Published Caption: Jim Grant/Nevada Appeal
The Nevada Wolf Pack made Colby Blueberg an offer he simply could not refuse.
The former Carson Senators infielder and pitcher signed a National Letter of Intent with the Wolf Pack baseball team on Monday, according to his father Jim. Colby had signed a letter of intent in January to attend Western Nevada College to play for the Wildcats.
"It was real difficult for Colby to leave Western," Jim Blueberg said. "He really had a great connection with that coaching staff. So it was hard for Colby to pull the trigger on this. But when a Division I school offers you a full ride, that is hard to pass up."
Jim Blueberg currently coaches his son Colby with the Nevada Bullets, a scout team that plays in the Far West League against teams from northern California and plays its home games at Western Nevada. The players in the league are college players or high school players like Blueberg who will play in college. The players have to be recommended by area scouts or college recruiters.
"I couldn't be prouder of him," Jim Blueberg said. "It's not often a northern Nevada kid gets a full ride baseball scholarship to a Division I school. I'm tickled to death. But he's earned this. He's worked so hard."
Colby Blueberg, who played shortstop, third base and pitched for the Senators, was one of the best all-around players in northern Nevada this past season.
He hit .431 with nine home runs and 33 RBI. He hit three home runs in one game in early April to beat Damonte Ranch. Blueberg also was a standout pitcher with a 4-3 record, 4.67 earned run average and 36 strikeouts in 43 innings.
The Northern 4A Region coaches rewarded Blueberg by naming him a First Team All-Region selection this spring.
Jim Blueberg said the Wolf Pack wants his son to use all of his skills at the college level.
"They told him they want him to be another Brock Stassi," said Jim Blueberg, referring to the pitcher/first baseman who just completed his four-year Wolf Pack career this spring and is now playing in the Philadelphia Phillies organization. "So they recruited him as a two-way player. We're not sure where he'll end up (as a full-time hitter or pitcher) but he can do both. He's going to go there with the idea of doing both."
Cody Blueberg is 5-foot-11, 170 pounds.
"He's still young," said Jim Blueberg. "He just turned 18 years old. I didn't have my growth spurt until I was in college. I was a late bloomer. So we'll see with Colby."
Jim Blueberg, a Wooster High graduate, was a second round draft pick of the Seattle Mariners in the regular phase of the 1986 January amateur draft out of Yuba (Calif.) College. The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder spent six seasons in the Mariners and New York Yankees minor league systems in Class A and Double-A as a pitcher with a 46-48 record and 3.77 ERA in 123 games.
Jim Blueberg said the Wolf Pack first contacted his son before this past season and just recently offered the full scholarship. Colby, Jim said, was also offered partial scholarships by the University of Hawaii and the University of San Francisco.
"So he was going to go to Hawaii," Jim Blueberg said. "But to be able to stay home in Nevada where his family could see him play and to get a full ride, that was something he couldn't pass up."
