In 1991, the San Francisco Giants used their 36th-round draft pick on Vincent Towns, an 18-year-old high school pitcher from Maryland.

Towns pitched two seasons for the Giants’ affiliate in the Arizona Summer League. He went 1-2 with a 6.20 ERA. He never pitched in affiliated baseball again.

Advertisement

MORE: Georgia two-sport star, top-5 MLB draft pick, dies

Thirty-six years after he first was drafted, Towns was drafted again. Now 53, he was the first player chosen in the Atlantic League draft on April 1.

The newest member of the Hagerstown (Md.) Flying Boxcars is twice the age of his peers in the independent minor league, but Towns refused to let his age deter his latent baseball ambitions.

When he was drafted by the Giants, Towns said he was an orthodox pitcher, capable of throwing a fastball in the high-80-mph range.

“By the time I turned 40, I didn’t get picked up, I had dropped a lot of my fastball,” he said. “So I said, well, it ain’t over just because you get old, and it’s not over just because you can’t throw 90.

Advertisement

“So I started throwing the knuckleball. For the last 13 years I’ve been working on it, and finally I got it good enough to get drafted.”

MORE: White Sox announcement leaves Ozzie Guillen in tears during MLB broadcast

Among independent minor leagues, the Atlantic League is considered a reliable training ground for young players who are passed over in the MLB draft, or for those who wash out of the league and are trying to get back.

The Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks recently announced they signed former National League Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer to be their Opening Day starter.

Still, it’s basically unprecedented for a player in his 50s to use the Atlantic League as a means for getting back into affiliated pro baseball. According to Diamond Digest’s Joel Arrick, Towns was the only player older than 30 chosen in the Atlantic League draft.

Advertisement

MORE: Dodgers’ $102 million bust signs with surprising New York team

Roger Clemens was 50 when he took the mound for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League in 2012, but that was a promotional gimmick more than an earnest comeback attempt.

Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, didn’t have to try out to pitch for his local minor league team.

Towns had to work his way back into baseball the hard way, one knuckleball at a time.