Sandpoint Pitcher Pursuing Pro Dream Mike Lindgren Waits For Final Word From Chicago White Sox After Being Drafted Earlier This Month

For the past few weeks, strangers have been coming up to Mike Lindgren, shaking his hand and asking for his autograph. The Sandpoint pitcher is the talk of the town.

“Sometimes I feel badly because I don’t know them and I have to say, “Excuse me, who are you?” said Lindgren.

He should get used to it. While most young athletes dream of going pro, few ever make it a reality. Lindgren, 18, is a lot closer to making his dream come true than he ever thought possible.

The recent Sandpoint High School graduate was drafted by the Chicago White Sox as a pitcher earlier this month.

“I hoped someday to play in the Major League, but I didn’t expect it to happen right out of high school,” Lindgren said. “(The draft) made me see that if I can get drafted out of high school, if I work hard - really hard - then someday I can pitch pro.”

For now, Mike is waiting for the final word from the White Sox on whether or not they want to sign him. In the meantime, he’s going to play American Legion ball this summer.

Although playing pro baseball is his ultimate goal, Mike also understands the importance of a good education to fall back on.

He plans to study forestry at a junior college and enter the draft again next year if negotiations don’t work out with Chicago. If he had chosen the four-year college route, he would have had to wait until his junior year to enter the draft again.

His mother, Marian, says it’s important that Mike make this decision on his own.

“He’s a young adult and he will have to live with (his decision),” she explained. “I don’t want him to look back 10 years from now and say ‘I wish I had done this.’ I want him to say ‘I’m happy with what I did.”’ Right now, Mike is happy he found baseball. And to think it all started when a friend came up after soccer practice and asked him he wanted to try out for Little League.

“I didn’t even have a mitt,” Mike recalled.

A year later, at the age of 11, he wanted to try his hand at pitching. The coach refused to let him until he threw a few fast balls in. He did so, easily.

Later, pitching coach Mike Rusky entered the picture.

“He took a little boy who had a big dream, saw the desire and worked with him, encouraged him and was his mentor,” Marian said. “At the same time, he made sure Mike kept hold of reality.”

Now Mike’s reality includes high profile try-outs.

In a recent pitching outing for a scout from the Arizona Diamondbacks, an expansion team, Lingren threw a 94-mile-an-hour fastball.

“He was pretty surprised because I had been throwing 86, 87 miles-an-hour, and then I relaxed for a pitch and threw 94,” Mike said. “He saw that with work and relaxation I could pitch like that all the time.”

At his second game for Sandpoint this season, five radar guns lined the fence.

“It was like a radar war,” Lindgren said about all the scout interest. “It was really exciting.”

About 25 major teams including the Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros had been calling the Lindgren house to learn more about this new talent. But even with all the attention, he doesn’t let it go to his head. In fact, it encourages him to work harder.

“Talent will only take you so far,” he said. “It’s (more about) how hard I work.”

Baseball is certainly not drudgery for Lindgren, who plays because he loves the sport. It’s a place where all the awful things that happen in a day disappear for a few precious hours as he strikes out hitter after hitter.

“I see Mike as a gentle, caring individual who has, um, I guess compassion,” said his mom. “He has an innocent and boyish love for the game.

“He doesn’t care about politics or money,” she added. “What he cares about is going out there and playing the game. He sees that it’s a little boys’ game that big boys can play.”