KEY POINTS:
It has been a big week for Scott Campbell, the 23-year-old from Bucklands Beach who appears to be closing in on his dream of becoming a Major League baseball player.
On Monday, he graced the hallowed turf of Yankee Stadium as a member of the victorious international team
in the annual All Star Futures game - a game that showcases the best talent in the minor leagues; players whose deeds in the cut-throat world of small-time ball have marked them out for bigger things.
Campbell, a second baseman with Toronto Blue Jays AA affiliate New Hampshire Fisher Cats (effectively their third team), went 0-4 in the match. He scored a run after getting on base by grounding into a force out but it was a rare low production night for the Kiwi now tipped to become this country's first major leaguer.
Two days later, as the game's biggest stars strutted their stuff at the House That Ruth Built in the All Star Game proper, Campbell was on his way back to New Hampshire to play in another All Star game. This time it was the Eastern league's showpiece. Campbell got a hit in his second turn at bat. Then again, he usually does.
A lead-off hitter, the former McLeans College student has put up some staggering numbers in just his second season as a pro.
The 300th overall choice in the 2006 draft, he leads his league in batting with an average that has hovered between .330 and .340 all season. His on-base percentage is a massive .422. The numbers mean he gets a hit about once in every three at bats. When you factor in his walks, he gets on base closer to every second time up.
They are numbers that make major league decision-makers sit up and take notice. If he could replicate them in the big leagues, he would be a star.
"I just hope it's the real thing," Blue Jays farm director Dick Scott said. "Sometimes guys just have a good year, but he's certainly got everyone's attention."
To keep things in perspective, no one, not even Campbell himself, is projecting him to be superstar.
"I'm never going to be the guy who drives in 100 runs a year or hits 20 or 30 home runs a year," he says. "That's not me. My job is to be the first guy in the line-up, to get on base."
It's a job he has been doing very well. If he keeps up his current level of production and things fall his way, he should get a shot at the majors, perhaps as early as September. With the Blue Jays out of contention, they may well give some of their top prospects a trial towards the end of the season.
Campbell, whose progression has surprised even himself, is doing his best to keep his feet on the ground.
"If you asked me at the start of the season whether I'd be hitting .340 in the middle of July I'd have said you were talking a little bit of crap," he says.
"I feel like I'm getting close but you don't want to forget about the work that needs to be done, the fact that you are in AA and you still need to be successful here. I try to take things day-by-day.
"But I honestly believe that I can play in the big leagues. I have thought that since I was 10 years old.
"And if I keep doing what I have been doing it is going to be really tough for either the Blue Jays not to put me there or for someone else not to want me at that level."
There are no guarantees, however, as Travis Wilson, the last New Zealander to have a serious tilt at the bigs knows only too well.
Wilson hit .325 at AA level and also played in the All Star Futures Game. He went close to making the Atlanta Braves roster after a sizzling spring training in 2002 but his star ultimately dimmed as he struggled to put up the numbers at AAA.
Wilson spent eight years in the minor leagues but topped out one step below the big time. Campbell, he says, has what it takes to take go a step further.
"Right now he has got a higher batting average than I ever had and a higher on-base percentage, which is crucial. He might not hit for as much power as I did but all of his other numbers like getting on base and scoring runs are a lot better than I ever did.
"At this stage he is definitely ahead of where I was, that is for sure."
Baseball may be a team game, but for individuals it is all about personal statistics. Wilson hit a respectable .277 for his minor league career but he struck out too often and struggled to draw walks, harming his productivity.
"I played really well at A and AA but when I got to AAA I didn't quite do enough over the course of a season to get called up to the big leagues. I'd have weeks or two weeks at a time where I'd be as good as anybody in the league. But averaged out over a whole season, my numbers weren't probably good enough to say, 'Hey, he deserves a shot at the bigs'."
Campbell, who unlike softball convert Wilson has played baseball all his life, has a much better appreciation of the strike zone, walking about as often as he strikes out.
He may crack the big time but he won't, as widely reported, necessarily be the first Kiwi to do so. In a curious twist, that honour might fall to his flatmate and Fisher Cats teammate for much of this season, a power pitcher called Scott Richmond.
A Canadian by birth, Richmond's father Bob is a born and bred Kiwi and he is a New Zealand citizen. He has two brothers, both of whom studied at Otago University and went on to play rugby for Canada.
Richmond was recently promoted to AAA and has made a good fist of it. He will also represent Canada at the Olympics.
"When he told me his dad was a full-blooded New Zealander and he carries a New Zealand passport I was like, 'You are pulling my leg'," Campbell says. "I always give him crap about really being Canadian but he is a good buddy of mine so I wish him the best, that's for sure."
Richmond's tale is almost as unlikely as Campbell's. A post-September 11 crackdown meant he couldn't get a work visa in the US so he spent several years languishing in Canada's independent leagues. Eventually he managed to convince the Blue Jays to grant him a try-out and they liked what they saw.
"We've both had kind of a crazy road to get to professional baseball," Campbell says. "He put up some hard years in independent baseball and finally got a chance this year. He has made the most of it so far. He has the ability to get there too. Hopefully I beat him but if he gets there first, I'm not going to be upset about it."
A road that seems set to take him to the world's great ball parks began for Campbell at Pakuranga's Lloyd Elsmore Park, where he started out for the Howick-Pakuranga Diamond Blacks, one of a handful of New Zealand clubs.
"It was hard. We didn't have the equipment and all the stuff that kids have over here. But you learn to deal with that stuff and in a lot of ways it has shaped who I am as a baseball player.
"I knew at a young age this was the sport I wanted to play. Everything else took a back seat. At 14 or 15 I decided I wanted to be serious with baseball and put my best foot forward and try to make it as a professional."
After attending training camps in Australia he almost signed directly with the San Diego Padres. Instead, he opted for college, joining Arizona Central Junior College for a year before switching to Gonzaga U.
"It was probably the best decision of my life not to sign with [the Padres]. It would have been a horrible decision for me, just because of my lack of experience."
Even college was daunting enough.
"To see so many guys crazy about playing the game, coming from New Zealand where there were only a handful of us, to see that was like, 'Oh man, this is crazy'.
"My first full semester at Junior College I remember thinking, 'Oh my god, I've got no chance'. But eventually I figured things out and started learning and I think that helped me because now I'm someone who thinks about the game all the time."
He might have played at Yankee Stadium but his salary is, quite literally, in a completely different ballpark from the likes of Derek Jeter, A-Rod and the other stars who call that venue home.
"I make sixteen-fifty [US$1650 ($2160)] a month. It's piss-all really, nothing."
The major league minimum is US$375,000, meaning even a temporary promotion can make a big difference to a struggling minor leaguer.
"We've worked it out and on the minimum wage in the big leagues you make more in a day than we make in a month. In a way it makes you kind of focus and play harder."
It's not just the scouts who are starting to notice Campbell. He has a contract with Reebok, a bat deal and is about to sign a baseball card deal.
Campbell may be hoping for a September call-up but Wilson believes that might be too soon.
"In my opinion it would be better for him to stay where he is and have a really good year of 500 at bats at AA. Then next year go to spring training and hopefully make the club but, if not, be ready to start the season at AAA."
Like Wilson, Campbell specialised at second base. Wilson, who now employs his skills as the Black Caps' fielding coach, believes Campbell's best chance of making the majors is as a utility. If he can cover several positions, his ability to hit for average and get on base should make him an attractive commodity for a major league team.
"But nothing is dead-set in our game," Wilson says. "I played with a lot of guys who had fantastic minor league numbers. They were considered four-A players - too good for the minor leagues but who didn't do enough to stick around when they got to the big leagues.
"But if Scott carries those numbers on for another 60 games then he is looking at a fantastic year.
"If you play well enough, if you keep doing well, you are going to get to the big leagues. It might not be with the organisation you came up with, but the other 29 will be doing their scouting and looking at you.
"There is a saying; that as long as you've got a uniform on your back you've got a chance of getting to the big leagues. That is so true in baseball.
"The first game after the All Star break the [Blue Jays'] second baseman might roll an ankle or break a leg and they might say, 'Hey, let's give this kid a shot right now and see what he's got'. It probably won't happen, but you never know.
"I always thought I'd be the first Kiwi to play in the major leagues. After I finished I thought someone else would do it but I didn't think they would be a converted softballer. I thought some kid who grew up playing the game would have a good shot at it."
Someone, in fact, exactly like Campbell.
"I'll be as excited as anyone if he makes it," Wilson says. "I know how hard it is and the sacrifices he's had to make. If he does get that call-up, I'm only a plane flight away and hopefully I'll be in the stands watching him."
SCOTT CAMPBELL
* Club: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Toronto Blue Jays AA Affiliate)
* Position: Second base
* Age: 23
* Bats: Left
* Throws: Right
* Height: 1.83m
* Weight: 91kg
* School: McLeans College
* College: Arizona Central Junior College; Gonzaga University*
* Selected in the 10th round of 2006 draft by Toronto Blue Jays. 300th pick overall.
