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The Brookline Little League Association will be entering it's 68th year in the Spring of 2018. In all those years there have been many outstanding players who, as they grew older, moved on to play professional baseball. Names like Mickey White, Ed Hartman and Shawn Trainor come to mind. Tommy O'Connor advanced as far as playing AAA ball in the New York Yankees farm system. But none of them ever made it to the Major Leagues. None of them, it was, until 2016, when one of the Brookline Little League Association's former players finally made it all the way to the Big Show. That happened on April 15, 2016, when Derek Law was called up to the roster of the San Francisco Giants to replace an injured player. Later that evening, he entered a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the bottom of the seventh inning and allowed one hit while striking out three batters. Law followed up his dazzling debut by earning his first save on May 7, holding the Colorado Rockies scoreless in one inning of relief. Then, on June 13, Derek pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings against the Milwaukee Brewers to record his first official win. By that time, Derek Law was an established Major Leaguer. Derek came to the Brookline Little League from Beechview and played T-Ball with the Moonlite Cafe team in 1998. His father, Joe Law, once played minor league baseball in the Oakland Athletics organization. Joe was called up to the majors for four days but never appeared in a game. Scrappy Derek Law seemed determined to follow in his father's footsteps.
After playing Little League ball here in Brookline, he moved on to play in high school for Seton-LaSalle. During his Junior year he was 8-0 as a pitcher and named to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette All-Area team. As a Senior he posted a 3-2 slate with a 1.70 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 39 innings, while also recording a .428 batting average. Derek's high school coach was former Brookline Little Leaguer and minor league professional Shawn Trainor. In the 2009 amateur draft he was chosen in the 28th round by the Texas Rangers. Already committed to Miami Dade College, Law decided to honor that agreement. During the 2011 season he posted an 8-5 record with a 2.35 ERA and 121 strikeouts in 92 innings. He was again selected in the amateur draft, this time in the ninth round by the San Francisco Giants. He spent the 2011 through 2013 seasons pitching in the San Francisco farm system. Derek was called up in 2014 for Spring Training to compete for a spot on the Giants 2014 Opening Day roster. He was cut that time and spent the next two years playing AA ball. During the 2014 season he underwent Tommy John surgery and, while in recovery, was temporarily added to the Giants forty-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Derek Law began the 2016 season as a member of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. Then, on April 15, 2016, he was called up to the Big Show and that same evening became the first former player from the Brookline Little League Association to play in a Major League baseball game. Interestingly, another Derek Law first is that he is the only player in the long history of the San Francisco Giants franchise to wear the uniform number 64. Derek Law's Stats from www.baseball-reference.com
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