Q&A With Former Rays Prospect and Atlantic League Slugger Chris Nowak
- jgperro
- May 18
- 11 min read
Grab a hard hat and shovel. We're digging deep into the business of baseball with Chris Nowak. Chris gives a look into the game from the player's prospective.
Chris Nowak was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 19th round of the 2004 MLB draft. He was named a Baseball America High-A All-Star for the Visalia Oaks in 2006. He'd play his way up the Rays' chain before going over to the Brewers in 2010. In 2011, he wound up with the York Revolution in the Atlantic League. He broke the team home run record with 25 in 2011 and broke it again with 34 in 2012.
Jeff Perro
You were drafted in the 19th round, isn't low, isn't high. You still had to probably compete for, playing time at that round, but you played your way into becoming a prospect. Man, you smoked the California league in 2006, played well up through AA.
Chris Nowak
When you go in, you want to play professional baseball, you kind of have this vision of what it's like and it's completely different than what you you kind of anticipate. Just on the kind of like the business side of things. Being a 19th rounder, there wasn't a ton of money invested in me. So, like you said, I had to earn a spot. I remember going to my first long season in Low-A and I was playing probably every other day or every third day and watching two guys that played my position. I was a corner infielder. But they had a little bit more money invested in them and they wanted to see him play.
One guy was the third baseman Travis Schlichting who actually converted to pitcher and made it to the big leagues. So, he had a really cool story that way. Yeah, real live arm, but the bat obviously kind of didn't didn't play. Then we had another kid named Tommy Nichols who was a bigger build first baseman, but just wasn't putting it together that year. There ended up being an injury that allowed me to start playing every day. And I just took advantage of it. I ended up hitting over .300 for the year and went to high A and did well. And when I got at bats, consistent at bats, I definitely was somebody that you wanted to have.
Jeff Perro
How did you end up with the Brewers?
Chris Nowak
I was in my final year of my contract with the Rays, so I played that whole contract out, almost. I Don't know if it was my age or whatever but they just didn't see fit that I was gonna be a big leaguer for them.
But there's a lot of coaches that were on my side and one of those guys was the AA hitting coach in Montgomery his name was Ozzie Timmons, who actually has worked his way up to big league hitting coach with the Brewers for you for a few years here as of late, and he just went back to the Rays. He was just great because like he showed me the the from that point forward, like the what it was like to be in connection with people, you know, the the networking part of it. And there's definitely a big networking part of baseball that you don't realize.
He talked to Darnell Coles, who was Milwaukee's minor league hitting coordinator. I was put on what was called a phantom DL with the Rays. And I said I was gonna wait a week and then I was gonna ask for my release. The word got out, Ozzie knew that was happening and gave heads up to a few of the people that should take advantage of giving me another shot. The Brewers were one of them. I went over there and it didn't do what I wanted to do. The hometown team, I would have loved to step foot in a big league box with the Brewers.
But I struggled a little bit when I went over there with Huntsville. I really got with some great coaches, Darnell and then Al LaBeouf was another hitting coach at the time. I started making some changes because the Rays were always like about like not touching me as far as offensively, because I always kind of figured it out. I was always like a big doubles guy. For my size, I never put together big power numbers with with the home run ball. And they really tapped into like how to use my leverage and really transform me from a doubles hitter.
I got to go to AAA with the Brewers and they said that I was going to get like three to four hundred plate appearances wherever I went. So I made the club the AAA club out of spring training, but never came to fruition. I think I was two plus months in and I had like 40 some played appearances.
Jeff Perro
That's not on pace for three or four hundred plate appearances.
Chris Nowak
Yeah! So I went to Don Money who is the manager, and just said, "Hey, you know, this is kind of what Gord Ash told me that we were going to do, that I was going to get this this opportunity to kind of showcase my offensive abilities and get a shot to possibly, you know, move my way up." And I just wasn't getting that. He said, ⁓ "I didn't even know anything about that. Let me call Gord."
Then he came back to me like five minutes later, he's like, Gord said, if you want to take your release, you can take it. And then at that time I was like, okay, that means I'm not getting those plate appearances that I was promised. Obviously nothing was written in a contract or anything. That just isn't the way they do it. So I took the release, went to York. And mashed.
I mean, once I got the string of at bats, it all came together. Still hit for a decent decently high average, I was still putting the ball in play like I normally do, but just was taking advantage and putting some balls over the fence.
Jeff Perro
Was that the only difference?
Chris Nowak
Andy [Etchebarren] was our manager, and also it was the team. I walked in that clubhouse, you know, the guys were just welcoming, like nothing I've never experienced. You know, in affiliated ball, because everybody's kind of out for themselves in a way where this was like about the team and about winning.
And within the first week I started out good. Hit a home run my first at bat, ⁓ and then Andy was just like, "Listen, you're my guy, you know? You're my guy and you're going to play." And that just gave me like the freedom to be like, there's nothing to worry about here. And I went off from there.
In that three months there, less than three months, probably the best stretch I ever had. I I hit .330. We ended up winning the championship that year. It was just unbelievable. And then it came back the next year. Didn't get a chance to get signed by any affiliated teams, but wanted to go back and give it another shot, prove myself again. I came back to York and I really, really just enjoyed my time there.
the people, the fans, everything was about the team and trying to win. that's what I was all about. As far as you want your career to go somewhere, but I still just loved the game. And that was the biggest part of independent ball, just kind of rekindled my love for the game of baseball instead of like I mentioned before, there's so much business involved in affiliates.
Jeff Perro
It gives you the freedom to play without the bigwigs breathing down your neck.
Chris Nowak
Yeah. 100%
Jeff Perro
And then 2013, I was looking and I was like, there's no way dude breaks the team record twice in home runs [25 in 2011 and 34 in 2014 for the York Revolution,] 34 homers in the Atlantic league, which high level competition, and doesn't get it a job offer the following year. But you didn't play in 2013.
Chris Nowak
So, I went to the Diamondbacks for the spring in 2013. My wife and I just had our daughter in February. So I went to the Diamondbacks trying to transition to the outfield because I was like, "Listen, I need to I need I need a couple more spots to play if I'm going to crack the big leagues at 30 years old."
You know, I was I was pretty established as a corner infielder, but was trying to transition to the outfield a little bit. And it just didn't work out like I thought it would. It was a lot more difficult than I thought, to get to the get in the outfield. And I had a fine spring training. didn't I didn't rake. mean, I think I had two homers during spring, but they wanted to take advantage of like some younger, youthful talent, which, you know, I get it. It's a business.
I'm 30 and I didn't have any big league time. So there, if I was going to make that club, I was probably going to be in AA again. And I really wanted to be in AAA. So I got my release and then actually the Cardinals came, talked or called me and said they would like to put me in AA. A former manager that was in Mississippi, Philip Wellman. I'm sure you remember that scene with the rosin bag. But he and I always hit it off. That was another one of those kind of like unknown networking things. He wanted me to be on the team. And man, I had to like make a really big hard decision at that time. I didn't want to go back to AA. You know, I spent so much time in AA, I felt like I had
Jeff Perro
And a 30 year old guy at AA is typically the guy that starts three times a week. ⁓
Chris Nowak
Yeah, exactly. I just I just wanted to say, I was I was a big leaguer that never made it. You know what I mean? Just wasn't in the right place at the right time. Had great seasons all along the way. I wouldn't change anything that I did other than one thing. I had one spring training. I think it was in 08 or 09 and a coach came up to me is like, "Would you be ever interested in catching?"
At the time I was like, I'm going to make it as a corner infielder like the ego in me or whatever you want to say. Looking back now, I had Longoria and Carlos Peña in front of me and obviously Longoria when he first came up, was a Silve Slugger, Gold Glover and Carlos Peña was putting up 40 homers and was winning gold gloves too.
Jeff Perro
So, the family, you got the wife and the kid. How did you feel a week, a month into the season and now you're not playing anymore, but you're hanging out with the wife and that sweet little baby on the couch watching baseball?
Chris Nowak
I didn't watch too much baseball. Especially the first few years I really separated myself. I would maybe go to a game or two in person, but never really sat and watched it on TV like I did when I was playing and as a kid. You just kind of see it differently. You see it as a business. And, you know, I just didn't want to kind of rekindle either those those emotions. Just feeling like maybe I got, you know, slighted in any sort of way.
And so I spent a lot of time, yeah, with family. Just you got to have a strong support system when you're playing baseball because if you try to do it on your own, it's it's gonna be really really hard. So, Yeah, they were there for me and made the transition pretty pretty seamless You know, do I miss baseball? Absolutely. Like it was my first love and I love coaching my daughter and some of the other local kids around here doing some lessons here and there but, it's it's a it's just something that when it was all said and done, I just kind of closed that chapter, so to speak, and tried to hit the real world, you know what mean?
Jeff Perro
Did you have your degree?
Chris Nowak
I went to University of Phoenix online [after playing] because they had a program that basically you could transfer the credits that you gained versus like if I went to like a local school I would have to take a lot of the prerequisites and I would have been in school for another two or three years so I didn't want to do that.
Jeff Perro
How long did it take you to get your degree from Phoenix?
Chris Nowak
Yeah, like about a year and a half.
Jeff Perro
When you, when you decided to retire to the spring training, did you have a plan in place where you already like looking at getting, back and getting your degree and how to do that?
Chris Nowak
Yeah, I knew that, you know, the way that I was gonna have to go was online to kind of get done with that done and kind of check that box, so to speak. It actually kind of helped me in the real world, because it was obviously a lot of stuff on the computer, which I had not done then. That's just kind of the way of the world now. So, yeah, I got to I kind of learned that piece too, just with the whole online portion of everything. It was good to go that route actually, when it was all said and and get my degree and just cut my teeth in sales and been doing sales ever since.
Jeff Perro
What are you doing now?
Chris Nowak
So I just I'm gonna start actually a new job next Monday.
Jeff Perro
Awesome! Congratulations!
Chris Nowak
I'm going to be selling HR solutions, like benefits and things for small to medium sized companies, so they can kind of take some of that off of their plate. They can really focus on retaining great talent and helping their employees so they don't jump ship, so to speak. You give them a package that with insurance and benefits and everything that they are set to be in it for the long haul. I can admittedly say I was I've spent about two years selling insurance, five years selling like copiers, printers, software solutions, and then another four years and like med device sales.
But there really wasn't that long-term career where this next step is definitely is something that I could take into retirement.
Jeff Perro
Any skills from baseball that you feel have translated well into the sales jobs you've done in the past or now?
Chris Nowak
Yeah, no great question. I I think you know just working with just diverse people You know obviously you're a player and you got people from all over the country all over the world, different nationalities. And also, you can see how sometimes if it's a bad apple how I can really ruin a team.
if you're really trying to build a team and where I am, where I was coming from, interacting with various people, you have to see and recognize personalities and how to try to get to their level. I think, you know, that's the biggest thing with especially teaching because yeah, what works for one guy might, it might be totally different for somebody else.
Writer's note: I own maybe 300 baseball cards. I hadn't bought any in decades, but the flea market near me sells grab bags for 50 cents and I've bought a few. Mostly stuff from the 80's and 90's. Then, last fall, I went to a yard sale near me. They had a stack of 29 autographed cards. I think I paid $25-30 for them. There were cards signed by Pete Inclaviglia, Akinori Iwamura, Javier Vazquez, and more. A few of them were Rays' affliate minor league cards.
A few minutes after I got of the phone with Chris Nowak, I was sitting on the couch and it hit me. "Chris Nowak!?' I got up, retrieved the stack of cards out of the top of my closet, and there it was,.....
..... an autographed card of Chris Nowak from the 2008 Montgomery Biscuits.
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