After a sensational senior year at Seminole High School, TJ Large had several options in front of him. And with good reason — the righthanded pitcher was a key ingredient to the Warhawks sensational undefeated 2001 national championship season. Large was 12-0 with an ERA of 1.23, with 89 strikeouts in 74 innings of work.
Scouts flocked to Seminole’s games that year to see Large in action — as well as his teammates, ultimately resulting in eight of its players being drafted by major league teams. Colleges waving scholarships came calling too.
Large, who grew up in Seminole and by his own admission wasn’t very well traveled, had opportunities in front of him. He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants but numerous colleges reached out as well.
He pretty quickly ruled out signing with the Giants.
“Going to college was always important to me,” said Large, who was known for throwing a nasty curve. “I was the first in my family to go to college.”
Which college to attend was the bigger question. One of those colleges looking to bring Large on board was Stanford University in California.
“I was so young and naive,” he said. “Stanford? Where is it? I had no idea. I had to google it up. They were going to fly me out for a visit. California? Nope, I turned them down. Thinking back now I should have gone to check it out. Why not?”
Instead, Large decided to attend Chipola College with its highly regarded coach, Jeff Johnson.
“I grew up pretty fast there,” said Large, now 43.
After his freshman season he was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Again, he felt he wasn’t ready. The next year Large transferred closer to home, pitching for St. Petersburg College.
“That was like family to me,” said the 6-foot-4 hurler who won Player of the Year honors. “Bobby Wilson was there and so was Jon Riggleman, Kenny Holmberg, and Bill Brinker (the former Seminole High coach was an assistant at SPC).”
From SPC, Large landed at the University of Alabama in the fall of 2003. In the spring he injured his lat and missed the 2004 campaign and was red shirted. He came back with a vengeance in 2005 and was named to the All-ACC Second Team. That year he had an ERA around 3.00, with the highlight a no-hitter against Lafayette in the regionals. By then he was again on the radar of MLB scouts. On the ride home on the bus after the game against Lafayette he heard that he was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 46th round.
Alabama was hoping he would stick around for his senior year, however, Large didn’t want to press his luck any longer.
“That was the third time I was drafted,” said Large. “How many guys get that many chances. I couldn’t pass it up this time. I skipped my senior year.”
He signed with Boston. Large did make one very important request, though, before reporting for minor league duty he wanted to finish college and get his Human Environmental Science degree as he only had two classes to go to graduate. One of the professors of the two classes insisted that Large needed to be onsite for that one, causing a brief hiccup to his pro start. Begrudgingly the Red Sox agreed - and he graduated. Large’s pro career was finally underway.
Large ended up pitching as a reliever for six years in the minors, finishing with a solid year at Triple-A Portland where he led the team in appearances and saves, accumulating an overall minor league record of 22-17 with an ERA of 4.17 He made it to the highest minor league level, and although he did spend some time in a major league camp and did get a call up late one season, but did not pitch, Large couldn’t quite get to that next rung on the ladder to stay.
Large, whose real first name is Terry Jr., named after his father, would eventually make his way back to the majors as a scout and then a coach, though not before he spent a few years working with youths at risk through the YMCA in Port St. Lucie and the Boys & Girls Club in Stuart.
“It was my way of giving back,” said Large, who has lived in the Tampa area for several years now. “It was awesome. We did a lot of great things. Gave out scholarships to kids who couldn’t afford it and did a program with Publix where kids could eat more frequently in the summer.”
When he moved to Tampa, Large joined the staff of the St. Petersburg College baseball team and its coach Ryan Beckman. For two years, 2012-13, he was the squad’s pitching coach.
“Nothing but good things to say about TJ as a coach,” said Beckman. “He was honest, connected with kids well, and continued to have the competitive fire trying to win every pitch. While coaching with him, scouts would go out of their way to come up to him and talk about how much they enjoyed watching him compete. This was about eight or nine years after he played at SPC. For them to remember and recognize that says something about how great he was.”
Large would go on to do some scouting, working with Seminole’s Tom Kotchman, a longtime scout and minor league manager with the Red Sox organization. After getting a taste of that side of the pro game, Large blasted out his resume. Kevin Graves, now the assistant general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, contacted Large, and in 2014 he joined the National League team’s organization working on a variety of front office tasks such as coordinating minor league operations, schedules, recapping each day with coaches, and more, and later working with minor league pitchers.
“I did it all at one time or another, you name it,” said Large. “Roster moves, contracts, shuttle buses, Ubers.” Ray Searage was the team’s pitching coach at the time and he and Large knew each other from the past.
“I was very familiar with Ray,” said Large. “I was very happy to see him. He saw me and gave me a big hug.”
“A tremendous kid,” said Searage, who would frequently work closely with Large when he was with Pittsburgh. “He was a big part of the Pirates farm system when I was there. TJ was a student of the game. He watched a lot of situations in the minor league department and was involved with many people in the front office. Just knowing what type of person he is, you knew he’d go far. He cared for the players and they knew that.”
Searage continued. “He always wanted to learn about all the ins and outs of pro ball. He had a thirst for knowledge. However, what really stands out to me was his personality. Great to talk to, empathic and never had a bad word about anybody. I’d have TJ in my foxhole—anytime!”
Large left the Pirates in 2022, not because of any issues with the team. Simply put, after being on the road for so long he was ready to be there for his family full-time.
“I remembered how so many of my core memories were from when my dad managed me as a kid,” said Large, who was in professional baseball for 17 years. “It was an easy decision. It was my way of building my own family legacy. I needed balance in my life. It was time to give back to my family.”
That means spending more time with his wife Kendall and their two children, Taylor and Hayes. At home and on the field.
And so these days he coaches a club that features his all-star 10-year-old daughter Taylor, no surprise a pitcher, on the team that recently won the Florida 8-10-year-old Section 7 softball championship. Waiting in the wings is his son Hayes, who was born in 2019.
TJ Large is clearly building that family legacy he’s always wanted.