The White Sox signed Mitch Mustain out of a tryout camp, even though the 24-year-old hasn’t pitched since high school in ’05. The Springdale, Ark., native pursued a football career in college, playing quarterback for Arkansas and Southern California through ’09. Mustain started only one game for USC and ran afoul of the law, so no NFL team drafted or signed him in ’11. Instead, he signed to play in the Arena Football League last September prior to working out for Chicago. Check out Mustain’s detailed Wikipedia entry for more.
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… Mustain went undrafted out of college and was later released by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League. He was set to join the Georgia Force of the Arena Football League this spring, but received a tryout from the White Sox in January and says he threw the ball 90 miles per hour.
Mustain has not played baseball since high school.
“I haven’t played in eight years, which, my age, it’s going to be a little bit harder to get back into this,” Mustain told 5News in Fayetteville, Ark. “As time goes, I figured this would be my one shot at it, and why not? I’m going to take this shot. I’m going to give it everything I have and see where it goes.”
“I’m confident that I’ll get back in shape quickly for it,” Mustain said. “They’re going to give me the opportunity to face batters and get my feet wet no matter what happens to me. If I’m getting tagged right off the bat, I’ll just keep plugging away.”
“I’m going to play one sport or the other until somebody tells me to go home,” he said, “until they’re not even going to let me try. So I’m going to go do it and literally throw everything I have at it and see where it goes.”
… Mustain said the baseball chapter of his life will probably be added to a documentary in the works that gained attention last month. Filmmaker Matthew Wolfe posted this clip of the project, tentatively titled “The Identity Theft of Mitch Mustain” on a website. The clip includes Mustain shooting rifles and handguns in the woods.
“I’m not a militiaman by any means,” Mustain said. “I think a lot of that was intentionally vague to draw some attention and see where it goes. We wanted to stir up some reaction, and there was some pretty interesting feedback.
“He had been asking me about stuff, hobbies I have. He was intrigued and wanted to see. We spent maybe 10 or 15 minutes out there shooting a little bit. It’s amazing that from a two-minute clip that people deduced that’s my life.”
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