D3baseball.com Daily Dose

A right handed pitcher for Emory Eagles in their 2007 World Series is now pitching in the regular relief stints of the Oakland Athletics’ AA Texas League Franchise Midland Rockhounds. Emory’s Jason Glushon was a 2007 free-agent signee who spent most of the 2007 season in the Arizona Rookie League before a late-season call-up to AA. The challenge for Jason was to “get his foot in the door”. D3baseball.com’s Ralph Turner caught up with Jason while the Rockhounds were in Frisco, TX for a four-game series.

His 80-82 MPH fastball was not going to take him far beyond Harvard Westlake High School in North Hollywood, CA in talent–rich southern California, so he and his parents looked back east for college. Considering Penn versus Emory, he credits his mother on landing at Emory. Under the excellent coaching of Jim Twardoski at Emory, Jason was able to develop the pitching technique of good control that kept his team close. Jason is not your prototypical pitcher, but the fundamentals that he learned at Emory, picking Coach Twardoski’s brain along the way, the Emory training schedules and demanding conditioning have served him well in the jump to AA baseball. He has succeeded to this point by not overthrowing and by throwing strikes.

The 2007 World Series was special for him. Living in southern California, he greatly appreciates what Chapman has accomplished over the last four seasons. Emory was lucky to get to Wisconsin in 2007, needing Sam Cunningham’s 2-run HR in the top of the 9th versus Ferrum, before winning in 12 in the Regional Finals. Glushon gave a wistful look when we mentioned the 2-0 opening loss to UW-Whitewater and Jordan Zimmermann. (Zimmermann is currently with the Washington Nationals AA Eastern League Harrisburg Senators.) He beamed with pride at how Emory battled back through the losers’ bracket. Glushon pitched 6 strong innings in the win over Cortland State for a 6-3 win. His “rubber arm” was also ready to go if needed for an inning or two the next day in against Kean as the finals. After all, it was for the national championship.

After getting his BBA at Emory in spring 2007 with concentrations in Business Finance, Communications and Operations Management, he boned up on his Spanish in the Arizona Rookie Leagues to talk with the young talent out of Latin America at that level. In the off-season, he worked at a sports management agency and took the LSAT. He is getting experience in all aspects of the baseball and is keeping his options open.

This season, it is back to the 6-10 hour bus rides around Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. The bus rides are what he remembers about Emory, and getting to know one’s teammates. The card games, the “Connect Four” games and general conversation are a part that Jason enjoys about baseball. Although not quite like “The Rookie” or “Bull Durham”, Jason has built friendships with his players. When asked for a favorite baseball movie, he responded “Field of Dreams”. He fondly remembers the road trip that he took with his Emory teammates, Joe Roth and Frank Pfister, as they took in 10-12 games at major league and minor league parks, plus Cooperstown and the “Field of Dreams” in Iowa.

We asked him for some imparted wisdom to his D3baseball.com friends and family. He gave three. First, learn from the people who have been down the road before. Secondly, the roads are as varied as you can imagine, high school, D-1 or D-III, but they all lead to same place. Finally, don’t accept “no” for an answer.