SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Drey Jameson remembers those evenings when hunger would strike.
He thinks back sometimes to those moments as a kid when he, his mother, Saline, and his two older brothers had to move from place to place. Not because they could or wanted to, but because they had to in order to survive.
When he thinks of his childhood home, he can point to several in Greenfield, not just one. At the time, he thought nothing of hardship.
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It just was.
If he wanted to go out with friends, there was little to no money. Luxuries weren’t a part of life.
It just was.
And, it molded him into the 22-year-old man he is today, a Class A baseball player, who was drafted 34th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2019 out of Ball State University.
“Growing up, I didn’t have much. My mom worked two jobs to put a roof over our head. She raised three kids on her own. I had a step dad (Daryl Stephens) but mainly it was my mom taking care of us,” Jameson said. “There were some nights where we didn’t have dinner on the table. I’d walk to grandmas and she’d get us dinner.”
Life was difficult. It was humbling, Jameson admits, never really knowing what to expect, except to expect only what you could earn on your own through hard work, an example his mother set and he lives by daily.
Words like gratitude, respect, appreciation, reciprocity and winning are all cemented into Jameson’s vocabulary.
When you don’t have much to begin with, it makes everything you achieve a definition of your character and drive, the former Greenfield-Central standout pitcher emphasizes.
“I’m grateful for the way I grew up. Not having stuff handed to me when I was young because it makes you appreciate things. It makes you know you have to work for something and it gives you that ability to take criticism and learn without taking it personally,” Jameson said. “You take it as someone trying to help you.”
First and foremost, it boils down to the individual person helping themselves, Jameson says, while supporting those who are there for you.
Once his family’s situation stabilized during his high school career, he didn’t lose sight of where he came from. Instead, it fueled him to become an Indiana All-Star, the 2017 Prep Baseball Report Indiana Player of the Year.
At Ball State, the 6-foot, 165-pound right-hander rolled up his sleeves to become the 2018 Mid-American Conference Freshman Pitcher of the Year and a Freshman All-American.
He made First Team All-MAC in 2018 and 2019 en route to being the 2019 MAC Pitcher of the Year while setting a new conference record with 146 strikeouts in a single season after his sophomore year.
Yet, despite success, his mindset has never changed. Even today, as he trains on his own in Scottsdale, Ariz. with a couple of minor league teammates he shares a house with, the same focus remains.
“I have to stay ready for when my name is called to go,” Jameson said. “Right now, there is no minor league system, so if you’re not on the 60-man, you’re not doing anything. You stay working out, but you’re not with the team.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic halting the Major League Baseball season during spring training in March, the coronavirus delay has essentially wiped out the minor leagues in 2020.
MLB is moving towards a shortened 60-game season, beginning next month, but for players like Jameson, the only chance they have to play this summer is by making their organization’s 60-man roster.
Of the 60, half are with the big league team. The others serve as a “taxi squad,” which means Jameson and many others are on the outside looking in, but it doesn’t mean playing this summer is impossible.
Not for Jameson.
“We have three guys living here at the house. Nick Dalesandro, who is a catcher, and Ryan January, another catcher, and we all got a place out here, so I’ve been throwing flat grounds and working out here in Arizona,” Jameson said. “I’m just trying to make that 60-man squad.”
If Jameson has proven anything to this point in his career, it’s he hates to lose whether that means giving up or cowering in face of adversity.
In actually, he thrives when the odds are against him. All he ever needs is an opportunity.
“Growing up, I kept hearing, ‘Dude, you’re too small. You’re too small to play professional baseball.’ I just told them, ‘We’ll see.’ That was always my comeback. But, people kept going on and on with it,” Jameson said.
“My thing is if you live your life thinking you’re too small or not fast enough or just in anything. If there’s always an excuse for something, it becomes a downside of you, then you won’t be anything in life.”
Jameson has shown he’s something special on the mound, going from a teenager that didn’t play travel summer baseball until after his freshman year in high school with an 85 mph fastball to a professional that can reach 98 on the radar gun.
When he signed his contract with the Diamondbacks that included a $1.4 million bonus, the switch flipped to a higher gear. And, so did his appreciation for his past.
Partaking in a fundraising event this past winter to support the Greenfield Youth Baseball Association where he played competitively since the age of 4 until 16, Jameson knows what his accomplishments mean to others.
He refuses to be egotistical about it. Instead, he’s genuine. He’s himself.
“That was fun, and I enjoyed doing that. It was a time to go and let these kids come in and see what they can become. I played rec league ball my whole life growing up. I started playing summer baseball after my freshman year of high school. All before that, I literally only played GYBA,” Jameson said.
“These kids seeing a guy who played GYBA for 12 years and see they can do the same thing I did. It’s just giving back to the community. There were a lot of people who helped me in the community, so it’s about giving back to your hometown and not being selfish. It’s huge with me.”
Giving back through action was a lesson he learned from his mentors, including Kyle Gibson, who is now pitching for the Texas Rangers. As a kid, Jameson idolized St. Louis Cardinals’ slugger Albert Pujols, but he respected Gibson.
“I always admired Kyle just because his dad (Harold) was our coach, and then he was a Greenfield guy, and I had an opportunity to go to (Missouri) where he went to college, so it was kind of falling in line with the same kind of stuff that he went through,” Jameson said.
“I talked to him after I got drafted about the business side, and he gave me insights. From a big leaguer, who has a lot of big league time and is now signing $30 million deals, that guy doesn’t have to text me. He doesn’t have to talk to me, but he’s a good guy and that’s who I want to be when I’m in the big leagues.”
Jameson is already ahead of the game in several areas, not excluding making himself available to those he influences. At the winter fundraiser, Jameson signed autographs and talked to several youth players.
When gets a letter in the mail asking for a signature, he responses to the handwritten correspondences first, not because of the content, but because of the effort that fan put in, which Jameson respects.
“This something I dreamed of my entire life. That’s what I worked for. That was my ultimate goal since I was 4 years old. I wanted to be a professional athlete. I didn’t care if it was football, basketball or baseball,” Jameson said.
“I have to remember, too, this isn’t going to last forever. So, I take full advantage, and I’m grateful for the opportunity that I have because you know there are a lot of that would love to be in my position. I’m a guy that looks at the glass being half full not half empty. And, I make the most of what I got. That’s how I’m living right now.”
If this were a normal summer, Jameson would be playing baseball much like a year ago when he was pitching with Class A Hillsboro. His first season wasn’t easy, however.
In eight starts, he accumulated a 6.17 ERA through 11.2 innings pitched, which was a trying transition after logging 91.2 innings at Ball State with a 6-3 record.
His timing and rhythm weren’t as sharp as he had hoped, but he’s since shaken those lessons off and has applied them.
“I didn’t have a very good first outing. I want to say, I walked the bases loaded and then I balked in a run, but I didn’t balk. The umpires said I did,” Jameson recalled. “My next outing was good, then my next outing was bad. I was getting used to it. I was throwing more innings towards the end.”
Now, he’s waiting for more, but he isn’t complaining. Like those days when he played football with his older brothers, Dylan and Dustin, nothing comes without a few setbacks.
It just is.
“I was a lot smaller than them and a lot of their friends, but when I got tackled, it was the same as if they were getting tackled,” Jameson said. “There was no easy.”
Jameson doesn’t want it any other way, whether it’s taking the next step or signing thousands of baseball cards.
“My first signing was with Topps and they sent 10,000 cards. I had to sign them within a week,” Jameson laughed. “And, they had to sit there and watch me sign them. That was brutal. My hand was hurting after 30 minutes and I still had about 10 hours of signing to do. I tried to sign two boxes a day, which was 1,500 to 2,000 cards.”
Remembering where he came from, Jameson will gladly endure the discomfort. It’s part of the process.
“I’m so antsy right now because I’m not competing on the field. The feeling of striking someone out. The feeling of winning games. The feeling of seeing others succeed on your team is huge to me,” Jameson said. “I’m not seeing that right now, and I haven’t seen it in a while. There’s a lot to take in during a very short period of time. I just hope everything gets back to normal.”
When it does, Jameson will be ready.
“This is my job now, and I chose this path. I’m bought into all this, so not being able to do what I love to do everyday is hard,” Jameson said. “My job is to produce, compete and try to make the big leagues.”
