Aug. 18, 2009
By Adam
Lucas and Turner Walston
Dustin Ackley may remember July of 2009 as the last summer month for many years in which he didn't play in any baseball games.
August of 2009? He'll probably remember that month for a slightly different reason. Ackley was one of two Tar Heels to sign multimillion-dollar deals Monday night, inking a package with the Seattle Mariners worth between $7.5 and $9.5 million over the next five years.
"It was pretty nerve-wracking," Ackley said of the wait to reach an agreement, which came down to the final minutes before the midnight Eastern deadline. "I was just sitting there not hearing anything from anybody, but I had faith that everything was going to work out."
His signing answers the most immediate question about his professional future, but two other questions remain: where will he play next and what position will he play?
Former Tar Heel teammates Kyle Seager and Brian Moran are already in the Seattle organization with the single-A Clinton LumberKings, but that squad's season ends in just three weeks, hardly time to break in a new player. For now, all Ackley knows for sure is that he's headed home to Walnut Cove during the day on Tuesday, where he'll await instructions from the Mariners. Reports this morning suggested that his next action might come in the Arizona Fall League.
"I haven't been told a lot," he said. "I'll find out more about where I'll be going and what I'll be doing here soon, but I'm just kind of trying to enjoy the moment right now, because I know things like this don't last too long."
When he arrives at his next pro destination, he'll need to find a spot in the field. Ackley played first base at Carolina, first because of an injury and then because he turned into a terrific defensive first baseman. In high school, however, he was an outfielder, and he played a handful of innings there in 2009. Most pro scouts seemed to believe he projected best to the outfield as a pro.
There is also a school of thought, including the very wise Peter Gammons, that Ackley could
play second base in the big leagues. Ackley, however, prefers the outfield.
"I think my best position will be in the outfield," he says. "I think that's where I have the greatest opportunity to succeed, as far as speed and running down balls and things like that. I think I'll be most valuable there, but it's wherever the team wants me and needs me to play."
Other Ackley quotes:
On the transition to wooden bats: Hopefully, I don't think it will be too bad. A lot of people think aluminum and wood is a huge difference. I was able to go, I hadn't played much in the wood bat league at all, and I was able to do that this past summer for the Cape, and before that I didn't really get to play much with a wood bat, but I think, at that point, I was able to kind of adjust to it. It doesn't seem like that big of an adjustment, so hopefully it will be something that won't be that big of a deal for me and I'll be able to move forward.
On being in the same organization with Seager and Moran: Yeah, we talked about that before. That was more of a conversation around draft day when we all got picked. We all talked about how it was pretty cool that we'd played three years together, and I'd played many years before that with Kyle. It just seemed like something that was crazy that ended up happening, and we were definitely excited to know that we had people that we knew in the organization, that we had played with before. It was kind of really comforting to know that you're going through it with the same guys you've been going through college and the rest of your life with.
On playing pro baseball just like his father: "It was pretty crazy. My dad, he's had high expectations for me from day one and I know that he was really excited to see me be drafted and then the day that I was able to sign and start my professional career, he was really excited. Just an exciting time for everybody in our family, so it was something I enjoyed, and we both knew and hoped that things like this would happen."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of five books on Carolina basketball, including the upcoming book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
