Tenbrink starts professional career in new region but at the same hot corner

After hours of watching May's Major League Baseball draft results update live on the Internet, then-Kansas State third baseman Nate Tenbrink's optimism turned to impatience.
    Impatience turned into dejection, and dejection ultimately led to anger.
    When he wasn't selected on the first day of the draft (the first six rounds), Tenbrink said: "Honestly, I was pissed off."
    After a day seemingly wasted on the phone with major league teams trying to work out a deal and a night of getting little to no sleep, the standout third baseman was thrown a bone by the baseball gods early in the draft's second day.
    The Olathe native, who led the K-State Wildcats in home runs, doubles and runs scored in 2008, was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the seventh round with the 222nd overall pick.
    It's too bad teams don't offer number 222 as a jersey number. Many players choose to literally wear on their sleeve the perceived disrespect offered them by teams that choose other players before them.
    But for Tenbrink, his number 22 Everett Aquasox jersey would do just fine. The Aquasox, located in northwest Washington (about 25 miles north of Seattle and 110 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia) are the Mariners' short-season A affiliate.
    "It's short-season because when we're drafted, the minor leagues have already started their season," said Tenbrink, whose grandparents live in Wright. "We get in about 70 games in the short season."
    He said playing that kind of schedule right after college, when baseball season affords teams up to four days off at a time, is one of the major adjustments he has had to make.
    "It's pretty crazy," said Tenbrink. "You've got to have a good mindset. If you have a bad day, you've got to let it go because there's another game tomorrow."
    In baseball, the mental demands can weigh heavily on a player who isn't faring well at the plate or one who misses a couple plays in the field. But Tenbrink said, "At this point you have to be focused on what's going on now because this is your job, to go out there and produce."
    He added that moving from the NCAA metal bat to a wooden one in professional ball was another hurdle he had to get over.
    "It took a little while to adjust to the wood bat," Tenbrink said. "I broke a lot of bats that first week, but my swing's coming around, and I'm starting to hit the ball pretty hard."
    The speed of the professional game, however, has not been especially difficult to get used to for the Big XII product. The conference gains more and more credibility in baseball circles as teams like Missouri and Oklahoma State become more competitive with perennial contenders like Texas and Nebraska.
    Tenbrink's ladder to his major league dream as it stands now (barring a trade down the line) consists of stints with the low-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers; the high-A High Desert Mavericks in Adelanto, Calif.; the AA West Tennessee Diamond Jacks; and the AAA Tacoma Rainiers before finally landing with the Seattle Mariners.
    But Tenbrink doesn't like to look that far ahead into the future, at least not yet. The quick-handed third baseman is quick to remember that he is only on the first step to his ultimate goal.
    "I was glad when I was drafted. But once I got to the first practice, I started to keep the mindset that I'm not to my dream yet, that this is just part of the process," Tenbrink said.
    This part of the formation of a big-leaguer requires Tenbrink to be in a state of constant flux: a different town every few days, a long bus ride here, a plane ride over there and absolutely no free time.
    For example, today Tenbrink's Aquasox prepare for their third game against the Tri-City Dust Devils, and Tenbrink doesn't even know which three cities make up the Tri-City area.
    He's resigned to the fact that at this point in his baseball career, the game he loves is the end-all-be-all of his day and ultimately, this phase of his life.
    But for athletes who love the game like Tenbrink, it's not so much resignation as it is a relief to be wherever it is that he lands.