California League and Carolina League stadiums. |
