When Chad Mottola returned to UCF for his induction into the school’s athletic hall of fame this past April he may have felt a lot like his 16-year professional baseball career. Though much of the landscape has changed since his playing days here in East Orlando, there’s still a sense of familiarity that never seems to fade.
His return came on the heels of calling it quits on a career that bounced between 10 organizations and five trips to the major leagues. For a change, Mottola entered spring training by trading in his lineup spot for that as a “guest coach” within the Toronto Blue Jays’ farm system. He’s been advised by friends outside of the sport that there’s no need to rush into a suit-and-tie world any sooner than he needs to.
“I just decided this offseason that I had enough bodywise,” Mottola said of hanging up his cleats. “I still enjoyed the atmosphere of playing, and that’s why I played so many years in the minor leagues, but it just got to the point where my body couldn’t bounce back anymore.”
He went out as a fan favorite with the Syracuse SkyChiefs, the Blue Jays’ Triple-A team, growing into a family man, with a wife and young son, who came a long way from being a first-round draft pick out of a relatively unknown school. It all started for Mottola in 1990 as a freshman at UCF at the ripe age of 17. He remembers choosing the school because at the time it was small enough for his liking, not yet one of the largest higher-learning institutions in the country.
“Everybody knows what it is now,” he said of UCF. “You come back now and it’s a nationwide school and it’s really exciting to see. I take a lot of pride in being a part of it.” When he signed on with UCF as a senior out of St. Thomas Aquinas High School even he admits that he never heard of the place beforehand, and subsequently spent years explaining to others where the University of Central Florida actually was.
“We still had 20,000 students during those years, but I
remember it being more of a family atmosphere and
that’s what I liked about it,” he said.
Which was good for an easygoing, laid-back guy
already nervous about coming to town to play for former
head coach Jay Bergman.
“I was terrified of leaving home,” said Mottola of
moving on from Ft. Lauderdale. “But it was a small
enough atmosphere where I could kind of grow and
learn by my mistakes rather than getting swept aside if
I were at a bigger school at the time. Back then it was a
good thing that it probably wasn’t a bigger school for
me.”
Regardless of the school’s size, he went on to make big contributions for the Knights. Mottola was named Division-I All-American as an outfielder in 1992 and either led or shared single-season totals at UCF in runs (60 in 1991, 52 in 1992), home runs (9 in 1991, 14 in 1992), at-bats (230 in 1991), triples (7 in 1992) and total bases (143 in 1992).
His single-season marks in home runs (6th), triples (6th) and total bases (10th) still register in the school’s top-10 list, as do his career numbers in triples (1st with 20), total bases (6th with 370), RBI (7th with 148), hits (8th with 222), home runs (8th with 23), slugging percentage (10th at .552) and total at-bats (10th with 670).
He became the first Knight to ever be selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft when, in 1992, the Cincinnati Reds selected him with the fifth overall pick, one selection ahead of Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, after finishing up a three-year college career.
Just three other UCF players since have been selected in either the first round, or supplemental first round, of the MLB Draft. Those top picks were pitchers Joe Wagner (1993), Justin Pope (2001) and Matt Fox (2004). Upon being drafted, Mottola found the bus rides plentiful in the minors and the playing time hard to come by in the majors. And he realized it wouldn’t get any easier as the years piled up behind him.
Though plenty of good times were inevitably had, the road is often a rough one for a lifelong minor-league player whose window of opportunity closes a little more with each passing of the seasons. “It’s just timing towards the end of your career,” he said of getting called up to the majors. “You know the younger guys are going to get the call if [the team] is out of the playoff race and the older guys are going to go if they’re in the playoff race. It’s just the way the game works sometimes.”
Over the course of five seasons Mottola got the call from four different teams. He made 59 appearances in the majors and batted .200, with 25 hits for 12 RBI, six doubles and four home runs. He also crossed home plate 17 times, stole two bases and touched 43 total bases in all during those rare major-league moments. His first big league at-bat came as a 24-year old in 1996 with the Reds and his last came 10 years later with Toronto, which also used him for three games in 2000. His other stints included duty with the 2001 Florida Marlins and the 2004 Baltimore Orioles. During the course of nearly two decades with eight Triple-A teams, Mottola played in 1,750 games and amassed 1,806 hits, 995 RBI, 239 home runs and a .279 career batting average. In 2000, while playing for the SkyChiefs, he was named International League MVP. “Your goal is to play in the big leagues, but when you’re going out there every other day and chippin’ away with 10,000 fans in the stands, it’s not a bad life either,” he said.
When the curtain finally came down for good at the end of last season, it came after years of playing for the love of the game. And helping to prepare his younger teammates for their shot at being called up to The Show. For the most part his playing days ended on his own terms, although maybe not in a way he always envisioned.
“I enjoyed competing every day, going out and playing a boy’s game,” he said. “You had to rip the uniform off my back.” And that’s what he eventually did.
