http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/apr/10/redbird-takes-unique-road-to-baseball/
Since attending his first St. Louis Cardinals spring training in 2008, outfielder Adron Chambers made it a habit to be one of the first to arrive every day at the Jupiter, Fla., complex, where he immediately jumped in the batting cages designated for the major league players.</p>
The problem was, Chambers was a young minor leaguer. But that didn't stop him from hitting in the cages next to the likes of Albert Pujols. It wasn't until coaches yelled at him that he finally stopped -- at least until the next spring.</p>
This spring, Chambers couldn't wait to get to Jupiter and repeat his yearly ritual. This time, however, he had a response waiting for anyone who told him to get out:</p>
"Look here, I'm supposed to be in here now, baby."</p>
Chambers, 24, made the Cardinals' 40-man roster this winter, which earned him an invite to spring training. He got a long look as a possible fifth outfielder before being optioned to the Redbirds.</p>
Chambers' path to the brink of the major leagues, though, has been about more than baseball. It's also been about re-shaping his life after a mistake that cost him a promising career as a football player.</p>
Chambers is the first to tell you he's a football player. Always has been.</p>
He was a prep phenom at Pensacola (Fla.) High School, starring as a quarterback and a receiver.</p>
He signed with Mississippi State, where after one season at receiver, then-coach Sylvester Croom moved him to cornerback.</p>
"I would say in the five years I was there, he was in the top three in the athletes that we signed there," Croom said. "I think he could have played corner in the National Football League."</p>
That was Chambers' goal. But it was shattered five games into his sophomore season in 2006 when he was arrested and accused of attempted sexual battery.</p>
It was reported that Chambers inappropriately touched a female student in an MSU dorm. The initial charge, a felony, was later reduced to misdemeanor charges of simple assault and indecent exposure, to which Chambers pleaded guilty.</p>
Chambers was not only suspended from the team, but from school.</p>
"What happened at Mississippi State was unfortunate for myself and for her," Chambers said. "I did something really disrespectful. What I did was irresponsible. It was uncharacteristic. It was dumb. I made a poor decision."</p>
Chambers returned home to Pensacola, where he spent countless hours alone, pondering the mistake he made, wondering where his future would take him, whether he would ever play football again.</p>
"There were times I would just be sitting in my car, looking at myself in the mirror, and I would just start crying because the only thing I knew was football," he said. "That's how people knew me."</p>
As part of his guilty plea, the charges have since been expunged, but that can't erase what Chambers did.</p>
"It was almost like my character was lost a little bit," he said. "People were looking at me. I couldn't go outside because it was on ESPN and in the newspapers. It was big in a sense of how people were going to portray me, how people were going to look at me now.</p>
"I didn't want to go out of the house because I didn't want to hear nobody say, 'Adron, what happened?'''</p>
While at home, Chambers got a visit one day from Doug Martin, an assistant baseball coach at Pensacola Junior College.</p>
Martin remembered seeing Chambers play in high school as a junior before an ACL injury forced him to miss his senior season.</p>
Having heard about the incident at Mississippi State, Martin asked Chambers if he would consider giving baseball a try.</p>
"I knew he would be a little bit rusty, but what you don't lose is your athleticism," Martin said. "I kind of talked him into giving it a shot."</p>
After a couple of weeks, Chambers joined the team in the spring of 2007. Following the season, Chambers attended various major league tryouts, including what he said was a 24-hour bus ride to Memphis for a tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals.</p>
The trip paid off -- he was drafted in the 38th round that June by the Cardinals.</p>
By last season, Chambers climbed his way to the Redbirds roster, where he hit .290 in 37 games as a reserve outfielder. A successful stint in the Arizona Fall League earned him a spot on the Cardinals' 40-man roster.</p>
Having kept in contact with Croom since leaving Mississippi State, Chambers was reminded by his former coach to share his story.</p>
While spending this off-season in Memphis, Chambers visited the Varangon Academy, a residential treatment center in Bartlett for adolescent boys with emotional and behavioral problems, to talk about his past and answer questions.</p>
Chambers also shared his Mississippi State experience with youngsters at the Memphis Baseball Academy in Cordova.</p>
"I disrespected a woman and nobody wants that hanging over their head," Chambers said. "It's not a subject that I necessarily like talking about. (But) he (Croom) tells me all the time, that's my story.</p>
"When I write my book, that's what's going to have to be in my book. I can't put nothing else in there. (Croom) always tells me, 'You've got to teach somebody else because you have something to use.'"</p>
Croom, now the running backs coach for the St. Louis Rams, is excited to see Chambers' transformation. And should Chambers, rated the Cardinals' No. 17 prospect, make it to St. Louis this season, he owes his former coach a dinner.</p>
"I couldn't be happier if he was my own flesh and blood," Croom said. "Adron's one of those kids, he hasn't necessarily had it easy. But he hasn't let life circumstances make him a bitter person. He just keeps forging ahead.</p>
"I've just been following his career and wanting to see him do well and have the great success that I really do think he deserves."</p>
