They say we all have a calling in life. Do you know what your calling is? The top prospect for the Oakland Athletics, outfielder Grant Desme might have gotten the call every minor leaguer wants this spring. Instead, Desme believed he had a higher calling.
Walking away after a breakout season in which he became MVP of the Arizona Fall League, Desme announced Friday that he was leaving baseball to enter the priesthood. “I was doing well at ball. But I really had to get down to the bottom of things,” said the talented 23-year-old Desme . “I wasn’t at peace with where I was at.”
Desme, A lifelong Catholic, thought about becoming a priest for about a year and a half. Within the sports world, he kept his path quiet, and he startled the Oakland A’s on Thursday night when he told them he planned to enter a seminary this summer.
General manager of the team Billy Beane “was understanding and supportive,” Desme said, but the decision “sort of knocked him off his horse.” After the talk, Desme felt “a great amount of peace.”
“I love the game, but I aspire to higher things,” Desme said. “I know I have no regrets.”
In a statement, general manager Billy Beane said: “We respect Grant’s decision and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”
It is not everyday you hear that a top prospect athlete leaves the game he loves to follow his true dreams. Al Travers of the Detroit Tigers team in 1912, who gave up 24 runs during a one-game career for a makeshift, became a Catholic priest. In 2008, Chase Hilgenbrinck of the New England Revolution left Major League Soccer to enter a seminary.
Desme was picked up in the second round of the 2007 amateur draft for the Oakland A’s. Just starting to blossom, Desme was the only player in the entire minors with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases last season and batted .288 with 31 homers, 89 RBIs and 40 steals in 131 games at Class-A Kane County and high Class-A Stockton last year. Desme hit .315 with a league-leading 11 home runs and 27 RBIs in 27 games this fall in Arizona, a league filled with young talent.
Going into the AFL championship game, Desme was well aware it might be the last time he ever played. “There was no sad feeling,” Desme said. He homered and struck out twice, which “defines my career a bit.”
The Big West Player of the Year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Desme was ranked as Oakland’s No. 8 prospect by Baseball America and speculations were running wild that the Athletics might invite Desme to big league spring training next month.
Rather, in August, Desme intends to enter a seminary in Silverado, California. He said abbey members didn’t seem surprised someone who would “define myself as a baseball player” was changing his life so dramatically.
Desme said he didn’t consider pursuing his spiritual studies while also trying to play ball. His family backed his decision and he said the positive reaction to his future goal—the surprising news spread quickly over the Internet—was “inspiring.” “It’s about a 10-year process,” Desme said. “I desire and hope I become a priest.” In a way, he added, it’s like “re-entering the minor leagues.”
Desme’s first two years in the minors were tough, battling shoulder and wrist problems. While not on the file, Desme took the time to think about what was most important to him, to read and study the Bible and to talk to teammates about his faith.
In retrospect, he said, those injuries were “the biggest blessings God ever gave me.”