Hurst takes elongated path to pro baseball

CEDAR RAPIDS - Playing professional baseball seemed an obvious choice. His path to it was the surprise.

After a year of junior college, Cedar Rapids Kernels pitcher Kyle Hurst chose to go on a Mormon mission to Sweden. Never mind that he so very much wanted to follow in his father's footsteps.

Bruce Hurst spent parts of 15 seasons in the major leagues as a pitcher. Kyle loved being around that atmosphere, will never forget dad nailing the Phillie Phanatic with a high-powered squirt gun before a game in Philadelphia one night.

You take two full years off from baseball, it'll delay your development. Hurst knew that, knew his professional aspirations could very well go away.

“But it was something that I believed strongly in,” he said. “It's a strong conviction in me, it was something I wanted to do. From there, I kind of let the cards play out and let whatever happened, happen.”

What happened was Hurst pitching one year at South Mountain Community College in Arizona upon his return, then getting drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in 2008. He's in his third season in their system, a 24-year-old pitcher trying to make up for lost time by climbing the minor league ladder as rapidly as possible.

He is 4-1 as a reliever for the Kernels, who had their game Wednesday night with Burlington rained out, with a 2.21 earned run average in eight games.

“I understand my age, where I'm at,” said Hurst, who will turn 25 in August. It's kind of a necessity for me to excel a little bit quicker. I'm working as hard as I can to make that happen. I do my best every time I go out there and be as prepared as I can. But I understand my situation, the (smaller) window of opportunity I have. I'm doing my best to make it happen.”

Hurst said his father, who lives in Arizona, never pushed him into baseball. His brother, for instance, just received his master's degree from American University in Washington, D.C.

“My dad's as supportive of him as he is me,” Kyle said. “He always says as long as it's not illegal, I'm going to support you no matter what it is. Knowing that, it kind of gave me the opportunity and confidence to know that I'm not doing this for anybody else but myself.”

In case you're wondering, Hurst still is versed in Swedish. He said he doesn't speak it real well but can read it and understand it when it is spoken.

In fact, he gets on YouTube from time to time and watches newscasts to see what's going on in the Scandinavian country.

“I'm grateful to the

Angels, and baseball in general, for giving Mormon kids a chance,” he said. “Because it used to be suicide for your athletic career. If you miss two years, you had no chance. You come back, you're older, and the game has moved on. So I'm just grateful for the opportunity that I've been given.”