By JULIUS MACKER
SEATTLE — Matt Lane knew he wanted to be a professional baseball player from the minute he found out he could get paid to do it.
Volunteering to don an awkward mask and clumsy pads as a little leaguer, the former Port Angeles Roughrider first became a catcher out of necessity.
It turned out nobody on his little league squad wanted to get behind the plate.
Lane was all too eager to take on the “tools of ignorance.”
“It’s like he was destined,” Lane’s mother Debbie said.
Selected in the 11th round with the 330th pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in major league baseball’s first year player draft last Tuesday, Lane made a day of being drafted.
“We were just relaxing watching the draft,” Lane said.
“I knew a lot of guys being called before me from summer ball.”
Sitting in his living room surrounded by friends, Lane found out he had been drafted when teammate Nick Burnham called Lane’s name from one end of the couch to the other.
“He was sitting right there, I didn’t even see my name initially,” Lane said.
“I thought I would go somewhere near the sixth round, but I am very happy with the team that drafted me,” Lane said.
Lane, a left-handed hitting catcher for the University of Washington batted .268 with 12 home runs and 43 runs batted in during the 2006 season.
