By JARROD POTTER
RETURNING home to end his baseball career is a thrill Major League Baseball alumnus Justin Huber still can’t fathom, even a few days after hanging up the glove for the last time on Saturday.
After 14 years and traversing four continents following the game he loves, Huber, 32, originally from Emerald, decided it was time to call an end to his illustrious professional career.
A Team Australia mainstay for the majority of his career, while also featuring on rosters everywhere including America, Latin America, Japan and the Caribbean, Huber has always been locally minded with his baseball and thought it a fitting end to his career to finish up at Melbourne Ballpark on Saturday.
While Huber went hitless in his final professional baseball game, the Aces 2-4 loss to Adelaide, he received nothing but adulation and deafening applause from the enthusiastic Melbourne Aces crowd.
“It still hasn’t really completely sunk in,” Huber said.
“It was a really fantastic celebration and you don’t get many opportunities like that, one to go out on your own terms in professional sport, but also something that is pretty unique to my situation to get to do it on a professional field with a few guys I’ve played with since I was a kid.
“Scott Wearne, is from the area in Berwick, been playing with him since I was 12, Brad Harman and I grew up at the same club, Josh Davies and I have been playing for a long time as well.
“There are some guys on that team that have shared a lot of baseball experiences together and to finish your career with the guys you started with is crazy – it really is a full circle and very special and I’m grateful for that.”
From his roots as a junior T-baller playing for Upwey Ferntree Gully, all the way to the heights of professional baseball – with his MLB debut with the Kansas City Royals – and back to Melbourne for his final at-bats on Saturday, Huber could not have exited his beloved game on any better terms.
“If you think about all the places I’ve played pro baseball… all these places I’ve been playing, there were many times I could have hung up the boots, but to come back here and do it in front of the home crowd was very special and extraordinary,” Huber said.
Huber’s retirement was spurred on in part by an unrefusable job opportunity – as the Aces have enlisted their former slugger to head up the back-office and become the club’s general manager.
He’s keen to hit the ground running in his new role – which he started this week – and wants to bring the crowds in and entice the locals around Altona’s Melbourne Ballpark to make the trip down to watch a few matches.
“That’s the main reason I’m taking an off-field role and realistically the next major challenge in my baseball journey is seeing if we can fill those seats out at Altona,” Huber said.
“(Engage) New and old baseball fans alike and really grow the sport and the franchise into the next great sporting organisation in Melbourne.”
Huber wanted to thank everyone who has made his decades in baseball an amazing experience.
“I can’t thank them enough,” Huber said.
“It’s been an unbelievable ride for me – from a T-baller at Upwey Ferntree Gully as a six year old, to the height of my career in the major leagues and back to finish it all off in Melbourne and see a professional league come to Australia.
“To see two Major League Baseball teams play at the MCG in March and the Australian team we got to play against them… beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, that sort of stuff I look back on and think I’ve been so lucky.
“Without all those coaches, canteen ladies, scorers and volunteers… and people that supported me and made sure baseball happened in Victoria and Australia. It’s a blessing and remarkable… I’ll never be able to repay the debt to all those people that helped me out along the way.
Huber’s Aces finished last this 2014/2015 ABL season with a 15-31 record.
