RYAN BLISS By Kevin Eckleberry
Year one as a professional player is in the books for Ryan Bliss. Bliss, the former Troup High and Auburn University standout, was selected in the second round of the professional baseball draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks in July. After playing two games for the Arizona Complex League Diamondbacks, Bliss spent the final 37 games of his debut professional season with the Visalia Rawhide, a Single-A team. At the two stops combined, Bliss hit .267 with a .326 onbase percentage, and he had six home runs, 10 doubles, 24 RBIs, and 23 runs scored. The highlight of Bliss’ season came in September when he hit for the cycle, meaning he had a home run, a triple, a double and a single. During a season with so many milestones, from being drafted, to making his professional debut, it was a moment that stands out. “I’ve got videos on this game,” Bliss said during an interview with MLB.com. “I’m going to save these videos and go back 92
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to the night where I felt great. I’m going to go into the offseason really remembering this swing and doing everything I can to make sure that’s the swing I have every time I’m at the plate.” Bliss went 4-for-5 in a win over Rancho Cucamonga, and he had two RBIs and two run scored in the 7-3 win. Bliss began his landmark night by driving the ball over the right-field fence for his sixth and final home run of the season. Bliss followed with a double in his next at-bat, and he came through with a triple in the sixth inning, leaving him a single shy of the cycle. Bliss grounded out in the seventh inning, but in the ninth and final inning, he got one last at-bat, and he lined a base hit up the middle on a 3-1 count to earn the cycle. Asked if he was thinking about the cycle, Bliss said “oh, 100 percent. You try not to think about it. You’re trying to win. But it’s baseball, it’s hard not to, especially when you’ve got your teammates. The crowd understood it, too. It was definitely
an adrenaline rush.” Despite everything Bliss accomplished as a youth, high-school and college player, he’d never hit for the cycle. “After T-ball, high school, college, this was my first cycle,” Bliss said. “It’s pretty cool to have it in my first pro season.” Bliss, after three exceptional seasons at Auburn, was taken with the 42nd overall pick by the Diamondbacks. A few weeks later, Bliss was in Arizona embarking on his professional baseball career, and his goal is to continue giving everything to a sport that means so much to him. “I’m just continuing what I was doing in the spring with college ball,” Bliss said. “I did have to make adjustments in pro ball. Obviously, it’s different. But I’m having the same mindset and approach of trying to stay through balls and not as much lift balls as hit hard line drives and doubles to the gaps. Let my hands and power take over, and that’s what’s happening here.”
LAGRANGE COLLEGE FOOTBALL By Kevin Eckleberry
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