Plant City high school graduate seized his day.
Photo courtesy of Kelsey Grant/Arizona Diamondbacks
When a Major League Baseball (MLB) starting pitcher goes deep into the seventh inning in his debut, and after 83 pitches, his coach comes smiling out to the mound to relieve him, you know the pitcher threw a tremendous game. “It was a great debut; a great outing no matter if it’s your first, your last, anywhere in between,” Guardians Manager Stephen Vogt said. “Attacking the strike zone, making big pitches, getting weak contact, quick outs, got us deep into the game and gave us a chance to win. That’s a tough team to keep off the board over there, and he did it for seven innings.”
Messick has been pitching for Cleveland’s Triple-A team, the Columbus Clippers. When he got called up for Cleveland’s away game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he allowed just one run on seven hits and one walk. He struck out six batters in 6 2/3 innings. His team on the field gathered around to congratulate him before he left the mound. He did so well, even the opposing crowd applauded for the rookie.
“It was a great day,” Messick commented. “It was a little different. Bibee talked to me and asked, ‘What did you feel like the first time out there?’ Honestly, I couldn’t feel anything. I was just pitching, and after that first inning, I didn’t want to over-amp myself. I am still the starting pitcher, and I have to go deep into this game. I know it is my debut, but we’re trying to win. They called me up to try to win, so I tried to calm myself down and get back in the game and focus on what I needed to do to help the team win. We talked a lot in the dugout. I try to do a good job communicating with the catcher. It’s my first time ever throwing to him, even in a bullpen. So, we were trying to communicate the entire time and trying to really mix up the game plan, find out what is working for me; use my strengths and go against their weaknesses, see how it paired up. It ended up working out, and we had a really good day.”
In 2019, as a senior, Messick led Plant City High School to its first and only state championship. The team went 30-2 while Messick started 14 games, with an 11-1 record and a 1.06 earned run average in 86 innings. He threw eight complete games in a row to finish his high school career. Seven of those were shutouts, and his 125 strikeouts was the highest among all Florida High School pitchers that year.
Messick, a left-hander, went on to play three years for Florida State University, where he earned honors such as 2020 Freshman All-American, 2021 ACC Freshman of the Year, 2021 ACC Pitcher of the Year, 2022 National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association first team All-American, and two-time first team All-ACC pitcher. Messick also played for the USA Collegiate National Team following the 2021 season. The Cleveland Guardians picked him 54th overall in the second round of the 2022 MLB draft, making him the highest draft pick to come from Plant City.
After three years of working his way up through the Guardians minor league system, sports news outlets used words like, “stellar,” and” dazzled,” to describe his performance.
“I just want to give all the glory to God,” Messick said. “I mean, the enemy tried to slow me down this week. There were some delays in the travel, some late nights, some crazy travel plans. But once the Lord puts stuff into motion, there’s nothing that can stop His plan, and I am just so grateful to be a part of that, and I hope that, if anybody knows anything about me, it is that I am here to glorify Him, and that everything I have and everything I am is because of Him. That feeling out there, the ability to compete, and the energy He has given me to be able to go do that for the first time; I felt like I was floating. I still do. I don’t know when I will come down from it, but it was awesome, and I am super thankful.”
“We are unbelievably proud,” Parker’s father, T.J. Messick, said. “It has been a long road. A lot of hard work has led us to the moment. It is cool to see it come full circle. He dominated for almost seven innings and did really well. He looked like he has been doing it up there at the big-league level his whole life, and I was so impressed. He isn’t afraid of anything. He expects to be doing this as a career for a long time. Just making it here is not the goal. He is trying to put a 10-plus-year career together. We appreciate the love and support that everyone has shown towards us and towards our son. Plant City is a great place to raise kids and a great place for baseball. The fact that he has come out of our town, born and raised here, and he has made it, says something about our town.”
On August 27, Messick made his second start. He threw for seven innings, struck out six, allowed four hits, with three of them being singles, held the Tampa Bay Rays scoreless, and got his first MLB win. At least, Rays fans in Plant City can take comfort in the fact that one of their own beat their team.
For a baseball player who wants to put together a 10-plus-year career, Messick would be hard pressed to have had a better start.
