Clevenger Gets Called to Major Leagues

They were teammates on the baseball team at Mount Saint Joseph's High School.

And now Steve Clevenger, a former resident of Glen Burnie, and Gavin Floyd are in the Major Leagues. And both are with teams in Chicago.

While Floyd, who grew up in Severna Park, is a regular starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, Clevenger joined the Chicago Cubs on Monday as a backup catcher after spending this season in the minor leagues with the Class AA Tennessee Smokies and the Class AAA Iowa Cubs.

Floyd (12-12 this season) has been in The Show since 2004, when he made his big league debut with Philadelphia. Clevenger is still waiting for his first appearance in the big leagues after not playing for Chicago in its day game on Wednesday.

"It is a good opportunity. I will get a chance. He will try to get me in there," Clevenger, 25, told Patch on Wednesday about Chicago manager Mike Quade. This is his first stint on a Major League roster.

Baltimore native Clevenger, drafted in the seventh round as a shortstop by the Cubs out of Chipola Junior College in Florida in 2006, was not even listed among the top 30 prospects in the Chicago system , the industry leader.

But Clevenger, who lived in Glen Burnie while attending Mount Saint Joseph's, is a strong left-handed hitter who hit a combined .319 this year between Tennessee and Iowa, with eight homers and 54 RBIs in 398 at-bats.

"He has always had a knack for swinging the bat," Tom Beyers, a minor league hitting coordinator for the Cubs this year, told Patch. "He has come a long way. He has also been able to catch on an every day basis."

After Tennessee lost on Sunday in the Southern League championship series to Mobile, Clevenger was called into the office of manager Brian Harper. A former big league catcher, Harper told Clevenger that he was being called up to Chicago.

"I had an idea. People were always asking me about it at the park," said Clevenger, who got some good news after he went hitless in four at bats with two strikeouts for Tennessee on Sunday.

The first person that he called was his mother, Donna Clevenger, who was on hand in Chicago with his stepfather for the three-game series earlier this week with Milwaukee. His mother and stepfather now live in Linthicum, which is where Clevenger lives in the off-season. Clevenger went to Overlook Elementary in North Linthicum and in Linthicum.

Clevenger also called David Norton, his former coach at Mount Saint Joseph's before he graduated in 2004. Clevenger said he had been getting a lot of text messages this week from friends in the Baltimore area.

Clevenger, a Glen Burnie resident for about 10 years, flew from Knoxville to Chicago Monday afternoon and was with the Cubs that night at historic Wrigley Field.

The Cubs won at home Wednesday over Milwaukee and are off on Thursday before beginning a weekend series on Friday in St. Louis against the rival Cardinals.

The Cubs end the season Sept. 28 in San Diego against the Padres. But that will not be the end of baseball in 2011 for Clevenger, a Southern League all-star this season with Tennessee. He will head to the Dominican Republic for about a month of winter ball and hopes to make the Opening Day roster of the Cubs in 2012.

"I am going to compete for a backup job and maybe even a starting job," he said Wednesday.