Oakland’s Bassitt eager to return after stellar 2019

        In 2019, Curtice native and 2007 Genoa High School graduate Chris Bassitt had his best season to date in the Major Leagues.
        The 31-year-old Bassitt was part of the Oakland A’s starting rotation, going 10-5 with a 3.81 ERA. He started 25 games, pitched in 28, and had 141 strikeouts in 144 innings with a WHIP of 1.19.
        “Honestly, I thought the season went really well,” Bassitt said. “I felt like all the other seasons were somewhat similar, it’s just last year brought a lot more opportunity innings-wise. I think my performance was just kind of magnified.”
        The son of John and Dawn Bassitt, Chris was originally drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 16th round out of the University of Akron in 2011 and made his major league debut in 2014. Since becoming a professional he has undergone and recovered from Tommy John surgery, but says when healthy his fastball can reach 95 miles per hour.
        Over his five-year Major League career, he is 14-19 with a 3.84 ERA, pitching in 68 games and starting in 55 for the A’s and White Sox.
        Bassitt started his major league career going 2-11 with a 4.13 ERA, so since he has won 12 of 20 decisions. He has 290 career strikeouts, but over 70 percent of his major league wins and nearly half of his strikeouts came in 2019.
        Bassitt says he and his teammates love playing in the Oakland Coliseum, even though many believe it is an outdated stadium. Built in 1966, it can seat over 56,000 fans when the tarps are removed from the top deck.
        “I love the organization and the fans are crazy,” Bassitt said. “You watch games and they have horns — it’s almost like a soccer style fan base. Especially when it’s packed, it’s a football stadium that’s turned into a baseball field, so we can hold the most fans in all of baseball, so when that happens it’s pretty insane. They are very energetic and very passionate.”
        Bassitt takes pride in his relationship with A's executive vice president of baseball operations and former general manager Billy Beane, who was the subject of Michael Lewis' captivating book on baseball economics, Moneyball, which was made into a film starring Brad Pitt as Beane.
        Oakland made the playoffs last year, losing in the wild card game to Tampa Bay, 5-1. Bassitt did not throw in that game, but at spring training this year, he was a projected to be in the starting rotation again. It call came crashing down when the start of the season was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
        “Everything was going well, going smooth, then this kind of happened and everything abruptly stopped. But I mean, spring was going great,” Bassitt said.
        “I was building up to be a starter this year and I had three or four starts and those were going pretty well. It was just building up innings, building up arm strength and stuff like that, and then all of a sudden, this whole thing broke out and it basically stopped everything in its tracks.”
        Bassitt, who is nicknamed “C-Bass” by his teammates, returned to his home in North Carolina, trying to stay in shape for whenever the season does begin.
        “We’re just hunkered down and hanging out here. I’m basically throwing in the back yard and that is pretty much it. There are no places obviously open, no gyms open or places like that, so it’s just doing the stuff on your own,” Bassitt said. “I also have a pretty heavy-duty net that I can throw into that can basically simulate the catcher kind-of-thing.
        “I’m in communications with someone every single day, it’s just more so who. Some days it’s the pitching coach, some days it will the trainers and some days it will be the strength coaches. It’s a surreal kind of thing but everyday I’m in contact with somebody.”
        Because of the pandemic, Bassitt says fans are losing out, too, and he can’t wait for that to be remedied.
        “It’s an unfortunate thing. No one really saw it coming and no one knew really what to do. Unfortunately, it happened, and we all have to kind of react to it. Hopefully, everything gets back on track pretty quickly,” Bassitt said.
        “I’m hoping July 1 will be an awesome target for the season start, and that’s just my hope and guess kind of thing. To have 40,000 fans or whatever it will be is unrealistic under the current guidance of everybody. Who knows? I think having no fans in the stands would definitely be really weird, so I really hope there are fans and I hope people can at least have their choice in the matter of these — there are the risks, you guys can come or you guys can’t. But who knows? There is so much time that has gone by. We should know more in the next couple weeks.”