Competition Runs Deep for Isiah Gilliam
For many of the current Charleston RiverDogs, a shot at the Big Leagues has been their dream ever since they can remember. For RiverDogs outfielder Isiah Gilliam, its more than that; the dream is something that's in his blood and deep down in his core that makes him feel like
For many of the current Charleston RiverDogs, a shot at the Big Leagues has been their dream ever since they can remember. For RiverDogs outfielder
The Gilliam family is a name well-known around the sports world. Some of the great Gilliams of the past include Junior Gilliam, Isiah's great uncle, the 1953 NL Rookie of the Year who played alongside Jackie Robinson and led the circuit in triples in first pro season as part of a 13-year career with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. Joe Gilliam was a quarterback for the Steelers in the early 1970s and became the first African-American player to start an NFL Opener since the AFL-NFL merger when he started the first four games for Pittsburgh in the 1974 season. Another relative of Gilliam's, Arman, was a power forward for 13 seasons in the NBA with six different teams that included the 76ers and Hornets.
"My dad told me that when I was probably about two months old, one of the first inanimate objects I picked up and threw was a foam baseball so he always said that that was a sign itself," said Gilliam of his early connection to the game. "Things got serious my junior year of high school. I felt like that fall, I just had an outbreak. I was in the talks with some of the best players in the country and it just took off from there."
Playing next to some of the premier talent in the game at every level, the Atlanta native has constantly been measuring himself up against the best, a journey that took him to three different schools during his prep career.
"My first school was Shiloh High School. It was more so a basketball school. I was a tri-athlete back then [baseball, basketball, and football] and the baseball program was good, but it wasn't to my standards," said Gilliam of his freshman year. "There's a rule in Georgia where you can't move to a different school in the same semester and because Parkview is right down the street from Shiloh, I had to go to a private school for a couple of years and I seemed to have liked it there; I won a couple of state championships in baseball and football and then my junior year I made my direction towards Parkview and I became draft eligible my junior year because I was playing varsity baseball in the eighth grade."
At Parkview, Gilliam measured himself against some of the best in the county. A program that has produced a lengthy list of Major League talent and ranked as high as the No. 1 prep team in the country in 2015 (Gilliam's freshman year of college), Gilliam knew that playing one of the most prestigious programs in the nation would catapult his career to new heights.
After his move to a private school after the 2012 season, Gilliam was reclassified as a freshman. Playing his fourth year of high school ball and his first at Parkview, scouts scrambled to get a look at the young power hitting kid in Atlanta after realizing he was eligible for the 2015 draft. In a rivalry game between Parkview and Brookwood High Schools, there were suddenly scouts from all 30 MLB teams in attendance.
"It added a lot of pressure, but thankfully my high school coach had many experiences with scouts due to our talent at Parkview. We had guys like
"We were playing Brookwood High School and I was facing one of my good friends Thomas Bylicke who's now a pitcher for The Citadel and it was just very overwhelming; Brookwood was our rival high school so there were already a couple thousand in attendance. It was a Saturday afternoon; It was a cool experience once it was all said and done…I did pretty well, I remember. I went 1-for-3 with a double in my first at-bat and that took some of the pressure off."
The scouts took notice, and Gilliam was selected in the 23rd round of the draft that summer by the Chicago Cubs, but was not yet ready to turn pro.
"It was a wonderful experience to get a call and get drafted, but I didn't have much interest in going that year because I was 17 and felt I was too young to start my professional career. I think I just needed a little bit more maturity so I think going to Chipola [College] was a very good decision…It was just a no-brainer. Coach [Jeff] Johnson, I had heard nothing but good things about him; I still haven't heard a single bad thing about him. He's probably my favorite coach. Yeah, just the list of guys that have attended that program, [Jose] Bautista, [Russell] Martin, Buck Showalter, just to be an alumnus alongside them is just incredible."
After a solid season in JUCO where he batted .362 with five homers and 52 RBI in 52 games to earn First Team All-Panhandle honors, Gilliam was drafted for the second time in his career, this time by the New York Yankees who selected him in the 20th round.
In his first pro season, Gilliam posted an impressive .296/.359/.415 line with his first pro home run and 23 RBI in 42 games in the Gulf Coast League. He spent all of last season with Pulaski, hitting .239 while improving his power numbers with a .440 slugging percentage and 10 home runs while ranking in the top-five in the Appalachian League in extra-base hits (24) and homers.
Now in Charleston for his first pro season, Gilliam relishes the challenges ahead, preparing to one day play in front of tens of thousands like so many of his family members and peers have done before him.
"It's been incredible. I really enjoy playing in front of a big crowd; I feel like it keeps you on your toes. It may add a little pressure in the beginning but you've got to get ready to play in front of 40,000, 50,000 people so I really enjoy the fanbase and the great ballparks like we have in Charleston… I've heard a lot good things about Charleston. A few of my friends have played here in the past,