Barton's road leads to Busch Stadium

JUPITER, Fla. -- Brian Barton never doubted, but it's still hard for him to believe. Four years after going undrafted out of the University of Miami, Barton is in the Major Leagues.

On Wednesday morning, Barton was notified that he would be on the Cardinals' Opening Day roster. By the afternoon, even being hit in the nose by a curveball couldn't erase the smile from his face. Barton's circuitous path finally brought him to the place he was trying to get to all along.

"I think that's what I pride myself in, is not giving up and not thinking that there's only one way to get to where you need to be," he said. "Because there are so many roads that lead to one destination. The traditional road didn't happen for me, so I took another way around. And it worked out."

Barton enjoyed an outstanding career at Miami, capping his time there by being named to the College World Series all-tournament team in 2004. But no team drafted him, reportedly because of the fear he would be too difficult to sign. Barton had business opportunities outside baseball, and evidently the fear was that it would take too much money to coax him to play pro ball.

But playing pro ball was what he most wanted to do. So he played in the Cape Cod League over the summer and eventually signed with Cleveland.

"I'm not going to say I didn't still have the same dream, but it made the process a little more enduring," he said. "I felt like I had done pretty well at Miami to get an opportunity, and it didn't happen. But with that being said, I never gave up and I never settled. I took another route to get to where I needed to be."

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