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Justin "Boomer" Prinstein has been involved in baseball overseas since he first came to Europe in 2006 as an import pitcher. The former George Washington University pitcher his junior and senior years in the shadows of some of his teammates. In fact, half of his team from his junior year were drafted. He was a bit undersized (5'11") and his high 80's fastball was figured to be maxed out as far as scouts were concerned.
In 2006, upon graduation, the assistant coach at GW and former international player brought it to Boomer's attention that overseas would be a good option for him. Boomer's mind frame back then was to just "Keep playing somewhere and something good will happen", after witnessing players close to his level at pro tryouts get signed and work their way up to the AAA level.
With the help of his former coach, Boomer sent his resume out to numerous clubs in Europe and received a number of offers. He decided to accept an offer from a Belgium club because financially it was the better offer and it was close to the Netherlands and the Dutch Major League, his longer term goal.
At this point of his life, Boomer had never travelled outside North America and did not know what to expect. In fact, little was communicated between him and the club as this pre-dates Facebook, Skype and any other form of popular communication available today. The club, who will be left un-named, was also a little uninformed of Boomer's background and who he was as a person. "I thought you were taller," were the first words that Boomer heard from the club representative who picked him up from the airport. This was probably the first red flag that this club may not be for him.
