GREENFIELD — All he could do was sit around and wait.
He waited, waited and waited some more. “That three-and-a-half hours felt like two days,” he said. “It was forever.”
But it was worth the wait, and while it felt like eternity, the MLB Draft was still in its first round when Greenfield native Drey Jameson finally heard his name called late Monday night.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Jameson, a 2017 Greenfield-Central graduate and second team All-American as a sophomore at Ball State, was chosen 34th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks, a spot with a listed approximate pick value $2.15 million on mlb.com.
“It kind of really hasn’t sunk in. It’s like it’s not real yet,” Jameson said less than 24 hours after being drafted. “I was excited. My teeth were chattering and stuff, I was so pumped up. When my name got called, it all went away. It was just joy, relief. It’s definitely a big part of my life. My life changed last night.
“I am excited. I don’t really feel much right now, but I’m sure when I load the car to head to the airport to head to Phoenix, then that’s when it’ll all sink in and I’ll know it’s real.”
Entering the draft, Jameson said he had an idea of where he might get selected. The 6-foot, 165-pound pitcher earned the 2019 MAC Pitcher of the Year award after going 6-3 with a 3.24 ERA and setting a conference record with 146 strikeouts. That followed up his MAC Freshman Pitcher of the Year honor in 2018.
His fastball gets near 100 miles per hour, and he had the third most strikeouts in the nation this year. His draft stock had been steadily rising in recent months to the point where he was a projected first-round talent.
While he wasn’t nervous to start Monday night, the anxiety started to rise a bit as the picks edged closer to where he suspected he could be chosen.
“I had a range of where I thought I was going to fall, and when it got close to that range I couldn’t sit down,” Jameson said. “We hadn’t gotten any calls, we hadn’t gotten anything, and I thought shoot, this might not be good. I wasn’t freaking out, but in the back of my head it was like, come on, come on.”
Once he got into a quiet room with his adviser, the calls started to come. That’s when things sped up for him, and the long wait turned into a whirlwind of activity.
Now that he knows his destination, it didn’t take long to make his decision. He’s ready for the next step in pursuing his dream.
He’ll be turning pro, leaving Ball State and heading to Arizona to begin his professional baseball career in the Diamondbacks organization. He’s still waiting to figure out when he’ll head west, but he said it could be as soon as the next few days.
He is the eighth Cardinals player to be selected in the first round of the draft — the first since 2010 — and the fourth Greenfield-Central graduate to to be picked.
“It was a great night. My family and my girlfriend and my girlfriend’s parents were over,” Jameson said. “It was awesome. I had a lot of support behind me and still do. It was a great night and it’s great opportunity for me to fulfill my dream and compete at the next level.”