Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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irish in the pros A.J. Pollock Consistent In Effort To Stick With D-Backs By Wes Morgan A fter running a couple sprints to warm up for a night game in Fresno, Calif., outfielder A.J. Pollock saw Reno Aces manager Brett Butler headed his way. "I'm taking you out of the lineup," Pollock, a Notre Dame product, recalled Butler saying in a businesslike tone back on April 17, 2012. Pollock's mind raced in an effort to diagnose why he was being pulled. "I had no thought in my mind that I was going to the big leagues at all," he said. "I was just focused on the pitcher I was facing. … The first Pollock was hitting .248 with 14 doubles, four home runs, 15 RBI and thing I thought was, five stolen bases in 40 games played through May 20. photo by Jordan Megenhardt/Arizona Diamondbacks 'Man, what did I do wrong?' I wasn't sure if I was in trou- big stage. At 6 a.m. the next morning, ble or said something stupid or what he boarded a flight bound for Phoenot. I said, 'What's going on here?' nix expecting to sit on the bench for a [Butler] told me, 'I have no idea, but noon game against Pittsburgh. He sat in silence for hours inside the I think it's the big leagues and I think Diamondbacks' clubhouse — alone you might be going.'" Three years after being selected in and exhausted — popping out of his the first round of the 2009 MLB Draft chair on occasion to walk a lap around by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Pol- the locker-lined room. "They called me up because Geoff lock was about to get his shot on the