POSEY TO MAKE GRIZZLIES DEBUT TODAY

The Giants’ superstar in the making will be in uniform for Fresno at Colorado Springs tonight.

By David Taub
VSP Senior Writer:

When is Buster Posey coming? When is he going to be here?

Those were the two most common questions heard at the Grizzlies games this year. Fans, media and even team officials, wondered, speculated when one of the most talked about Giants prospects would arrive.

The Giants drafted Posey in the first round of the 2008 draft, the fifth overall selection. From that day, excitement built for a prospect with such fervor rarely seen before. Even Tim Lincecum didn’t become such a phenom until he pitched in his two-month stint with the Grizzlies in 2007.

Posey’s name may have entered the Fresno conscious during last year’s College World Series. While Bulldogs fans watched the tournament, Posey was one of the most talked about topics as he led his Florida State Seminoles.

“From the way Fresno State played, I’m glad we didn’t play them,” Posey said, recalling his college days which just ended last year.

Accolades, expectations and hype have followed Posey since his high school days. A brief look at his bio tells the story of a talented young man: 2008 Golden Spikes winner; All-American; Junior Olympian; High School Player of the Year and on and on.

And thus far, he has delivered.

After signing a record six million dollar bonus, Posey played 10 games in the low minor leagues, before embarking in the Hawaiian Winter League. In the 50th state, Posey batted .338 with 15 RBI in 19 games, good enough to earn post-season All-Star honors. His homer in the championship game clinched the win for the Waikiki BeachBoys.

The legend started to grow. San Francisco invited Posey to Spring Training to learn from the best, like Bengie Molina. The San Jose Giants would be his first stop in 2009, with the question on everyone’s mind: where will he wind up at the end of the year? Stay with the little Giants? Fresno? San Francisco?

Posey aced the Cal League, an All-Star hitting .326, 13 homers and 58 RBI.

In his final game with San Jose on July 13, Posey looked any but a Six Million Dollar man off the field. No fancy jewelry; no visible tattoos; and just a little scruff around the face and neck. His attitude is like any one of his current and future minor league teammates: just trying to get to the show.

“I’m just coming to the ballpark each day with a mindset to get better.”

The way he carries about himself, with his team, with the media, senses a bit of humbleness, some graciousness. His family helped keep him level headed.

“It all starts with the way I was raised,” the son of Demp and Traci Posey says. “They’re quick to raise me and my siblings (Buster is the oldest of four) to be humble and respectful of everybody.”

Buster also has his new bride of six months, Kristen, to keep on the straight and narrow. The two were high school sweethearts at Lee County High School in southwest Georgia. They honeymooned in the Bahamas, and were together living in San Jose as of earlier this week.

“This has been has been an adjustment for her as well. It’s not an all glamorous lifestyle as everyone would think.

Lee County, Posey describes, is a kind of rural place where the entire county has only one high school.

“Good people, fun place to grow up.”

He grew up as a Braves fan, his formative years just in time for Atlanta’s run of division titles and one world championship.

Although born on March 27, 1987 as Gerald Demp Posey III, he was known as ‘Buster’ since birth.

He says his name came from a nickname his father’s grandmother gave to the elder Posey, and it just stuck.

Baseball wasn’t necessarily in Posey’s blood, but he and his sibling took to it. His dad was more of a basketball man, a scholarship player at Berry College in Rome, Georgia in the mid-1980s.

But with two brothers and a sister, the Posey clan used whiffle ball as their form of family fun.

“We’ve always just loved the game.”

Now, Posey’s baseball path takes him to Fresno. His numbers speak for themselves. His quiet leadership on the field speaks for itself.

Although it is hard to predict how long Posey will be with the Grizzlies, it’s just another place Buster says he can perfect his baseball craft.

With the pace he’s setting, it is no doubt he will be with the Giants soon.

“It will be a dream come true.”

For now, Posey as a Grizzly is a fans’ dream fulfilled.

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