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Mike Dolgos has all the tools a good curve ball, a
slider, a nice change-up, an 86-mile per hour fastball and with a
little luck he just might one day realize his dream of playing
baseball for the world champion New York Yankees.
Mike Dolgos winds up on the mound
Meantime, he's signed to play ball for Elon College in
Greensboro, North Carolina where he'll be a pre-med student just in
case those professional baseball ambitions fail to materialize.
"It's my dream to play pro baseball," said
Dolgos, a Pinecrest native. "Yeah, I'd rather be a baseball
player than a doctor."
And, if he had a choice, he says he would prefer to
play for the New York Yankees.
"Because they're the world champions," he
said. "I want to be a part of that." Dolgos, 18, just
graduated Gulliver Prep, where he compiled a sparkling 7-0 record in
his senior year. He helped pitch the team to an impressive 29-5 record
and a third in the nation ranking among U.S. high schools.
A southpaw, Dolgos has been tossing a baseball around
almost from the day he could walk. At four years old he began hanging
around a baseball diamond; he started playing on various Pinecrest
summer youth league teams when he was eight. He's a graduate of the
Howard-Palmetto Khoury League system and one year received the
league's Most Desirable Player Award. He starred for the Florida
Bombers team of Miami-Dade all stars and traveled to California; and
he was part of Team USA when he was 12 and went to Japan to play ball.
"Elon followed me throughout my whole senior
year," he said of his choice for college. "They were the
school that was the most interested in me, so I went with them.
Besides, it's one of the top baseball schools in the country."
Gulliver Prep gave Dolgos the Citizenship Award last
year for being a leader both on and off the field and he also was
named second team All-County for his baseball exploits, all of which
the young athlete attributes to the guidance of his parents, 43-year
Pinecrest residents Marcy and Charles.
"I'd like to thank my dad for what he's done for
me throughout the years," said Dolgos. "For teaching me
baseball, teaching me how to throw, how to pitch. And, I thank my mom
for always being there."
Dolgos says baseball is very close to the center of
his life, though he admits to enjoying a little fishing as well.
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