In the Bible, Samson was the judge who had incredible strength. He once killed a lion with his bare hands and pulled down the Philistine palace using his own brute strength. His power was legendary and has been the source of many stories and clichés that have spawned from the Biblical figure.

The Sioux City Explorers have their own Samson. No, he is not one who possesses incredible brute strength, although he is quite the physical specimen. Instead, this Samson is one who has proven to be incredibly powerful because of the strength of his mind. That Samson is Sioux City Explorers shortstop Nate Samson.

Destined to Play Baseball

To say that baseball was in the genes for Nate Samson is like saying that a cat likes to meow. Nate’s dad (Fred) spent seven seasons in the Texas Rangers organization, so being around baseball was part of his DNA since the time he was born.

“I grew up around baseball. I grew up around the baseball field and the locker room with guys like Nolan Ryan and Pudge Rodriguez, because my dad was with the Texas Rangers in professional baseball for eight years, so growing up I was always around locker rooms. I fell in love with the game.”

While trying soccer briefly, baseball was the only sport that Nate ever really wanted to play. By the time he was 12 it was the sport he played exclusively, and had no interest in participating on any other type of playing surface.

As he got older, he realized that baseball was not only a sport that he liked to play, but that he was quite good at it as well. He knew that his commitment to the sport was going to open the door for him to have a shot of playing it professionally one day.

“As a kid you always have that dream, so I never had any doubt in my mind that that’s what I wanted to do. Everything I did in high school and everything was all meant for playing professional baseball. So, it’s always what I wanted to do and I just continued on that path.”

Proving He Had the Right Stuff at an Early Age

Nate Samson starred at Forest High School (Ocala, FL), but also in the traveling league that he was a part of. In fact, when he was 16-years-old, his traveling team had a ridiculous 117-1 record. He was not only having great success personally, but was helping his teams consistently win.

Oddly, coaches at his high school were encouraging him to participate in other sports as well. “When I was in high school coaches were really trying to get me to play other sports, like basketball and football, but this was Florida. I could play baseball year around and that was what I wanted to do.”

The decision to play baseball exclusively paid off. In 2006, the Chicago Cubs drafted Nate Samson in the 34th round, opting to take him right out of high school. It was a moment that he would never forget.

“You always dream as a kid that you will be playing professional baseball one day, but to hear your name called is really something special. It is just something that is beyond words to describe.”

Nate was sent to the Cubs rookie league team in Arizona, where he hit .211 in 21-games. He showed great skill in getting on base, walking 14-times to post a .360 on-base percentage. That allowed him to score 10 times and he also drove in 8.

The start to his professional career was not exactly what he had envisioned, but he also realized that he had some adjustments to make. If he was going to succeed in professional baseball, then he had to draw from the incredible mental strength he had developed growing up.

“You go from a high school schedule playing 25 to 30 games to playing 147 games. That definitely is something a little different. It’s a lot more wear and tear on your body, which requires a different routine, a different schedule.”

Nate also had to adjust to the change in his day, which quickly became decidedly longer.

“When I first signed with the Chicago Cuba the experiences were wonderful; everything I thought they would be. I know it was going to be hard work, that it was going to be a grind. When they say minor-league grind, it really is. You have to get to the park every day early. When you first start your up in the morning at five doing your whole routine and you don’t get done until late afternoon unless you have a game that night. If you have a game that night then you’re not done until like 10 o’clock at night. It’s a really long day, it really is a grind, but I love every minute of it.”

Following his pattern of playing year around, Nate spent the entire year of 2007 on the diamond. That included 25-games in the Hawaiian League and 64 with the Cubs organization. He started out at Mid-A Peoria where he hit .246 in 61-games. He was moved to High-A Daytona where had three-hits in six at-bats.

Samson was not doing as well as he had wanted, but he had confidence in his abilities and knew he had what it took to help him succeed. He simply had to get back to playing his game.

“This is a game of adjustments, but when you know that you have an approach that you know works you have to have confidence in that approach. That is part of having success; it’s using the things that you have learned and applying it to your game.”

The philosophy provided results almost immediately. The next season, Nate returned to Peoria where he improved his average 47-points, moving to .293. He also drove in 42-runs and scored 69 others. It was the kind of season that the then 20-year-old expected out of himself, and was so impressive that it led the team to promote him to AAA-Iowa for three-games.

In 2009 he split time between Daytona and AA-Tennessee. Combined he played in 113-games, hitting .261 with 59-runs and 47-RBI. While not the eye-popping numbers he was hoping for himself, the reality was that he was just 21-years-old, playing against a lot of players who were three and four years older than he was. He was proving he had the talent and doing it against players who were far more developed physically than he was, simply because they were older.

Nate would spend the next two full seasons in Tennessee. He hit .262 in 2010, but had a bit of a slump in 2011, hitting only .236. His power numbers increased greatly, however, as he hit 17-doubles, 3-triples, and 5-homeruns. The 25-extra base hits were 17 more than the prior season.

He rebounded in 2012, hitting .271 through the first 75-games. That earned him a call back to Iowa where he showed real promise. In 19-games, the shortstop hit .280.

At the end of the 2012 he opted to become a free agent. It seemed clear that the organization was not going to give him much opportunity to advance beyond AA, so he chose to play at Winnipeg in the American Association. In 42-games he was hitting .216 but, despite this, the Cubs came back at the end of June and resigned the infielder to a contract, sending him back to Tennessee. He hit .257 there in 31-games and at the end of the season opted for free agency again.

In 2014 he moved to the Sioux City Explorers where he began the season on fire. Through the first 43-games, he hit .335 with 26-runs scored and 23-RBI. The hot start caught the attention of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who purchased Nate’s contract and sent him to AA-Mobile. There, he hit .274 in 46-games with an impressive .363 OBP.

Nate was released at the end of the season, but the Dodgers organization picked signed him and he would split time in 2015 at three different levels. He started at AAA-Oklahoma City but would move between there, AA-Tulsa and High-A Rancho Cucamonga. Between the three levels he hit a combined .226 with 15-runs and 9-RBI. Nate only saw limited action and it did not really give him the time to get into a rhythm. At the end of the season he opted for free agency again, looking for a fresh start somewhere else.

The Waters Are Always Soft in Sioux City

The most ideal place for Nate Samson to return was to Sioux City. He had done extremely well there in his brief stint with the Explorers before, and it only made sense for him to return to the club where he had shown incredible promise. The move paid off.

Since returning Nate has been nothing short of spectacular. In 68-games this season he has hit .340, scored 44-runs and driven in 47. His 24 doubles are second in the league and his 20-stolen bases rank him fourth in the American Association.

The success garnered him the starting shortstop spot on the North Team for the American Association All-Star Team. A return to the Iowa city has been everything that he had hoped for, but has also shown how mentally tough the 28-year-old is. It is that mental toughness that he recognizes is the key to making a true professional.

“That’s when baseball gets tough and really separates the best players. You can come to the ballpark feeling great, you play the game, you hit five line drives and your 0 for 5. You have nothing to show for it and it just wears on you over time. The more you play the more you understand that if you fail 70 percent of the time you’re a Hall of Famer. Once you grasp that concept, everything else just kind of falls into place.”

Grasping the concept is exactly what Nate has done, but he also acknowledges that the way to get to that point is through maturity.

“Maturity is a big part of it. Of course when I was younger and I was in the ballpark and getting all upset because I believed that I had to have these numbers to be able to move up. In reality, the guys know. The brass knows that if you’re barreling it up, you’re going to have more success than a guy who’s breaking bats and getting hits. That’s baseball, as it has a funny way of working itself out.”

A Whole Lot of Gray Matter There

Nate Samson is quite right that it is more about what is going on above the shoulders that separates the different professional players. All of them have talent, but it is the overcoming of struggles and studying the game that really helps to make a player much more successful. It is the recognition that you will fail at times, but you have to keep yourself motivated to keep battling no matter how hard the struggles may be.

“It’s a roller coaster. You always want to enjoy the ups. When everything is going well for you, you just really want to enjoy it. You want to hold on to how that feeling is when you’re not doing as well. You want to try to stay as level as possible. When you’re struggling at times, you want to remember those good times so that you keep yourself motivated to keep working.”

There may be no better student of the game as well. Nate not only studies his opponents well, but gives himself homework assignments to ensure that he has the greatest chance for success against them.

“You really have to be a student of the game. That means when you’re in the dugout you really watch what a pitcher is doing with other hitters and examine what he did with you the last time you were batting against him. I keep a notebook of at bats about what this guy did with me last time, how did he throw to me, what was his stuff like. So you kinda make your own scouting report as you go along that helps you further down the line.”

There is also the philosopher part of Nate Samson. He knows that baseball can be a lot of work, but he also wants to have fun out there. He also sees the symmetry and beauty of the game and that really enhances his enjoyment of the sport.

“Baseball is such a great game; it’s a kid’s game. It’s the same game I was playing in T-ball, so it has not changed. Which is wonderful. The whole thing. How can it be just 60’6” is all the time you have to react? How is it that 90 feet is the perfect measurement for plays to be so close? When you think of the game it’s these aspects of the game that make it so unbelievable and so much fun to play.”

Tuesday night, Nate Samson will be representing the Sioux City Explorers in the American Association All-Star game. He has clearly proven to be one of the best players in the league this season but, more importantly, he has proven that what is going on in his head is what is really separating him from the rest. The academic side of him is what really puts him at the top of the league and maybe it would be appropriate to start calling him “Professor.”

Images of Nate Samson Courtesy of the Sioux City Explorers

By Robert Pannier
Member of the IBWAA