Windy City Winning: East’s building sub moves to Chicago to play professional baseball

Baseball bats lined the wall as substitute teacher Jack Pauley took attendance for the class on Webex. Shortly after letting the kids go to get started on their classwork, Pauley headed across the hall to the indoor batting cages. Besides stealing the hearts of every female student at East, Pauley has been busy training to fulfill his dream of playing professional baseball.

After he graduated high school, Pauley went to the University of Northern Colorado on a D1 athletic scholarship in Greeley, CO. He trained year-round, and spend his college summers on travel teams that the university placed him on, traveling all around the region with the goal of playing professionally in the future.

“I wanted to play past college,” said Pauley. “I didn’t want college to be my last bet. I thought somehow, ‘I have to get there. I have to make it happen.’”

After graduating college, Pauley planned to sign with a major league team, but his coaches wanted him to first join an major league baseball partner league — an independent league with its own teams not affiliated with MLB franchises. 

However, the MLB and its partner leagues still work together even though their players aren’t interchangeable. The MLB use partner leagues as testing grounds for rule changes they are not ready to unleash on their affiliated leagues and teams. In exchange, the partner leagues get to incorporate MLB branding into their marketing. 

“I just wanted him gain some experience outside, which I think will help him build on the tradition of success,” said Pauley’s former coach at Northern Colorado, Carl Iwasaki.

Pauley’s plans to join the Frontier League — the oldest professional independent baseball league which became an official MLB partner league in 2020 — were cut short when the pandemic hit, which forced several minor league and lower level teams to get cut, leaving Pauley without a team to play for. He was forced to consider other short-term options. 

When Pauley’s teammates decided to become substitute teachers, Pauley decided to follow that route.

“I thought that [substitute teaching] would be a good fit,” said Pauley. “I wanted something that could be flexible, so that I could be able to work out after school and on weekends. And when I got to East, the setup that [administration] gave me was an even better fit.”

Pauley was given access to East’s indoor batting cages, allowing him to practice during class time when students had work time during remote school. And once students returned to in-person learning, it was warm enough outside for Pauley to use the outdoor batting cages.

“I’m definitely lucky because it wasn’t too tough finding a place to work out and hit and stuff, but there’s other guys that are in the same boat as me who [have] struggled to find places to train and work out,” said Pauley.

Now that COVID-19 restrictions are letting up, Pauley can finally pursue his dream career with the Windy City ThunderBolts, a professional baseball team based in the Chicago suburb of Crestwood, IL. in the Frontier League.

Pauley leaves for Chicago on May 10 and starts training on May 11, before playing a total of 96 games — 48 home and 48 away — from May 27 to September 12.

“The first couple of days [will be] physicals and stuff like that to make sure I’m good to go from a health standpoint,” said Pauley. “And then there [will be] conditioning tests, which are pretty standard. Then from there, it’ll be spring training.”

After a summer season with the ThunderBolts, Pauley hopes to get picked up by an affiliate team of the MLB — which is a lower level team that feeds into a major league team. The Kansas City Royals’ affiliate team is the Omaha Storm Chasers. With 38 players reaching the Major Leagues after playing in the Frontier league, Pauley is optimistic about his chances.

“Everybody [at East] has been nothing but great to me, so it’ll definitely be hard for me to leave,” said Pauley. “But there are not a lot of guys that get the chance to keep going after college, and I’m not ready to settle down and decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. So I’m really grateful for this opportunity to keep going with what I love doing and get out there and play.”