Rocket-ing to the pros

Children who play sports grow up dreaming of reaching the professional level.
Zach Tanner will get his chance.
The former Portland Rocket shortstop signed a professional contract March 11 with the Frontier Grays.
The Grays are part of the Frontier League, which has no affiliation with Major or Minor League Baseball. It is a part of the Independent Professional Baseball Federation.
“It’s unreal,” Tanner said of signing with the Greys. “It felt like a second chance, like someone was watching out for me. I didn’t know if I wanted to go back out and play now that I started coaching.
“At the same time I felt like I still had that buzz, that’s why I played Rocket ball. I felt like I needed something more. It was a weight lifted off my shoulders.”
Tanner, who will be leaving his post as assistant coach at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio, joined the Rockets midway through the 2012 season and was a key to them reaching the National Amateur Baseball Federation World Series for the first time in team history that year. He was the captain of the infield last season.
The 2008 Yorktown graduate batted .403 with 38 RBIs, 31 runs and a team-high nine home runs in 2013, helping Portland to a 32-8-1 record.
“Players with Zach Tanner’s tool set are few and far between,” said Rockets manager Randy Miller. “He’s certainly going to play pro ball for a reason.”
The call from the Greys was an unexpected one, Tanner said. While out to eat following a recreation league basketball game at the Jay Community Center, he got a call from Greg Tagert, the manager of the Gary Southshore Railcats, telling him to continue working out and getting his body in baseball shape.
Then two days later, Greys manager Kyle Haines called him and offered him a contract. He didn’t hesitate to accept.  
Tanner sees the opportunity with the Greys — a travel team based out of Illinois without a home city or stadium — as a stepping stone to bigger things.
“That’s the idea and the feeling I got from talking to (Haines) on the phone,” the 2012 Wright State University graduate said. “I hear you can get picked up at any time and signed to play affiliated ball. That’s the ultimate goal, but the main goal is to make it on the team and play the whole year.”
Although Tanner was with the Rockets for a short period, he said he believes his time in Portland was extremely worthwhile. He saw the Rockets as family, and when he had problems he wouldn’t call his friends from high school. Instead, he’d call Miller or his teammates.
Tanner said the demeanor and mindset of the Rockets was different than playing in college because of the selflessness. College players, he said, sometimes play for their own individual successes. But with the Rockets, he said the team’s goals were first and foremost, which made playing with them much more enjoyable.
Tanner is using his chance with the Greys to make not only himself, but also his Owens Express players proud.
“They see me playing with them in practice and they don’t think I should be there,” he said. “They kind of gave me some inspiration to push myself a little more. I kind of owe it to them and myself. I feel like I’m playing for them.”
Outside of his play on the field, Miller said the Greys should be thankful to have a guy like Tanner on their roster.
“You just know that he’s going to handle his job in a professional manner,” he said. “With the right kind of work ethic, he’s a leader by example for the other guys to emulate.
“It’s a manager’s dream to have a guy like him. (He’s a) take-charge guy that delegates field prep and cleanup. The menial tasks that every manager has to point fingers at guys to get done, he takes control of that.
“The fact that we could land him was divine intervention.”[[In-content Ad]]