Hard-nosed and Built To Stay That Way
Thurston recognized at an early age that his role in the game was as a hard-nosed, scrappy, team player. “I like to play the right way, and the right way that I’ve been taught is going at it hard. Giving it all you’ve got every day. The better I can be as a team player, the better I’ll be.”
During a recent interview, a reporter tried to prod Thurston, whose batting average is down a bit this year, to see if that worried him about his major league prospects.
Joe, deliberate in his words as he is with his bat replied: “If I go 0 for 4 four times with ground balls [that move] runners to second base, I’m fine with that. A lot of people look at that as ‘he went 0 for 4.’ But the people who are supposed to be looking at it say he went 0 for 4 but all four times he moved the runner forward."
It’s his attitude that has made him one of the fastest rising stars in the Dodgers' farm system.
A Taste of Dodger Blue & Minor Honors Too
Thurston’s first taste of Dodger Blue was sweet. He took a piece out of major league pitching in his major league debut on September 1, 2002, batting an impressive .462 in eight games.
The trip to the major league club was a feather capping off three years in the Dodger farm system where he was twice named Dodger Minor League Player of the Year, first at Single-A San Bernardino in 2000 and again in the AAA in 2002 with the 51s.
The honor in 2002 was bestowed upon Thurston for having one of the most productive seasons for a minor leaguer in the storied history of the Dodgers' farm.
Batting .334 at AAA Las Vegas for 2002, he appeared in 136 games where he led all of minor league baseball with 196 hits and a .372 on-base percentage.
Baseball Alchemy
The baseball alchemy that makes up this twenty-four year-old athlete may provide a few lessons in how a star is born.
The handle “Joey Ballgame” was bestowed upon Thurston by a high school coach. “It was my sophomore year in high school. In my high school, you [couldn’t] do a thing with a baseball until February. It was January, and our coaches told us to come out for practice. It was out on the track, so I didn’t know what we were going to do. So I come out there in my whole uniform. Everyone else showed up in shorts and a t-shirt. My coach said ‘Look at Joey Ballgame. He’s ready to play.’"
Born in Fairfield, California in 1979, Joe began playing baseball when he was five, passing through the usual route of little league and Babe Ruth with a lot of love and support from a baseball-steeped family. “Everybody on my dad’s side of the family played some kind of baseball,” recalls Thurston. He credits his family and his coaches in college with instilling the character and the work ethic that have brought him through the farm system at the top of his game.
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