This story initially ran beforehand, earlier than Mason Estrada was drafted with the No. 225 choose by the Dodgers.
PHOENIX — “You may know every thing on this planet, sport, however the one means you’re discovering that one out is by giving it a shot.”
Robin Williams’ character in Good Will Looking provides the above recommendation to an MIT janitor/genius performed by Matt Damon. Within the context of the movie, Williams is imparting knowledge to Damon’s fictional character because it pertains to a love curiosity; however within the context of the lifetime of Mason Estrada, an precise aerospace engineering main from MIT, the shot Estrada is taking is on one thing that he loves — baseball.
Estrada grew up in Covington, La., and earlier than the rest, he cherished being open air. Looking. Fishing. You title it, no matter bought him exterior and lively, he was recreation. It wasn’t till round age 12, when he reeled off a spate of homers consecutively, that it dawned on him that he was fairly good at that baseball factor, too.
Whereas it might make sense {that a} child who bought a 36 superscore on his ACT (out of 36) and a 34 composite would have MIT on his quick record of locations to review, the best way Estrada wound up on campus in Cambridge, Mass. — at a college with an acceptance price that’s south of 5 % — was extra a recreation of happenstance.
“One in every of my dad’s finest pals rising up, one among his good pals’ father was the [athletic director] at MIT for some time, in order that they bought me in contact with him and he bought me in contact with the baseball coaches and type of put MIT on my radar as a result of I did not actually consider it as an possibility for me,” Estrada mentioned.
“It was all the time type of faculty first. I used to be good at baseball once I was youthful, I used to be not elite. I solely had a few small seems from D-I packages, plenty of JUCO and D-II, D-III seems, and so no colleges that have been actually focused on me that have been value giving up an MIT diploma. In order that’s why I ended up going to MIT. However it was undoubtedly a juggle specializing in faculty, specializing in baseball — I simply had to ensure I saved my priorities straight.”
However whereas Estrada was establishing himself on the sphere throughout highschool, he was coping with loss away from it. His father, Mike, a revered member of the Knights Knation group and a former United States Marine, handed away throughout Estrada’s junior yr following a battle with most cancers. Estrada has handled the illness at different instances as effectively — his girlfriend’s youthful sister overcame childhood most cancers — and has used that publicity as motivation.
“I’ve a really, very sturdy ardour for the outside, looking and fishing, and sadly, most cancers has been a fairly large a part of my life in a unfavourable means, however I feel there is a motive for that,” Estrada mentioned. “I feel I am being referred to as to assist youngsters who’re in not-so-great conditions have peaceable moments and be capable to expertise nature and every thing it has to supply.”
Whereas Estrada could also be some of the fascinating tales on this yr’s Draft class, that doesn’t get you invited to the Draft Mix. A 96 mph fastball helps.
Estrada was invited to the fifth-year occasion in Phoenix, the place he confirmed off the explosive arsenal that led to him compiling 66 strikeouts throughout 40 2/3 innings final season with a 2.21 ERA, all with out permitting a house run. Along with sitting constantly at 94-96 mph together with his heater whereas on an enormous league mound with all eyes on him, Estrada was ripping off 84-87 mph slider/cutter hybrids that registered as excessive as 2700 RPMs.
If that simply sounds like the kind of repertoire that would play at the next collegiate stage, you’d be considering alongside the traces of the Tennessee Volunteers, who’ve secured Estrada as a switch commit for the 2026 season ought to he not signal out of this yr’s Draft.
Professional baseball was by no means actually on Estrada’s radar till his freshman yr at MIT when he reared again, fired and bought a radar gun studying of 95 mph. There aren’t many people strolling the earth able to that, not to mention ones that willingly enlist in a thermodynamics course (Estrada cited that as his most difficult class, lest we predict all of it comes simply to the right-hander). However whereas the infrastructure for going professional in electrical engineering or arithmetic is definitely accessible at MIT, baseball isn’t as ready-made.
“Our batting cages are retractable — you pull them up with the pulley and so they’re within the health club, in order that was a battle,” Estrada mentioned. “The mounds would slide in all places as a result of there is not any traction and hitters could be sliding on the health club flooring or the mat would slide. So undoubtedly some distinctive challenges enjoying Division III baseball.”
However that hasn’t stopped Estrada within the slightest.
“My mother has been very supportive of what I assumed was finest,” Estrada mentioned. “She is aware of I’ve all the time made calculated choices. She’d be far more nervous if I used to be giving up the diploma, however I am ensuring that I preserve the flexibility to return and get my diploma later at any time when I am performed with baseball.”
What began with a fascination with paper airplanes as a toddler has taken Estrada to one among America’s most prestigious establishments. However that very same little one fascination with baseball has all the time held its pull.
It’s baseball now, jet engines and distributed propulsion later.
