Tom Mastny

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**Tom Mastny**
Major League Baseball debut
Cleveland Indians — No. 48
Relief Pitcher
Bats: Left	Throws: Right
July 30, 2006 for the Cleveland Indians
Selected MLB statistics (through 2006)
Wins	0
ERA	5.51
Strikeouts	14
Teams
Cleveland Indians (2006–present

Thomas R. "Tom" Mastny (born February 4, 1981 in East Bontang, Indonesia, on the island of Borneo) is a Major League baseball player. He was called-up to the Cleveland Indians and made his major league debut on July 25, 2006. A right-handed pitcher listed at 6'6, 220lbs, Mastny is the first ever Indonesian-born major league baseball player, although he was raised in Zionsville, Indiana, where he played for Zionsville High School. He earned his first major league save on August 19, 2006.

Mastny played collegiate baseball at Furman University, where he was primarily used as a starting pitcher. In 2003, he was named the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Year, but was not widely regarded as a top-tier prospect. He was selected in the 11th round of the 2003 draft by the Toronto Blue Jays, and began his profession career with the Auburn Doubledays of the Class A New York-Penn League.

In 2004, he played a full season with the Class A Charleston Alleycats, before being sent to the Cleveland Indians in the offseason to complete an earlier trade in which Toronto had acquired infielder John McDonald.

After beginning the 2005 season in the starting rotation of the Class A Kinston Indians, Mastny was converted into a relief role. Later that year, he was promoted to the Class AA Akron Aeros, with whom he remained to begin the 2006 season, before being called up for a stint in the bullpen of the Class AAA Buffalo Bisons.

Although still mostly unheralded as a prospect, due partly to his age (then 25), Mastny's career quickly accelerated that summer as the unexpectedly non-contending Indians began shuffling a bullpen that had often struggled, particularly after the trade of closer Bob Wickman. The rookie pitcher -- whose role with Akron and Buffalo was almost exclusively in middle relief, and who'd recorded only three saves in the minors -- was given an opportunity to close essentially by default, earning his first with two scoreless innings against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays August 19. That day, manager Eric Wedge announced that Mastny would be among those tried out in the role over the remainder of the season.

Mastny's birthplace was briefly the source of some confusion, after the Philadelphia Daily News's Paul Hagen reported incorrectly on August 11, 2006, "it was discovered that the [Cleveland Indians] media guide lists Indiana-born reliever Tom Mastny as being from Indonesia," as part of a brief that was syndicated on several Internet news sites, and subsequently repeated by other writers and bloggers. The same weekend, it was reported that members of the Society for American Baseball Research had contacted Mastny's father, and confirmed that, although the family does hail from Indiana, the pitcher was indeed born on the Indonesian island of Borneo.

That the relatively unknown player's biographical trivia would be subject to scrutiny is in part due to historical implications, as Mastny is the first Indonesian-born individual to reach the major leagues, as reported by Scouts Inc. scribe Keith Law, in his July 9, 2006 column for ESPN Insider.

"Cleveland farmhand Tom Mastny was born in Indonesia," wrote Law, "although it was to American parents who wanted to travel the world. The 6-5 [sic] Mastny has a fringe-average fastball but outstanding control, and with a good season so far between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Buffalo, he seems likely to become the first big leaguer born in Indonesia, which would become the 52nd country to produce a major league player."