USA Today: Chicago White Sox' Danny Mendick a True 'Grinder' Peers, Coaches Say

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USA Today: Chicago White Sox’ Danny Mendick a True ‘Grinder’ Peers, Coaches Say

There’s a reason Danny Mendick even now refers to playing in the big leagues as a “dream.” Spend the majority of your baseball career as an undersized, underrecruited, underestimated ballplayer from the Northeast and the odds are certainly stacked against you.

“When I was 8 years old or 10, did I think I was gonna play Major League Baseball? No,” Mendick said. “But you had those dreams.”

Mendick’s aspiration was realized with a September call-up to the Chicago White Sox in 2019 and a likely spot on their opening day roster in 2020. He was overlooked by nearly everyone coming out of both high school at Pittsford Mendon and junior college at Monroe Community College. Even after two standout seasons at UMass-Lowell, Mendick was a 22nd-round draft pick in 2015. At every level, he beat his own slim odds of making it to the next, all the way up to the major leagues.

To say Mendick had doubters growing up wouldn’t quite be accurate. To doubt something is to suggest there’s a chance that it happens. Mendick playing in Major League Baseball? No one even thought that was a possibility.