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Cutters’ Rataczak overcomes rollercoaster 5-year span to get to where he’s at

By HENRY HUBER 5 min read

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Eric Rataczak's journey to Williamsport originally began in Circle Pines, Minnesota before taking him all across the continent. Featuring plenty of divots and hardships and giving him multiple reasons to hang up the cleats, getting to this point has been a whirlwind, but one that's turned him into the player he is today.

"Playing here means a lot because I didn't think I was even going to be still playing a couple years ago and now I've got a chance to play for hopefully a lot more time," said Rataczak on getting the opportunity to play for the Crosscutters. "It's everything I've worked for just to play one more day."

From playing club ball while attending the University of San Diego on an academic scholarship, to multiple JUCO stints and one in the Western Canadian Baseball League, he's had to bounce around and continuously prove himself to keep his career alive.

It wasn't easy to draw notice in high school due to his frame, and life didn't pull its punches. Prior to quarantine, Rataczak was diagnosed Type 1 diabetes at just 19 years old and ultimately took a year off from the sport. It was a challenging time for the Minnesota native, with the timing of it putting him in a rough spot when it came to trying to get recruited.

"If it hits a year or two earlier and my body gets right before then, it's probably a lot smoother track in college," said Rataczak. "When you're starting out, there's more bad days than good days, but you just go one day at a time and get through that part."

Nonetheless, he put a positive spin on the experience when discussing the disease, crediting insulin for helping him put on the weight he needed to - now weighing 215 pounds - and the overall experience for helping make him who he is today.

"Ultimately, it ended up being a good thing because once I got it figured out, that's what made the difference," expressed Rataczak. "I took a year off, got my health right, trained a bunch and after that, I went JUCO."

He spent time with Wabash Valley College in Mount Carmel, Illinois and Arizona Western in Yuma, Arizona. Then, he waiting too long with the recruiting process out of JUCO and ending up with nowhere to play by August of 2022. As a last-ditch effort, he returned to San Diego and started playing club again.

Garnering notice

After not garnering notice out of high school and losing his chance at getting recruited out of junior college, Rataczak finally drew eyes through his second stint of club ball, getting noticed by the Brooks Bombers of the Western Canadian League.

With more eyes on him, most notably those of the Niagara coaching staff, success there landed him a spot at D1 Niagara University. There, he'd really take off, taking full advantage of his best opportunity up to that point.

He set the program record for homers in a season (17), hits (88), RBIs (71) and runs (59) and led the team in batting average (.396), good for fourth in program history, slugging percentage (.698) and on-base percentage (.485), good for an OPS of 1.183. The team ultimately won the MAAC championship to make the NCAA tournament, where Rataczak hit a homer against Nebraska.

At any point throughout his journey, the 23-year-old could've let the stress of his disease, early shortcomings and lack of notice distract him and keep him from reaching his potential. But with the right mindset and endless dedication, he's managed to carve his shot of making the big leagues out of next to nothing.

"I think the biggest thing for me would be to be where your feet are. It sounds cliche and seems like just a say, but it encapsulates the idea of being present through every pitch," said Rataczak when asked about his keys to success.

"For Minor League Baseball, the physical abilities of the guys are all pretty similar to those in the big leagues," he continued. "The thing that separates them is how often they're able to consistently repeat (the pitches). When you're really present, each pitch, it gives you the best opportunity to repeat them."

That mindset propelled him into the record books at Niagara and is propelling him now with the Cutters.

At the time of writing this, Rataczak is second on the Crosscutters in slugging percentage (.459), fourth in RBIs (11) and fourth in batting average (.297) and has really turned it up a notch since the start of the second Mahoning Valley series.

Through the last two games of that series and the entire one against West Virginia this week, Rataczak logged seven hits, including a three-run shot in the finale against the Scrappers, and six RBIs on a batting average of .438 and OPS of 1.188. Throughout the period, he led the team in every aforementioned category, and was second in the entire league in OPS.

With continued progress, he could expect to continue climbing the ladder. But for now, he's looking to make the most of his time here and improve wherever he can, as the conclusion of the first half of the season quickly approaches.

"I'm just trying to develop as much as I can. This league presents an opportunity to face higher level arms than we saw in our conference, so it's another learning curve of which hopefully there will be many to come," said Rataczak. "The more you play baseball, the better you get at it, so I'm hoping to play as much as possible and get as good as I can."

Starting at /week.