NEWS

Date: Jan 27, 2012

Rusty Returns To Gulls’ Nest

By Don Leypoldt   (Photos: Rusty Begnaud 2002 and 2010. Inset: Dan Gamache. NECBL photos)

A baseball is a baseball.

They are “spheres formed by yarn wound around a small core of cork or rubber covered with two stripes of white horsehide or cowhide, tightly stitched together,” according to Major League Baseball’s official rules. 

If you’ve seen one baseball, you’ve seen them all.

A baseball is a baseball.
Except when it’s not. 

Except when it inspires hope amidst unfathomable tragedy.  Except when it takes Cajuns and Rhode Islanders and somehow blends that incongruent pairing into a Waltons-esque family.

You might not have made the Newport Gulls’ Hall of Fame dinner on January 21^st, as the team enshrined Rusty Begnaud.  Seven inches of snow that day kept many away.

But if you did make it, you either learned or remembered Rusty Begnaud’s story.  And you were reminded how a baseball can bring people together like little else can.

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Rusty Begnaud (BEG-no) showed up in Newport during the summer of 2002. 

“I don’t think I could have picked a better place to leave home for the first time,” remembered the Cajun righty from New Iberia, Louisiana.  “My favorite part of Newport off the field would be the scenery.  There is so much history here.  The Mansions and the beaches…just taking it all in.

“The Gamache family made (the transition) a lot easier than it could have been.  There were moments where you definitely missed home.  But I enjoyed it.  It made me grow up a bit and learn life on the road.”

Dan Gamache was just 11 when this new “older brother” from McNeese State arrived to stay with his family for the summer.  “I was the Bat Boy back then, so I remember going to all of the Gull games and spending a lot of time with the guys,” Dan recalled.  “I’d go early for BP with them and hang out all day.”

“The Gamaches hosted a college teammate of mine the year before I came.  He is a big reason I ended up in Newport,” said Rusty.   “He told me about how wonderful they were.” 

The Gamaches were wonderful to Rusty and Rusty in turn was wonderful to the Gulls.  The rising junior, who Gull General Manager Chuck Paiva alternately described as both a “Southern Gentleman” and their fiercest competitor used excellent command of three pitches to turn in an outstanding summer for Newport.  Rusty was the victor in the Gulls’ first two wins en route to 5-1 season in which he held opposing batters to a sub-.200 batting average.

“Man, there are so many,” he reflected when asked about his top memories of the summer.  “Making the All-Star team.  We had six or eight of us who were able to go up there.   Pitching against Team USA would have to be one of them since those are the best of the best.   They were wonderful but being able to win the championship as a team, after an up and down season in which we started off kind of rocky was really special.  That was the icing on the cake.”

NECBL Championship banner in hand, Begnaud went back to McNeese and sparkled, posting an 8-4 record and a 3.14 ERA in 17 starts.

“I didn’t pitch in high school until my senior year,” Rusty mentioned.  “I walked on at Louisiana Lafayette and didn’t pitch much my first two years.  I had to transfer, because I wasn’t getting playing time, to McNeese. 

“(Newport) was really my first year of getting a lot of innings and mound presence.  Being here helped out a lot confidence-wise.  You have to log innings as a pitcher in order to pick up on the little things and improve daily.  I had such a good junior year because of the experience I gained here in Newport.”    

Despite the good junior year and a solid senior year, Begnaud’s name went uncalled on Draft Day.  It was a road block, but only a temporary one for a competitor like Rusty.

“I signed as a free agent after my senior season.  It was disappointing,” Rusty admits on not hearing his name called, “but you can look at it two ways.   You can push through it and make it into a positive or you can pout, put your head down and say ‘Why me?’  I chose to push forward.” 

The Royals offered Rusty a contract a week after the Draft.   “I jumped right on it and went out to try and prove myself right away.  They might have gotten me for free,” Rusty declared, “but I wasn’t going to let that hold me back.  I got my foot in the door, and it was up to me to take it from there.”

He spent two years in the Royals’ system before being let go at the end of 2005.  Rusty latched on with the Pensacola Pelicans of the American Association.

Eight games in, it looked like he would not be in Pensacola for long.  On June 20^th, 2006 he got the win, boosting his record to 6-2 and lowering his ERA to 2.70.  That is the kind of stat line that brings people out of the Indy Leagues and back into organized ball.

Then…

Sports Illustrated’s2011 Photo of the Year was paralyzed Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand being wheeled back on the field after suffering a devastating spinal chord trauma.  Maybe part of the reason this potent photo touched so many people is because of our own deep phobia: that such an awful and helpless thing like paralysis could happen to one of us.

The night of June 20th as a bunch of Pelicans were hanging out after the game, Rusty accidentally dove into the shallow end of a swimming pool.  There was no alcohol or foul play involved.

He fractured his C5 vertebrae.  There was intensive care and halos.  There were ventilators.  It took him a month before Rusty, who once displayed tremendous athleticism, could wash his own face and brush his teeth.  He lost 50 pounds.  Jeff Passan wrote on Yahoo! Sports in January 2007, “Uncontrollable spasms tore through Begnaud's muscles, and he needed to grit out the pain until doctors learned to control them.”

“It was tough.  It was strenuous,” described Rusty, who today is paralyzed from the chest down.  “It was difficult on all of the levels- mentally, spiritually and definitely physically. 

“I think my background through baseball really paved the way for me to be able to handle the highs and lows.  On a good day, I need to keep pushing to get as much out of it as I can and on a bad day to not let it hold me down for too long, to brush it off and to get back to it the next day.  I think that has helped me and continues to help me in life’s struggles.”

Rusty’s life had changed as unalterably as could be.

One thing that didn’t change was the friendship of the Gamaches and the Gulls organization.

“Newport was one of the first organizations to reach out and ask how they could help,” Rusty told the audience at the Hall of Fame dinner.  “That tells you about what kind of organization they are.” 

It also tells about the person Rusty is that Gull teammate Gabe Luttrell flew in from Oklahoma just to attend the induction. 

“He was a great kid before the accident and he is a great kid after,” Paiva commented on Rusty.  “I have never heard him once say ‘Why me?’ or complain.”

In 2007, Newport hosted Rusty Begnaud Night and flew the Begnauds back to Cardines Field.  3,300 people packed the park and raised over $20,000 for his care and for spinal chord injury research.

Newport has won four NECBL titles.  Yet any Gull staffer will tell you that Rusty’s Night stands as the organization’s finest hour.

“I say it all of the time.  The games we played were great and the teammates we made were great.  But the friendships that you make along the way and the closeness that you get with certain people, you never lose that,” Rusty reflected.  “That is bigger than the game a lot of times.

“When I got here, from Day One, the Gamaches made me feel right at home.  Ever since then, we’ve been really, really close.  I’ve watched their kids grow up through pictures, the Internet and phone calls.  They’ve become lifelong friends, almost like a family.  It’s been really wonderful to watch the kids grow and succeed in their own way.”

In a true story that would be too hokey for Hollywood Rusty Begnaud still, in a sense, plays professional baseball because of the kids’ success.  Little Dan Gamache, the bat boy, himself developed into an elite baseball prospect.  

“Growing up knowing (Gull vice president) Chris Patsos and Chuck Paiva, they helped me a lot and got me in contact with a lot of coaches,” said Dan.  “They suggested I go to Auburn’s camp because they knew the coach well and knew that it was one of the best playing situations in the country.  I took their advice, had a good showing, and fortunately got offered a roster spot.”

A left handed hitting infielder, Dan hit .337 and slugged .535 during his Auburn career.

Auburn also providentially traveled to Louisiana on road trips.  Now the Begnaud family had a chance to play “host” to a Rhode Island ballplayer in their corner of the world.

“My freshman year, they saw my first SEC start and my first SEC home run,” Dan relayed.  “I hit it on a Saturday.  They got to go to a couple of games when I was a freshman.  They also got to go to a game last year when I was a junior.”

The Pirates selected Dan Gamache to start the sixth round of the 2011 Draft.  Dan has a friend who once played professional ball that he can approach for counsel.

Rusty and his teammates taught Dan “the way to act off the field.  I was just an 11 year kid and they showed me a lot of respect and hung out with me,” Dan remembered.  “I try to do that now with all of the people that I know and am influencing now, playing at Auburn and with the Pirates. 

“The kids come up to you after games and you don’t just walk by.  You pay them attention and see how much they look up to you.   It’s the way I was treated.” 

Dan took care of business this summer, hitting .259 between two levels of short season ball.  Despite the odd hours that Minor Leaguers keep, Dan and Rusty stay in touch “Pretty regularly,” Dan advises.  “Their family talks about how much they follow me.  I talk to Rusty all of the time on Facebook.”

Soon Dan, himself a Newport Gull infielder in 2010, will head to his first Spring Training.  He’ll hopefully earn a roster spot in High-A.  His Louisiana fan club will be watching.

As for Rusty, remember, he is a competitor.  The kid who barely pitched in high school carved out a fine professional career for himself.  Today, he regularly works out and has a job in sales for a shipping company.

 Many athletes end up in sales.  Rusty attributes it to their competitive nature and discipline.  “You learn to keep pushing,” he said.  “Being told ‘No’ is part of the job so through sports you learn to deal with adversity and everything not going your way.”

Through sports, you also learn about how much bigger your family really is.  For one night in January, Rusty Begnaud stood and stood tall- a reminder of how a simple baseball can so powerfully bring people together.

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