This story initially ran beforehand, earlier than Mason Estrada was drafted with the No. 225 choose by the Dodgers.
PHOENIX — “You may know all the pieces on this planet, sport, however the one manner you’re discovering that one out is by giving it a shot.”
Robin Williams’ character in Good Will Searching presents the above recommendation to an MIT janitor/genius performed by Matt Damon. Within the context of the movie, Williams is imparting knowledge to Damon’s fictional character because it pertains to a love curiosity; however within the context of the lifetime of Mason Estrada, an precise aerospace engineering main from MIT, the shot Estrada is taking is on one thing that he loves — baseball.
Estrada grew up in Covington, La., and earlier than anything, he beloved being open air. Searching. Fishing. You title it, no matter received him exterior and lively, he was sport. It wasn’t till round age 12, when he reeled off a spate of homers consecutively, that it dawned on him that he was fairly good at that baseball factor, too.
Whereas it will make sense {that a} child who received a 36 superscore on his ACT (out of 36) and a 34 composite would have MIT on his brief checklist of locations to check, the way in which Estrada wound up on campus in Cambridge, Mass. — at a college with an acceptance charge that’s south of 5 % — was extra a sport of happenstance.
“Considered one of my dad’s finest mates rising up, one in every of his good mates’ father was the [athletic director] at MIT for some time, in order that they received me in contact with him and he received me in contact with the baseball coaches and sort of put MIT on my radar as a result of I did not actually consider it as an choice for me,” Estrada mentioned.
“It was at all times sort of college first. I used to be good at baseball after I was youthful, I used to be not elite. I solely had a few small appears from D-I applications, loads of JUCO and D-II, D-III appears, and so no faculties that had been actually involved in me that had been value giving up an MIT diploma. In order that’s why I ended up going to MIT. But it surely was undoubtedly a juggle specializing in college, specializing in baseball — I simply had to verify I stored my priorities straight.”
However whereas Estrada was establishing himself on the sector throughout highschool, he was coping with loss away from it. His father, Mike, a revered member of the Knights Knation neighborhood and a former United States Marine, handed away throughout Estrada’s junior 12 months following a battle with most cancers. Estrada has handled the illness at different instances as nicely — his girlfriend’s youthful sister overcame childhood most cancers — and has used that publicity as motivation.
“I’ve a really, very sturdy ardour for the outside, searching and fishing, and sadly, most cancers has been a reasonably large a part of my life in a adverse manner, however I believe there is a purpose for that,” Estrada mentioned. “I believe I am being known as to assist children who’re in not-so-great conditions have peaceable moments and be capable of expertise nature and all the pieces it has to supply.”
Whereas Estrada could also be probably the most fascinating tales on this 12 months’s Draft class, that doesn’t get you invited to the Draft Mix. A 96 mph fastball helps.
Estrada was invited to the fifth-year occasion in Phoenix, the place he confirmed off the explosive arsenal that led to him compiling 66 strikeouts throughout 40 2/3 innings final season with a 2.21 ERA, all with out permitting a house run. Along with sitting constantly at 94-96 mph along with his heater whereas on an enormous league mound with all eyes on him, Estrada was ripping off 84-87 mph slider/cutter hybrids that registered as excessive as 2700 RPMs.
If that simply seems like the kind of repertoire that might play at the next collegiate degree, you’d be considering alongside the strains of the Tennessee Volunteers, who’ve secured Estrada as a switch commit for the 2026 season ought to he not signal out of this 12 months’s Draft.
Professional baseball was by no means actually on Estrada’s radar till his freshman 12 months at MIT when he reared again, fired and received a radar gun studying of 95 mph. There aren’t many people strolling the earth able to that, not to mention ones that willingly enlist in a thermodynamics course (Estrada cited that as his most difficult class, lest we expect all of it comes simply to the right-hander). However whereas the infrastructure for going professional in electrical engineering or arithmetic is actually obtainable at MIT, baseball isn’t as ready-made.
“Our batting cages are retractable — you pull them up with the pulley and so they’re within the fitness center, in order that was a wrestle,” Estrada mentioned. “The mounds would slide far and wide as a result of there is no traction and hitters could be sliding on the fitness center ground or the mat would slide. So undoubtedly some distinctive challenges enjoying Division III baseball.”
However that hasn’t stopped Estrada within the slightest.
“My mother has been very supportive of what I believed was finest,” Estrada mentioned. “She is aware of I’ve at all times made calculated selections. She’d be far more nervous if I used to be giving up the diploma, however I am ensuring that I maintain the power to return and get my diploma later each time I am carried out with baseball.”
What began with a fascination with paper airplanes as a baby has taken Estrada to one in every of America’s most prestigious establishments. However that very same little one fascination with baseball has at all times held its pull.
It’s baseball now, jet engines and distributed propulsion later.
