DETROIT (6/10/2020) -- The 2020 Major League Baseball Draft is set to begin tonight and for former University of Detroit Mercy slugger Charlie Anderson '05, that means remembering the long journey to hear his name being called.

Anderson is the last Titan to ever be drafted into the big leagues, going in the 35th round to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2004. That draft included the likes of Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver, Hunter Pence and Dustin Pedroia.

Back then, the draft wasn't fully covered on television like it is now. For most of it, it was set up as a major teleconference and you waited to hear your name as MLB team representatives came on the line, firing names out every minute or two. 

"It is one of my most fondest memories of all time," said Anderson. "To be honest, I had about a three-year history of thinking I was going to get drafted after junior college and the numbers I put up there and then my year in Arkansas. I was thinking about it a lot in terms of where would I go and how much money to ask for. I was really a confident, maybe a cocky young kid. 

"After my senior season ended, I had a good idea that I was going to get drafted, but there are millions of stories of guys who think they are going to get that call and it never happens. I was in North Carolina and I was actually on the couch reading the book Moneyball listening to the draft, but my name wasn't called the first day. I called a few of the scouts I was close to asking what is going on and they told me don't worry, we have you on the board. So the next day, basically the same thing, I was on the couch reading and listening and now we are in the late 20's in the rounds and I am just saying to myself, please just give me a chance. A scout who had been following me since my days at Henry Ford called me once we got into the 30's and he told me we are going to take you and I finally got the call from the Blue Jays that they were going to pick me and then I listened to the live stream and my name was called in the 35th round. It really was one of the coolest things ever."

A Dearborn, Michigan native, Anderson starred at Edsel Ford before a highly-successful two-year career at Henry Ford Community College, where he was selected the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) NJCAA Division II Player of the Year, All-American, All-Region and All-State as a sophomore after hitting .530 with 26 home runs and 65 RBI, striking out just 16 times in 130 at-bats. He then played a season at Arkansas-Little Rock posting a .288 average with six homers and 23 RBI.

He came back to the area and played at Detroit Mercy for his senior season and was tabbed First Team All-League and the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year, slugging .683, batting .366 with 14 home runs and 53 RBI, leading the HL in all four categories. 

"There was a lot of talk that I should have been Player of the Year and not newcomer," said Anderson. "I was honored, but as a senior in college, I was already established so maybe I shouldn't have been eligible. I look back and still believe to this day that I should have been the Player of the Year, not a huge deal though. The award went to a guy from Milwaukee, Ben Stanczyk, a really good player, a pitcher and a hitter, although I did get the best of him, hitting a home run when we played a game at Miller Park."

Anderson played two years in the minors with Toronto, starting in rookie ball with the Pulaski Blue Jays of the Appalachian League before playing a season in Class A with the Lansing Lugnuts in the Midwest League. He hit .311 with Pulaski tallying six homers with 14 doubles and scoring 37 runs, while knocking in 20. With Lansing, he posted a .258 average recording another six dingers with 16 doubles, 26 runs and 34 RBI. 

"It was the coolest thing to play professionally. Pulaski is this tiny town in West Virginia and we were all they had and they filled up the stadium. It was a lot of fun. My second year being in Lansing, that was great. At the time, I was the only Michigan player on the team and playing just over an hour away from my hometown. As players, we get four tickets and since no one really used their tickets, I got them all and would have so many people coming out to the games and it was a blast. My picture went up on the scoreboard and my hitting music was Journey's 'Just a Small Town Girl' and they would all scream 'Born and Raised in South Detroit', it was so cool," added Anderson. 

Some of his top memories playing baseball is remembering his family at the game, especially his dad collecting his home run balls when he could get ahold of them, including his first professional long ball. 

"I was fortunate enough to play in summer leagues with wood and I had a natural swing as a lefty power hitter with wood, that really helped me," said Anderson. "My dad went to really all my games in college, even in Arkansas and he came to watch me play in the minors. He is the type that, he doesn't sit behind the stands, he goes to the outfield to watch and he got all my home run balls that he could, I think he had 20 of the 26 at Henry Ford. It was our first weekend series in Pulaski and he was able to make it down and was out in deep right field with our dog and I got a fastball and just crushed it and he was able to get that one." 

Among the highlights of playing in the minors was the opportunity to go to spring training and see the major league talent first hand, watching how they train and watching the amazing talent they had. 

"One of the days I will remember the most, me and a handful of the minor leaguers went down to spring training about a month early," said Anderson. "Now, usually, major leaguers and guys on the 40-man roster don't really talk to the minor leaguers so when they did, like when Vernon Wells sat and talked to us, that was cool. We decided to do a 300-yard shuttle and Roy Halladay said he was going to come over and do that with us and we were like really. We just assumed that he was going to 'big league' us and really not put effort into it and take it easy and we were all trying to make an impression and set world records in the drill. Within like three there-and-backs, he had already lapped us and we were all like, how is this guy, a pitcher and already established, doing this to us, we are all good athletes. At least two hours later and maybe more after we ate and showered up, we are leaving the facility and few of us are carpooling and its a big facility and what do we see, we see him running around the facility. We are all like this guy is nuts and he is running a fast pace a few hours after kicking our behinds in this drill and I remember saying, no wonder why this guy is going to be a Hall-of-Famer."

Anderson played two years in the Toronto organization and another with an independent team in Massachusetts and he remembers the day that his baseball career came to an end, a journey that was a great ride, but he was fortunate enough to have a fallback plan. He coached at Henry Ford for a couple of seasons and went back to school to get his degree and that set him up for life. 

"That final spring training, I actually played pretty well, hitting almost .500 and I thought I would be heading back to Lansing, or to Double-A or at least high-A ball, and I was thinking this is my chance to make my move," Anderson said. "It was the second to last day of spring training and the side door opens and we all knew that when that door opens, someone is getting released. That five-second moment probably took forever and one of the staff members told me to come there. I go in the room and our player development guy, Dick Scott, told me we had to make some moves. We talked for about 10 minutes and you don't want to cry but it gets to you, it was too emotional. In my job now, I talk a lot about re-identifying yourself and at that point, I was always known as Charlie Baseball and now I needed to re-identify myself. I was a couple of credits shy of a degree and I was glad because I know a lot of guys who play ball and get released and they aren't that close or have a stepping stone to corporate America and I was able to make that transition."

Even though he was looking forward to life in professional baseball, Detroit Mercy helped guide him into a career path, one that he finds himself in today. It took just a meeting with an advisor to point him in the right direction, something that the University is known to do. 

"I might have been more of an athlete-student then a student-athlete early on in college because I was really thinking just about playing baseball," said Anderson. "I didn't really pick out a major at all in college and when I got to Detroit Mercy, I talked to my advisor, the late Kathy Bush, and she was a great lady. She pulled all my records together and told me what my options were for a degree, no one had really done that before with me. We looked at all my credits and decided on sociology for me and it is something that I am working in today." 

Anderson now works as a Director of Clinical Outreach at U.S. Addiction Services, which has six locations in the Midwest, including his office in Battle Creek. The center is known as "A Forever Recovery," a drug and alcohol addiction treatment program that utilizes results-based and evidence-based approaches, offering clients an opportunity to create an individualized program best suited for their needs. With the open-ended program, no one leaves until they feel able to function in society sober.

"My uncle had battled addiction for a good part of his life and he got clean and overcame it," Anderson said. "He decided to start his own drug and alcohol rehab program and that lasted a couple of years. He then wanted to start it up again because he wanted to help people this time, he incorporated the family more like my mom and bothers and with my degree in sociology, it was a great fit more me and eventually, I went back to school and got my master's degree in counseling psychology. I started to grow in my role as the company expanded and it fits me. I love helping people and talking to people and getting out of the office and seeing people so it's a perfect fit."

Married to his wife Samantha, he is the father of a 12-year old daughter, Eryn and two boys Easton (7) and Luke (4). Anderson will always remember his time in baseball, the lessons he learned and the enjoyment of the game he loves so much. Detroit Mercy was a home for him and a place that set him down his career path after professional baseball was over.

"Coach (Chris) Czarnik was a really good guy and he was recruiting me at Henry Ford and he said 'I know you are getting a lot options, but if you come here, we will treat you right, its a great place and you will get a great education and you can stay home as a local kid and for my senior year'," said Anderson. "I thought that was the best choice. As you get more experience to life, you look at things differently. If I had to go back and talk to my 19-year old self, I would say to have a better mental approach to the game. I learned a lot more mentally as I got older because I just didn't focus on it when I was younger. In baseball, every single pitcher matters, every pitch is a mental approach and if you can instill that mental approach to a young kid, that will only help him evolve."