© 2003-2008 CSRA Crusaders Baseball. All Rights Reserved.

By Regina Reagan
Apprentice

With a few quick, even strokes of a pen, 18-year-old Stapleton resident Ty McTier opened a new chapter in his life.

"I'm looking forward to whatever's about to come," Ty said.

Wednesday, March 23, among approximately 30 of his closest friends, family members and former coaches, Ty signed a full baseball scholarship with Chattahoochee Valley Community College (CVCC), a two year college located in Phenix City, Alabama.

There he plans to pursue a business/medical degree and play for the CVCC Pirates.

Ty decided to seize the offer above that of several other interested colleges including Valdosta State, Augusta State and Gordon College in hopes that his decision will land him in the major leagues.

Many aspiring athletes choose to attend junior college versus the full four year universities with dreams of being drafted after a year or two said Ty.

“Whether I go through two years of college or not my goal is to be pitching in the major leagues in a few years and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get there,” Ty said. “I think that’s what God put in my heart; the desire has always been there.”

The desire

“The desire’s always been there,” Ty explained. “When you step onto the field, just looking down at the chalk lines on the field…It’s a cool feeling.

“I always loved playing baseball, I’ve been throwing the ball since I was physically able to learn.”

Even before his hands were large enough to grasp a baseball, around the age of three or four, Ty was picking up other objects from the outdoors, pecans, and hurling them into the air.

“I’d always be throwing things or launching things,” Ty said. “I just liked being outside and enjoying life.”

Some of his first memories of baseball include those of his mother, Lucy McTier, throwing a plastic ball to her son who eagerly awaited the pitch, plastic bat in hand, ready to pulverize the oncoming object.

“He’s always been very athletic,” Lucy said. “From very early on I knew he was different from all the other kids.”

Lucy and her husband David McTier would watch their two boys, Ty and his older brother, Jace McTier, play baseball together on the front lawn.

“Ty went to almost all of my baseball games,” Jace said laughing.

“I don’t think he watched a single one of them. He’d just eat the whole time and run around the field with his baseball helmet turned backwards.”

All grown up

Now Ty is all grown up and his talent for the sport have grown along with his age.

Instead of launching pecans a few feet across a yard, this 6 foot 3 inch 205 pound young man is launching baseballs at up to 95 mph across a plate. Instead of hitting a plastic ball a couple of yards, he’s sending the ball an average of 440 feet by just throwing the ball up in the air and hitting it.

And he’s doing it all for God’s glory.

“I’m most proud that he has asked the Lord to lead his steps,” his mom said. “To me I feel he has a greatness within him because he’s willing to rely on the Lord in whatever he does.”

Ty’s goal is to attain a career and establish a presence in the major leagues, and use it to reach the multitudes.

“I know without a doubt God wants me to speak to tons of people,” Ty said. “I know one day I’ll be speaking about Jesus to crowds of people.”

Already his baseball talents and extraordinary story have presented him with opportunities to speak.

After reading a news article printed in The Augusta Chronicle last August, Ty received an invitation to speak at a meeting of 100-125 car salesmen from Acura of Augusta.

“The one thing that is cool about speaking is I’m speaking but listening at the same time to what God is saying,” Ty said.

Training

Although Ty is gifted both athletically and spiritually, life has not always been easy for him.

“It gets tough some times,” Ty said. “If I were playing for my own desire, I would have given up a long time ago.”

After his devotional, school work and his family’s devotional, Ty devotes his time to training.

Besides the usual running, weight lifting and practice, Ty has taken on interesting hobbies to assist in his physical training.

One of these includes building a log cabin, all by hand.

“I always wanted to do it,” Ty said.

“It’s fun,” he continued laughing. “I wouldn’t be doing it if it were work.”

He described cutting down huge trees and dragging them out of the swamp, some almost 200-300 yards, where he left them to season.

“It was ten times harder than any weight training,” Ty said. “It’s really helped my training.”

Besides that, Ty was able to draw a parallel from this experience to his experience with baseball.

Without the proper seasoning, he said, the logs would begin to shift, crack and fall apart, but if the wood went through the proper steps the logs would not move come rain, snow, wind or any other element.

Ty feels that the same is true about his own preparation for what is to come.

Probably the hardest preparation, according to Ty, was a recent change in his pitching style, which in the long run will prove more beneficial for preserving his arm.

“I was pitching 94, 95 miles per hour,” Ty said. “That’s as fast as the best pitchers in baseball.”

The problem-Ty was dropping down and releasing the ball from his knees which would eventually lead to exhausting his arm earlier than if he were “staying tall” while pitching.

“I had to completely change my technique,” Ty said. “It didn’t come easy.

“Here you are, up there with the best and then all of a sudden something happens and you’re throwing 15 miles under what you were. People are laughing at you because small kids are hitting off you when you were striking out people who would play professional baseball next year.”

The payoffs have proved to outweigh the costs.

“I’m starting to see the results,” Ty said. “Before my arm was sore after I pitched, and now I don’t even feel it. There’s no pressure on my arm at all.”

Ty said if his technique is right his pitching range is between 88 and 94 mph and he feels he hasn’t reached his peak yet.

David McTier, Ty’s father and coach, agrees and would love to see Ty reach that summit, whether it be with his pitching or something else.

“I just want to see him reach his full potential, whatever it is,” he said.

Other’s thoughts

“The first time Ty threw the ball he caught our eyes,” Todd Dickinson said at the signing.

Dickinson coached Ty on a middle grade home-school team called the CSRA Crusaders and has kept in check with him ever since.

“We have known he was very special since we met him,” Dickinson said.

“One thing that stands out about him is he’s humble and always willing to help somebody out. He’s always encouraging other players.

“It’s been a blessing to coach someone like him.”

Another coach, Tommy Norris, invited Ty to play with his traveling team after his team was beaten by the CSRA Crusaders for the eighth grade championship.

“He was always a colorful character,” Norris said. “He was the kind of guy you liked to play against because he was so much fun.”

Norris quickly found out that it would be more beneficial to play with Ty than play against him so Ty joined the Diamond Dark Horses, an All-Star team of private schools Norris formed shortly after his defeat.

Norris said that among Ty’s attributes what stood out to him most were his size and how hard he could hit and throw the ball.

“I certainly think he’ll get drafted,” Norris said confidently. “Very few are called and even fewer are chosen but he’s got the talent. I think the sky’s the limit. I’d like to see him on the big screen one day.”

David thinks that his son’s signing with CVCC is a huge step towards reaching that goal.

“I look at it as a huge open door for him and a great opportunity. That’s what he’s worked for all these years. I really appreciate all the coaches over the years who saw his potential and were willing to work with him.”

Those coaches include scouts George Blackburn and Roger Wilkerson with the Pendleton Travel Team.

Wilkerson met Ty at tryouts for the summer baseball team in June of 2003.

“I could tell he was a good athlete,” Wilkerson said. “And ever since then he’s gotten better and better.”

Blackburn met Ty in the fall of 2003 and he coached him in 2004.

“He’s the most unique person,” Blackburn said. “The biggest thing is the person he is. He’s going to be successful in whatever he does.”

The heart-felt well-wishes and warm memories continued throughout the day.

Jace said he knew since Ty was just 6 years old that his brother was destined for great things in baseball.

He described his younger brother walking up the stairs to his room where he would suit up in a full Atlanta Braves outfit his parents bought him for Christmas. He would stand before his mirror, adjusting his costume and the mirror until completely satisfied and then run back down the stairs and outside where he’d play for hours.

“I knew by the way he’d stand there and adjust that mirror,” Jace said. “He always did it with a passion. He’s ready; this is his next step in his baseball career. I just wish him the best and am looking forward to seeing him play on the next level.”

Thirteen-year-old Justin Bryan, friend and neighbor, said that he too would like to see Ty play in the major leagues.

“He’ll probably go to the major leagues,” Justin said. “He’s a really good baseball player.”

Apart from being his friend, Ty is also Justin’s role model.

“He’s cool,” Justin said. “He likes to do what I like to do and he’s a good guy to hang out with and a good influence. He gives me a lot of good advice.”

Justin aspires to become a professional baseball player one day also.

A final word

Ty gave a final word on his dreams of glorifying the Lord through a baseball ministry and what’s helped him get this far.

“My whole family’s always been there for me,” he said. “My brother’s always been encouraging, dad’s always been there, and my mother is always there encouraging me when I have a bad game and screaming and shouting when I have a good one.

“They’re a big key in who I am today.”

His granddad was a major influence as well.

“I always looked up to him,” Ty said. “He showed me how to live and so did my dad.”

The influences of his family, friends and coaches brought him to the place he is today along with one very important decision he made-the decision to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

“When you accept Jesus, He gives you dreams and aspirations to do great things,” Ty said. “I don’t want to look back and say I half did it; I always give it all I got.

“I wasn’t ready before and now I’m almost where I need to be. I’m ready for everything to start coming together now.”