The A’s slugger hasn’t met a sport he can’t conquer

    To the athletically mediocre masses, a person like Dodge City A's right fielder/first baseman is a disgusting individual. Believe me, I know. I'm the manager for the Mediocre State basketball team (That's right, I failed to make the team — not mediocre enough).
    How one person could be blessed with athletic talent spanning sports that require totally different skill sets is beyond us.
    Chris Ciesla, who hails from Endicott, N.Y., is a 2-handicap golfer. He drove the 13th green at Dodge City Country Club during a round last week and eagled the 360-yard par four. He's also bowled four 300 games.
    When one comes to the realization that he or she is a small fish in the Lake of Sports Mediocrity, he or she is faced with a choice: Be bitter about it, or sit back and watch the tide of the Athletic Ocean come in. 
    I've chosen the latter. It's part of the reason I go to every A's home game. The athletes in the Jayhawk League are at or will soon be at a crossroads in their baseball career.
    Some are looking for a place to transfer after two years of community college ball. Some are entering what could be their last year in the game, and some are trying to keep alive the childhood dream of one day playing professional ball.
    Ciesla falls somewhere between the latter two. The senior-to-be at the University at Buffalo said at this point, even a prolonged career in the minor leagues sounds like a good deal, but as he sets each goal in life and achieves it, he moves onto the next step.
    If he were to be drafted after next season, his next goal would be to reach the highest levels of the profession.
    The versatile outfielder has not come into his athletic success without any hardship, however. In his first year at Buffalo, he was recruited as a pitcher when he thought he was being recruited as a first baseman.
    His high school ERA of 0.61 ballooned to 9.00 for his freshman year.
    "I was terrible, I pitched awful," said Ciesla, who was touched up for 37 hits in his first 24 innings of work. "College hitters were playing a totally different level of baseball, and it was a step up that I wasn't really ready for."
    He has made the most of his collegiate experience thus far, to the point of choosing to sit out the 2006 season and redshirt for academic purposes.
    "I was struggling a little with my grades and since my education was the most important part of being [at Buffalo], I had to take some time to get it all right," Ciesla said.
    When he came back to the team, he approached Buffalo head coach Ron Torgalski about changing positions and being a hitter. He got the chance to swing again and did not disappoint. The regular designated hitter led the Bulls in home runs (3) and RBI (34) in 43 starts during the 2007 season.

Building his skills
    But what about the other sports at which Ciesla naturally excels? For him, it's less about natural talent and more about repetition and practice. The self-taught golfer picked up the game at age 6 by mimicking what he saw from PGA Tour pros on television.
    By last year, he was driving like he was one of them.
    Ciesla recalled the Champions Tour tournament in his hometown last year, at which he gave the tee shot simulator a try in a long-drive contest for spectators.
    He won a brand-new set of clubs with a 382-yard drive. No one beat his drive during the four-day tournament.
    "If I wasn't playing baseball this summer, I was going to enter long-drive events," Ciesla said. 
    He also played basketball in a church league because the basketball schedule at his high school interfered with the bowling season. He caught the bowling bug, like the baseball bug, from his older siblings Dan and Brianna.
    "Bowling is actually more competitive than people think," said Ciesla, who rolled three of his 300 games in high school competition. "When you make it to sectional and state tournaments, you can't fit any more people in those bowling alleys and it gets really loud."

Coming to Dodge
    The history and prestige behind the Jayhawk League lured Ciesla to Dodge City, and when A's head coach Phil Stephenson invited him to be a part of the organization, it was a no-brainer. The young man who had spent his whole life in New York was headed out west.
    "The Jayhawk League is known as one of the best summer leagues in the nation," Ciesla said. "It was the best opportunity to showcase myself and have fun, but learning from Phil has been great as well."
    Stephenson still holds NCAA Division 1 records for career runs, hits, bases, stolen bases and walks from his time at Wichita State.
    "He obviously knows a lot about the game, and he's really down to earth," Ciesla said. "What he did setting all those records is unheard of."
    The players had to grow close very quickly after convening in Dodge only three days before the summer season started, but Ciesla said his teammates' personalities have made the transition easier than he thought it would be.
    "They are all great guys, and we're all getting to be pretty good friends," Ciesla said.
    He added that outfielder Cameron Monger and third baseman Oscar Sigala were especially good friends, since Monger brought his car to Dodge and is willing to drive the trio around during free time.
    As the A's move closer to their goals or closer to the end of their baseball careers, Ciesla said he keeps in mind that he's always working toward something.
    "It was a childhood dream of mine to play professional baseball, and I'm still working hard every day to try to reach that goal," Ciesla said.