Former Delta State baseball star and current San Francisco Giants catcher Eli Whiteside (middle) was honored Thursday evening with DSU Assistant Athletic Director for Development Ronnie Mayers (left) and DSU head baseball coach Mike Kinnison (right) presenting a plaque and a DSU baseball jacket.
Millions of kids watch it on TV and idealize their players and hope to be good enough to play on the same field with them. It’s a goal that very few people in the country ever reach as the changes of making it to “The Big Show” are remote.
New Albany native and former Delta State University baseball standout Eli Whiteside is currently living his dream. The 31-year-old will be entering his third year as a catcher for the San Francisco Giants. His first two years with the team have been special. Whiteside caught Jonathan Sanchez’s no-hitter in the Giants 11-0 win over San Diego on July 10, 2009. This past November, Whiteside had the most special season a Major League player could as he and the rest of his teammates defeated the Texas Rangers four games to one in the World Series which was the Giants first World Series Title since 1954.
Another special event that made 2010 special took place in February when he and his wife Amy gave birth to their son Whit.
Whiteside, who was honored at DSU in a ceremony that took place during halftime of the DSU-Ouachita women’s basketball at the Walter Sillers Coliseum Thursday evening, made no bones about how much this year has meant to him.
“This past year was one of the best years of my life,” Whiteside said. “We had our first child - a son in February. We went on to win the World Series and just to be apart of a team like that was something special. I talked to the team here and told them about the team concept and it means a lot to me and that’s what everybody is wanting to do here at Delta State.”
Whiteside said being apart of the history making season in San Francisco is one that he’s going to cherish.
“The Giants have been out there for 50 years,” Whiteside said. “They moved from New York and never had a winner out there. The people in San Francisco longed for this for a long time. You could really tell that with the support we got throughout the playoffs and the whole year. To see everybody out there in the streets during the parade was something pretty special.”
Whiteside’s road to San Francisco wasn’t an easy one. He was called up to the Major Leagues for first time in July of 2005 when he played for the Baltimore Orioles during a nine-game stretch. After his brief stretch with the Orioles, he went back down to the minors. In 2007, he was hampered by injuries and actually went back down to double-A. He went to the Twins organization and ended up getting released before San Francisco picked him up.
“It was frustrating at times, but I just had to believe in myself,” Whiteside said. “Everybody goes through it. I was released in 2007 and that was pretty much I think the low point of my career. It’s a uphill climb. There is only an elite few of players that play big league baseball. That’s was always my dream and my goal growing up and I accomplished that.”
Whiteside got a great foundation for success in college as the starting catcher for the DSU Statesmen from 1999-2001. During his three-year career, Whiteside helped lead the team to appearances in the South Central Region each season. Whiteside ended his college career on a special note as he helped lead the Statesmen to an appearance in the NCAA Division II World Series in 2001.
Whiteside said Delta State proved to be a great place to play and learn coming out of high school.
“I don’t know if I would be the player I am today if it wasn’t for coach (Mike) Kinnison (DSU head baseball coach) and coach (Rodney) Batts (DSU assistant coach) and the coaching staff here,” Whiteside said. “I really didn’t have a place to play coming out of high school, and coach Kinnison came and watched me play and brought me down here. I couldn’t have imaged going anywhere.”
Whiteside said being honored by the school Thursday evening was another big bright spot.
“It’s pretty special to me because this is a pretty special place,” Whiteside said. “Me and my wife both went to school here and spent three years of my life. Three of the best years of my life were spent on this campus at Delta State. I don’t get back here as much as I should and I want to but hopefully here in the future I can get back here more often.”